firemn23

What does it matter that yet are African American?

It has been a while since I spent time on 501 regulations but I beleive if you are a social organization (italian american clubs, etc) then all activities must be paid for 100% by the members. If you are a 501©3 then the organization has a charitable activity. Being a 501©3 does not mean you can't entertain or pay people (american red cross does it). There have been a number of 9/11 charities where 1% of the donations goes to the cause the one I have in my mind spent millions on entertainment and really nothing to the cause. If you are a 501©3 then you have to complete form 990 and those can be looked up online. So everyone should remember that no charity is perfect and if you think that you going to a 10-13 benefit and all that money goes to the person or a burn car barebque and you think 50% of the money goes to the cause you are fooling yourself

I guess when I get a call from a career fire department asking for a donation I shouldn't assume parties aren't held all conferences attended do not involve partying and other activities don't happen with their money

What happens with the revenue from tickets written on the Hudson?

If I mailed my ticket in claiming not guilty and never heard back again is it my responsibility to contact them to find out why? I was one of the first batch of tickets Greenburgh had lost. The case was eventually dismissed but just curious.

I don't get it. Cogs what are you fighting so hard for? Are the volunteers just trying to get a paid job and holding the citizens of Stamford hostage? This just doesn't make any sense at all to have 66 pages of discussion for something that makes complete sense is mind boggling to me.

What is happening is that the mismanagement of government is finally coming to bite them in the butt. The Federal government and some states has not been saving for future payments (social security, medicare and pensions) and the public is angry at everyone because we are footing the bill. You can't blame the unions and the public servants they asked and the politicians gave them what they wanted. No one would say no to a pension after 20 years and free health care for life. But public servants need to start coming around to the real world, nobody but them get fixed payment pensions and free health care for life. My company had a pension plan that they recently got rid of. They gave us a really good 401k match and government should look at doing the same thing. Times are different you all always talk about breaking tradition well this might be one of them.

I have to say I disagree with both career, police and volunteers being indemnified for negligence. You are all employees and expected to do your job properly. Does a nurse or doctor get exempt for negligence at their job. No they buy malpractice insurance incase they are sued

Funny thing is I always thought that the Town of Greenburgh needed to revist merging its sevices more than the county.

At this time I am no longer a volunteer fireman but just a resident of a volunteer town and I must say you both sound like you both need cheese for your whine. I live in an area similar to Westchester that could use a good dose of consolidation, and I have not gone to a meeting to ask why this isn't being looked into since the school districts are. The voluntters on here that are bashing Chief Flynn for his comments get over yourselves and realize there is a problem. You are just showing everyone why change in the fire service has not occured. Also if you were so against parades one you wouldn't go, as I know a member on here who I used to volunteer with wouldn't and two you would speak up at a meeting. Finnaly they are not talking about just volunteers when they talk about regionalization. There are several career departments in Westchester that would be just as well served by regionization as volunteers departments would. Career firemen I understand why you have the feelings you do, but if you have loved ones living somewhere that the fire service being provided is less than adequate do you tell them to move? Also doesn't the Commisioner of Yonkers live/lived in a volunteer town? In the end I hope you both realize that neither of you has a perfect system. Is it right for a career department to call another department that is crazy far away or to not be adequately staffed? Is it right for every volunteer to not be properly trained as much as a career man? Bnechis the county would be better served if you were its next Commisioner. You come well informed and have proactive ideas, especially for someone that is a member of a top class department.

I hate to tell you all this but times are going to get real rough over the next year or two, and not just for civil servants. Most companies are not giving raises in 2009, and due to this state income will be down. People are spending less, it is the first time since 1950 American's started to pay down debt instead of taking on more, and due to this when the next quarter, October - December numbers come in states and municipalities will be crying the blues due to a loss in sales tax revenue. I think a good discussion would be how do you fix this problem because in 6-8 years we are going to have another recession and this all going to come up again. Also look on the bright side, obviously not help full to the member of MPPD, but areas in Arizona, California, Texas, and Nevada are faring much worse then in the tri-state area, some communities had to stop picking up garbage due to a lack of property tax revenue from foreclosures. .

Sounds to me like they need new leadership and I don't mean specifically in the chief ranks. How can you make a $400,000 accounting error when your total proposed budget is only 4.6 million. Sounds more like lets spend it before they cut next years budget. In the end though the chief, assuming he is responsible for the budget, is legally bound to follow his budget. Probably another topic, but why some fire departments leave their budgets to members that have no financial background and rarely even balance their own check books at home is beyond me.

THAT came from this is Seth's website and he is free to do what he wants, hence I don't agree but it is his and I don't get a vote. it is not a dig to Seth and I think he knows it.

Seth I have to completely disagree with you on this. A couple of years ago a Westchester department, not totally sure on the story but had a function at their firehouse were a minor got drunk and into an accident. A lot of municipalities made laws were drinking was not allowed at firehouses because of this. Now because of this website departments in other states can learn from this and be proactive instead of reactive. But this is not a democracy it is a dictatorship and your word is law.

everyone should have election day off. Maybe make election day also labor day. Its hard when you are trying to make a living and commuting 2 hours a day to also go and vote. My second thing I would do is stop giving these politicians so many days off a year, winter break, summer break and of course you need over a month off to run for the position. I wish I could tell my boss hey give me a month off to get a new job. While I am ranting why is the president flying to Texas to vote and flying right back to the white house. Send in an absentee ballot. Taxpayer dollars at work.

This video should say watch as a firefighter fights a car fire without a pack and something goes wrong.

My original thought about this topic was about someone holding a camera while the truck is responding. I believe the videos below might illustrate my point a little better

There is one thing I never understand when watching videos on you tube, how does a firefighter or officer that is responding to a call have the time to take video of the fire truck responding while they are repsonding to an emergency call. The video below was taken while a department was responding to a motor vehicle accident the photgrapher tell everyone in the rig that they are on viideo. What is everyones honest opinion of videos like this, there are hundreds of them on you tube.

Congrats Seth, Good Luck, though I am sure you don't need it

For those departments that respnd on highways what responds. Ie 2 engines, engine and a ladder, or just an engine.

I must say as a customer of commerce bank, it is a great bank. They offer a free coin star machine, and they are open almost all of the time.

I think it is pretty safe to say anyone with a 4 car garage is a "wanabe" gang member. It reminds me of this stupid movie I saw one time called Malibu's Most Wanted.

If they charged him later everyone else would do it and then no one would pay unless they had a fire. But the whole idea does seem a little unusual to me. The state could mandate that every town be required to offer its residents fire protection and split up a portion of state tax to each district, just like schools. If it was me i would think it is included in my property taxes. I wonder if the town sends out a biannual or annual reminder to all of its residents. The I didn't know about it is the oldest line in the book and doesn't get you anywhere.

RIGA (Reuters) - A drunk Latvian had a blood-alcohol content more than 17 times the legal driving limit in the Baltic state when he was run over and killed, police said Tuesday. The 50-year-old unnamed pedestrian, who also had more than twice the alcohol level considered lethal for most humans, was lying drunk on the road near his home in a remote part of eastern Latvia in the early hours. Police said the man had probably been drinking home-made alcohol for several days because of the impossibility of reaching his blood-alcohol level of 0.9 percent in just a day. They said the man was alive when he was run over by a car, creating a probable although unenviable record for alcohol consumption in hard-drinking Latvia. "The cause of death has been marked down as a road accident, although the alcohol level would most likely have killed him anyway," said state police spokeswoman Kristine Mezaraupe. Latvia, an ex-Soviet state which is still one of the poorest in the European Union, has a problem with heavy drinking, especially among men who have an average life expectancy of 66 years compared with 77 years for women.

The article is from reuters