Inside Mesa

It’s been my experience that there are times talk is simply not enough. To live through an experience always makes a bigger impression - at least for me.Many of us are waiting for the other shoe to drop - who will be next to leave their city job? What service will be cut and how will it affect the community? At the moment we may not see much of a difference, although if you’re a frequent patron of one of Mesa’s libraries you are already adjusting to cut hours and services. If you’re a city employee you most likely are working more, have additional responsibilities, and increases in pay may be frozen. Next week budget meetings will reveal the truth. Hard decisions have been made and will be made to accommodate a restrictive budget. The experiences that may me the toughest could come immediately because of our already short staffed public safety departments. Fire, Police, Park Rangers. Sometimes I think many don’t realize that a police officer or fireman are real people. They have families, children, needs as we do to provide a home, put food on the table, educate their children, wanting the same protection and safety measures as we do - only they know the reality of their work. Some folks don’t think about them until needed and then we want them right now! A Park Ranger may seem insignificant, they provide a level of public safety that often prevents a crime, they play a big part in being the eyes and ears, knowing when to call on the police or fire department when needed. Services that will impact our children, adults, disadvantaged will begin to erode the quality of life - library programs, art and creative classes, museum experiences, special olympics, celebrating important events in our history, transportation needs.When we are able to see what we’ve been told will happen without the funds from a primary property tax, when we witness the effects on ourselves or others as a result of cuts, perhaps then - through first hand experience will those that did not believe, become believers. Learning the hard way is never easy.