Maybe what the Town of Berlin and the Berlin Fire Company need to do is hire a mediator to sort out the conflict between the two.
The issue, after all, has gone beyond who is right and who is wrong and has become a matter of how to repair the relationship for the benefit of the public.
As it stands, both the town and the company have their supporters and detractors, while the rest of the public is left to decide which side is more believable than the other, based on their respective versions of the facts.
Revisiting the history behind this parting of the ways, however, is not going to happen in this space because nothing good would come of a regurgitation of all the circumstances and allegations that led to this rift. Secondarily, there isn’t enough room to accommodate it all.
The question that must be dealt with now is not what happened, but how the public is being affected by this standoff. The company, of course, would argue that public safety either has or will be compromised, while the town would counter that is not, nor will it ever be, the case.
The thing is, the public really doesn’t know what to believe at this juncture. All it knows is that these two sides aren’t talking.
As is the case in many domestic disputes, chances are that no one is completely blameless and that’s why third-party intervention sometimes makes sense.
At the moment, it doesn’t appear that any positive developments are on the horizon. The town and the company remain firmly entrenched in their positions, apparently continuing to hope that a majority of the residents will be swayed by their various arguments.
That isn’t likely to happen, which is why someone needs to make a move rather than wait and see who blinks first.