gamewell45

Let me dig it out and i'll burn a copy for you.

I actually have 16mm color film shot of that fire. As i remember, the very next day we had the blizzard of 1969.

Thats a rather impressive looking lightning rod behind you.

Apparently they do receive more than cursory training. While Yonkers is a very rough place, many of them have worked the South Bronx and other not-so-nice neighborhoods. The link below gives you a basic overview of the organization. http://www.guardianangels.org/program_edu.php

He should have found a place where its legally permissible to jump. If he is on state property, he should have followed the rules and regulations. I'm not familiar with the location where he jumped, but if he got into trouble, no doubt alot of resources and quite possibly risk would have to be used to get him out of there.

Are there any reports or links to articles that you could post so we could learn more about this??

According to the US Departent of Labor, the country had a net loss of over 50,000 jobs in the month of May. And yes, wages haven't started retreating yet; for those who still have jobs. If we continue the trend (lost jobs, increase in oil prices, slumping stock market, loss of tax revenue, etc) we'll probably start to see the impact by the fall. Just in time for the elections. When you lose your tax base, the government starts slashing services and its always the police and fire service that pay the price. Some of you may remember in the early 1980's when places like Clariton, Pa, Duesqne, Pa (not sure on the spelling) etc. switched from career fire to volunteer fire becaue the bottom dropped out of their tax base. I don't think that would ever happen in NY, tho' there is a history of layoffs and reductions due to budget shortfall in the state (ie. the budget crisis in NYC in the mid-70's). Lets all hope that the economy improves.

They may be a gang, but at least they are on our side. Better to have an extra set of eyes and ears to help out.

I don't see too much waste; the fire commissioners more or less run a tight ship financially; they make sure that we have the proper equipment within reason to carry out our duties; the apparatus is more or less simple with just the basics; no bells or whistles. The taxpayers seem to be happy with how things are. I dont know the exact amount of fire tax i pay; I think its around $70 per year which is a fair price to pay for what we get. The EMS is provided by the town with volunteers backfilling. We have few services in the town; property tax, excluding school tax, is relatively low compared to where i used to live in Westester years ago. The only gripes I ever hear from the public are the high school taxes (which only seem to go up every year as salaries and benefit cost go up).

Good Luck Bro.

If he's convicted, i'm sure the tribunal will give serious consideration to his request for death; either way he'll die in prision, whether executed or by other causes. Execution is probably the most cost effective as opposed to life imprisionment where you have the expense of feeding, clothing, medical, supervision and most importantly security issues (i'm not talking about the skels getting him either) involving terrorist groups kiddnapping innocent civilians and holding them for ransome so this thug could possibly be used as a bargaining chip. I think they'll consider the long term ramifications of encarerating him as opposed to execution.

There's a large semi-deep stream in Beekman located on Beekman-Poughquag Rd where i see fisherman constantly fishing; probably find some good brook trout in there. The spot they normally go to is at the intersection of Recreation road.

Looks like the nozzleman hadn't donned his SCBA.

What he is referring to is the "Weingarten Act". This law mandates that a union member, whether private or public sector is entitled to union representation at any meeting held with the employer if the meeting is of investigatory or disciplinary purposes. The Employee must make a request prior to the begining of the meeting or if the meeting evolves into any of the above descriptions, the employee (union member) has a right to terminate the meeting and request union representation. This is done mainly for the protection of the union member.

Great Pics! Pleasantville is one parade you don't want to miss.

A most unfortunate situation. I would assume the union did all they could under their collective bargaining agreement. Hopefully he'll be able to find employment in a fire department where medical skills are not a condition of employment.

First off, if you mean staffing cities like Yonkers or New York City (which btw has 10 volunteer companies at last count), then I would agree with you. But definitely not for rural or suburban-rural areas. Volunteers can and do everything you've mentioned above and at a fraction of the cost. Furthermore i don't know where you get your information from; but in most departments fire-police, administrative supportand EMS-only personnel do not require the same training that interior fighters must have. Each training is tailored to the particular job that person is supposed to be doing. That would be a waste of funds to train someone for a job they are not going to do. Under your scenario, most if not all departments would be either combo or fully paid. The taxpayers wouldn't be paying thousands of dollars on career personnel, they'd be paying millions ultimately. Finally, a friendly reminder, try to get your facts straight; volunteers in the state of New York do not recieve pensions; It's called LOSAP (Length of Service Award Program) and its an annuity, not a pension. There is a big difference between the two. Ask your accountant if you don't believe me.

Its not "extra bureaucratic" as you attempt to put it. Some people have absolutely no interest in going inside a burning building. Some may be only interested in assisting on the outside such as operating master streams, brush fire operations, serving as MPO, directing traffic, performing EMS-related work or clerical support functions. Do we as a volunteer based organization turn them away?? of course not, that would be ridiculous. There's plenty of people who desire to become interior status firefighters so why not use all the help we can get as far as non-interior work goes? Most volunteer companies get a rig out on the road and have the necessary interior firefighters necessary for the initial attack; and if they need additional assistance, they can most certainly call for mutual aid. To staff a station with career personnel for for those 2 or 3 jobs most rural volunteer departments get per year, is not only unnecesary, it would be tantamount to fiscal irresponsibility.

Also remember vacation relief staffing, replacement for sick, personal and brevement days, payroll tax, modification to the existing fire house if not already for career personel; and they also get yearly pay raises. Let the town deal with it instead of the fire district. Better to have the ambulance provider to deal with payroll, benefits and so forth.

Sounds to me like there are several flaws in the current system; ie...waiting up to a year in some cases to go through the process; only one type of membership (interior); negative perception of the department by volunteers; scheduling of tests, etc. Most volunteer departments that i'm aware of take between 2-4 months from start to complete activation of membership. While they are working on correcting deficiencies, they need to speed up the process; mostly likely they should study other volunteer departments methods of processing new members. Many volunteer departments have different classifications of membership; Interior, exterior, administrative, Fire-Police, etc. They need to study other volunteer departments membership classifications. The scheduling of tests is something than can be addressed immediately. Most volunteer departments are keenly aware of time constraints among there members and schedule accordingly. As far as negative perception of the department by volunteers, thats a problem only the department can only solve itself; anytime you ask or encourage someone to volunteer there time, you have to make it as attractive and accomodating as possible. The only other solution as we all know is the expand the existing paid staff and that means expanding the budget as well and most taxpayers are not going to be easily convinced that paying people to staff a fire station that gets a minimum amount of runs per year is worth higher taxes.

I concur with you; they had no business doing what they did; they could've gotten themselves or innocent bystanders killed or injured; Its a job best left for the police to handle.

Agreed, it will mostly like happen within the next 10 years or so, and as in most cases in the state, getting anything accomplished by the counties is next to impossible, Albany will be calling the shots. It should be interesting to see IAFF & FASNY (both powerful special interest groups) lobbying the state. Break out the popcorn and beer for this one.