It is good to see the Bristol Board of Selectmen were willing to reconsider a blanket policy they previously adopted, closing the town’s fire stations to any group other than the local fire department.
We respect the board’s original intent, but we respect them more for taking a step back when the impact of the decision was clarified for them.
There may be federal guidelines regarding who is allowed to use a fire station but they may be more applicable in places where meeting space is more plentiful. The fact is, in many small towns fire stations serve many purposes.
It makes sense to a put a space to good use when it is not otherwise needed by the fire department.
We would argue providing a home for the Odd Fellows, Helping Hands, Boys Scouts, et al serves a community purpose that is very much in keeping with the spirit of community service that is at the heart of our local volunteer fire departments
The majority of Lincoln County’s fire departments are private companies, but their stations and equipment are largely funded with taxpayer dollars.
Clearly, the fire department should have first dibs on the space, but otherwise, on those nights when the station would otherwise be dark, allowing non-profit community group appropriate access, so long as the privilege is not abused, seems to be a common sense use of local resources.
At the heart of the now-reversed Bristol policy was a concern over the use of the space for a religious purpose. We see the merit of the concern although not warranted in this specific case, but again, in its own way, church is a community service.
So long as the doors are open equally to all religious groups, we don’t see the harm in that, either.
