Last night I spent 20 minutes with Chief Neff at the firehouse. I was very impressed. It is the service of people like Chief Neff and the other firefighters which makes Sewickley such a great place to raise a family. The Chief and I discussed quite a bit in those 20 minutes but I walked away with two major thoughts. First, our petition is on track. The fire horn has, almost entirely, become irrelevant by technology the firemen already have. While there are a few, minor, situations where the fire horn is still useful, I hope the Council will be able to see that there are other, less intrusive, ways to meet the fire department’s needs. Second, it is critical that, if this petition succeeds and the fire horn is silenced, we reach out to our volunteer firefighters in a serious showing of support. While I haven’t yet convinced the Chief to sign this petition I am certain that we can find a way to leave our firefighters better equipped, even without the fire horn. They deserve it.