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Ferrara

From New Orleans Newspaper Times-Picaynne www.nola.com Nagin takes swipe at NYC in defending local recovery efforts From staff and wire reports Apparently annoyed with insinuations that New Orleans’ recovery is lagging, Mayor Ray Nagin takes a swipe at the pace of New York’s redevelopment of the World Trade Center site on a TV news show that will air Sunday. On a tour of wreckage in the devastated Lower 9th Ward, Nagin said much of the debris has been removed from public property. When a “60 Minutes” correspondent pointed out flood-damaged cars on the streets, Nagin shot back, “You guys in New York can’t get a hole in the ground fixed, and it’s five years later. So let’s be fair,” according to CBS. The program is scheduled to air Sunday night. Text and a video clip from the Nagin piece were posted on CBS’ Web site Thursday. Nagin’s comment apparently rankled some New Yorkers. The chairman of the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., the agency created to oversee the rebuilding of the World Trade Center site and downtown Manhattan, pointed out that New York sent firefighters, police officers and engineers to New Orleans to help in the days after the hurricane. “We understand how difficult rebuilding a city after such destruction can be,” Chairman Kevin Rampe said. Rampe said “tremendous progress” has been made in lower Manhattan, with the Freedom Tower, a transportation hub and a memorial to the nearly 3,000 attack victims now under construction. The agency is set to go out of business this fall after the fifth anniversary of the terrorist attack because it has completed its mission, Rampe said. A spokesman for New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said lower Manhattan is thriving. “Record numbers of people live downtown, and new cultural attractions are making the area a vibrant, 24-hour-a-day community,” Stu Loeser said. “We wish the same bright future for New Orleans and continue to stand ready to provide any help we can, just as we did in the immediate aftermath of Katrina.” Nagin did not respond to an e-mail requesting comment. His spokeswoman, Ceeon Quiett, offered a more nuanced version of what the mayor intended with his remarks. “In this time of recovery and rebuilding, perspective is needed to help increase understanding about the journey — not sprint — involved in rebuilding this city,” she wrote. “New York City and New Orleans have experienced tragic devastation and loss of life in historic proportions and rebuilding and recovering will take time. At this sensitive time in our city, it is critical that we maintain our perspective and focus.” About 22 million tons of construction and demolition debris were created by Katrina. In comparison, Louisiana’s largest landfill handled only 1 million tons of debris in an average year. About 400 other facilities statewide were opened to handle the enormous amount of debris created by the storm and floodwaters. (Staff writer Gordon Russell contributed to this story. He can be reached at grussell@timespicayune.com or (504) 826-3300.) Send your thoughts to the kind mayor to: http://www.cityofno.com/Portals/Portal35/portal.aspx

This problem just keeps coming up again and again, just in different forms. Time to figure out an answer, hire! does that mean that say...bedford can afford to go out an hire a bunch of guys...maybe, but maybe not...that is where the BIG picture comes in. TIME to look outside the box!...consolidate...oh my...I said it...join smaller depts. and hire between them, get rid of the extra 12 rigs that cost 500g's or more a piece, have a combo. dept. with Vol. rig in each town/village and everyone is a member of the bigger dept. and not of a company...but a member of the DEPT. and all are equal. The bill is shared by both town/villages and you get better response, a combo dept. consolidated effort. The answer is to open your eyes and stop sticking your head in the ground and drop the fifedomes. This problem is not going away. Many of the smaller communities have the worst problem. They have no vols. but the call volume is not enough and the tax base is not enough to go paid....but the answer is to make the dept. bigger join the smallers depts. to grow, add call volume to justify, and have a larger tax base now to pay for guys. Insurance is now shared, so is buying power of a larger dept. can sell off duplicated engines, trucks, etc. Simple solution...just someone needs to get the *&(*^ to stand up an do it. And it shouldn't come from a disaster.

That is more of the line i am asking....is there a way or such thing that the IC portable can be on a channel that will transmitt over both fireground and trunking at same time and recieve both fireground and trunking at same time....

ffo26...the system you are speaking of in rockland now is similar to the one i described...first..why are they changing it...it seems to work and work well in rockland...and why can't they just do the same thing with a trunked system....? will need to have a trunked portable for each apparatus in case there is no officer and now the IC (chief or officer) will need 2 radios...I can't see how this is progress. Sorry if sounding a bit negative..just seems to be going backwards..not forward... to get back to tbendick...yes...the firefighter portables do pick up all radio traffic from control..which definiatly is a problem..but if the county just fixed that problem by switching all dispatch tones to 33.96 and then divided up 46.26, 14, 42 and the other freq. we have into battalions than that would limit the depts. on the same channel. This alone should have been done a LONNNGG time ago. Tones on one freq. and dispatch on another....and fireground on another...

they make repeaters that shut down all but the first one on scene...master and slave system so you don't have the problem you describe

no..the system i was refering to. you do not use more than one channel...and you do not speak on both freq. There is a repeater in the truck...I know Hartsdale uses this system so if someone knows this system they can explain it...the have portables on a fireground freq. and if they want to talk to control they can then go thru the repeater and it goes out over 46.26. if all depts. had just switched to this type of system (had each their own fireground) and the county had switched the depts. off 46.26 and broken them down to batt. each on a different freq. (.14, .26, .42, etc or switched to the UHF freq.) then it would have worked and not cost very much. Tones only over 33.96 and 33.06...I hope someone who knows a lot about these systems will enlighten me. Thanks for the reply's

I agree..but the current or old system that I described..the chief has one radio and uses it on one channel...can hear both control and fireground....when transmits...if switch in one position..then it is only fireground..and only fireground radios hear the message...if the switch in other position....then it goes out over a repeater and both fireground portables recieve and control...best of both worlds..and one radio...and simple....how can you hear 2 seperate radios at same time? can someone tell me if they could have done the same thing with the trunking system..instead of the switch turning the radio on to the repeater...couldn't they do the same where it now changed it over to the trunking system.....or why didn't they just utilize the repeater system and if they got more freq. and did the simple thing as it was supposed to have been set up....tones only on 33.96 and another freq. and then dispatch communications on 4 freq. set up by battalion and then the other 6 as the fireground. Sorry...not very knowledgable in the tech. of radios...but just seems this new system is not the best way to go.

can the county supplied radios have the 8 uhf freq. in them also...or is it only for trunked....and if so this is ludicris....how can anyone think this system is good if a chief or IC will carry and listen to 2 radios...they CANT'T and that thought of an aide...this isn't NYC and no paid dept. in westchester (maybe YFD) has the manpower to have someone be an aide and i can't see it happening in a vol. dept. either. Next, what if you go to a call and there is no officer and you are the IC. How do you talk to 60. You would need the ablility to talk on the trunked system. and no one knows who might be the senior FF at the scene at that time..so does everyone get one?...why can't they make it so that all portables have the ablility to talk on the trunked system if the switch (don't know the technical term) that was used to switch between repeater or not repeater use was used and if switched off would use a fireground frequency. correct me if wrong...but if a dept. had a simple system in which all portables had 6 frequencies and a repeater in the trucks. when they talked port. to portable it was on a fireground freq. (switch off) and the IC would then flip the switch on and would then be working through the repeater and could now talk to 60. Each portable could do the same but the FF's left their port. switch off so they only talked on fireground but heard both fireground and 60. this system is great.if they went to another dept. they just changed to the next fireground freq. the only downfall is that 46.26 was used for more than just IC stuff. Why not just fix the system simply...this is retarted. Please tell me how a simple fix has come to this and how is this going to be better...yes there won't be the confusion on 46.26 as now....but you are adding a whole second radio now for fireground...don't use a rube goldberg contraption to catch a mouse...the county seems like they can't do Anything right without screwing it up.....simple NOT COMPLEX

Sounds like some of you may have good knowledge of this system. Now I am asking about the westchester system specifically. Can someone tell me how this system works. I have spoken toa High ranking WCDES employee and as far as I am informed. each dept will recieve a mobil radio for each veh. (though some with like 50 utilities won't) and 3 portables. The system is a trunked system. the tones will still be dispatched over 46.26 and then communications with control will be on this system. Now the question. How does the IC speak with the men? I understand that each portable is like 5g's does each dept. have to go and purchase radios that work on this system. and are how do they talk to firefighters/fireground? what if the chief is not there...how can the IC speak to control? they have to have a trunked radio also? will IC's be walking around with 2 radios..one for control and one for fireground....that is the jist I actually got...that is in a word REDICULOUS...I hope i am misinformed...otherwise it appears the county bought another lemon like the computer system back in the 80's. Also..when the hell is the county going to have an information session on this....to explain the system....after it is implemented?

There are no requirements in NY...as usual !!! no standards...no training....buy a truck and call it a rescue and there you have it!

Engine 87 and R-12 still say NTFD also

The correct answer is...In the mid 90's..aprox. 1996, the village changed its name via a referendum. The village long believed it lacked an identity due to the fact that it was called North Tarrytown and shared its zip code with Tarrytown. Most people just combined the 2 in thought. This even though the 2 are in seperate towns (Mount Pleasant and Greenburgh). They changed the name but even today many people (as well as the fire apparatus) still refer to it as North Tarrytown.

Am I mistaken? Now when loggin in and view posts...it shows tons of them....not just the ones since last log in....is there a setting or way to show just those posts since last log in?

LI cop arrested for collecting disability while working as fireman Wednesday July 20, 2005 LI cop arrested for collecting disability while working as fireman YAPHANK, N.Y. (AP) A Suffolk County police officer was arrested for allegedly collecting $250-thousand dollars in disability pay while working as a volunteer for the Bethpage Fire Department -- where he recently was made chief. Michael Forman, a 13-year veteran of the Suffolk police force, has been out on disability since April 2003, when he suffered a wrist injury in the line of duty. Forman was charged today with grand larceny and fraud for allegedly working as a volunteer fireman responding to hundreds of emergency calls and collecting his full police salary while telling the police department he couldn't work because of his disability. He pleaded not guilty at his arraignment in Suffolk County court and was released. Suffolk District Attorney Thomas Spota said Forman claimed he was unable to perform his duties as a Third Precinct police officer, which included driving. Forman, who was appointed Bethpage fire chief last January, also was allegedly videotaped by investigators sawing down trees at his home during his leave. The Bethpage Fire Department covers about 8-thousand homes in an area of 7.8 square miles. It answered more than 15-hundred calls last year, according to its Web site, which features a picture of Forman in his fire chief's uniform.

Tarrytown village employee/Vol. Firefighter arrested on drug charge A Tarrytown public works employee and volunteer town firefighter was arrested yesterday after he was found with 14 decks of heroin in a municipal vehicle, police said. Darrell Lindsay of 50 White St. in Tarrytown, was stopped by members of the Greenburgh police Street Crime Unit on Old Saw Mill River Road about 2:30 p.m., Sgt. Richard Conroy said. Lindsay, 53, was driving a public works pickup truck at the time of the arrest, Conroy said. He was charged with seventh-degree possession of a controlled substance, a misdemeanor. He was released on $250 bail and is due back in Greenburgh court tomorrow. Conroy said the arrest was part of an ongoing investigation by the county District Attorney's Office. Thats like 1 a week.....should they start doing some background checks over there?

journal news

THE JOURNAL NEWS (Original publication: June 7, 2005) TARRYTOWN — A former chief of the village's Volunteer Fire Department has been accused of using a village credit card to buy himself a laptop, tools and other assorted items the day after his one-year term as chief expired in April, police said. Joseph McCarthy, 43, of 91 Tappan Landing Road was arrested at the Main Street firehouse yesterday morning on a charge of third-degree grand larceny, a felony. Police Chief Scott W. Brown said a member of the Fire Department alerted police several weeks ago that equipment had been purchased with village funds that could not be accounted for, and the investigation led to McCarthy. McCarthy went to a Sam's Club in Elmsford on April 9 and bought more than $3,000 worth of computer equipment, office supplies, a tool cabinet and an awning, police said. McCarthy was released without bail and is due back in Tarrytown Village Court for arraignment tomorrow. McCarthy, an 18-year veteran of the fire department, was assistant chief in 2002 and 2003 and chief in 2004. He is the brother of Clarice Pollack, a village trustee. He did not return a message left on an answering machine at his home yesterday. Brown said the allegations have stunned the tight-knit community of volunteers and first-responders in Tarrytown, a village of about 12,000 residents, with some 90 volunteer firefighters who provide 24-hour fire protection. "Joe is a friend and I'm very sorry to see this happen," Brown said. "He was very cooperative with the investigation and, during his length of service, he did an excellent job." Brown added that there was no indication that McCarthy, a self-employed handyman, had misused village funds in the past. Village Administrator Stephen McCabe said that while he was concerned about the incident, he believed the impact on the morale of the department would be temporary. "Our volunteers are very highly respected and have a good reputation in this community," McCabe said. "We have every confidence that the department members will soldier on and move past this." Last night the village Board of Trustees had a closed-door meeting to discuss the arrest and agreed to undertake a review of the management structure of the Fire Department to establish whether stricter financial controls were warranted, McCabe said.

If anyone watched the video...you were correct in saying that there was a civillian that was within feet of the truck while the PD was in level B suits and they were washing it down while the "contaminated" water just flowed out of the truck, onto the ground and they never captured it...or contained it.......Hmmm...as the saying goes..a picture is worth a thousand words..if this is what you do on the little one....?

remember...thank you so much for that reply...I only hope more of us would stand up and tell the truth...and you are VERY correct that there are some major problems with manpower in career depts. too. but like you said DOES THE PUBLIC KNOW?....we have to start telling the truth and letting the public in on the secrets we all here know about. And hiding or throwing money at these band aid, special projects is not helping to save the lives or put out the fire. You only have to look to maryland to look at places where a firefighter is a firefighter...just some are paid and some are not and there really should be a TRUE study of the fire service in westchester and its needs...fire station wise, apparatus wise, manpower and cost wise and if that means closing some companies and hiring some people and getting rid of some firehouses and building some new...that is what needs to be done....with TRUE numbers and FACTS...not on the books...and because it looks nice or say's "our name" on it. cop cars don't have gold leaf, nor cd players..etc. why are we any different...if it puts out the fire and conforms to NFPA then thats what we need. Glad to hear from you "remember". Thanks for a good dialog

Don't open that door....EVERY career FF MUST have 225 hrs. of training to start. Not so for a Vol. so right off the bat there is no comparison...even NYS says there is a difference. Why do they distinguish between the requirements of a career ff and only 15 hrs for a vol. and 8 hrs. a year there after. while a career ff must have 100. There is no distinguishment between a career EMT and a Vol EMT. ..same training and requirements....if all are equal then MAKE all EQUAL. and there are MANY people who are classified as Vol. FF's who actually have SEVERE learning disabilities. Is there no min. requirement to join. That is the reason that depts. claim they have 300 members. There are many depts out there that have the LOSAP and they still can't get a rig out. So the only one making money is the ins. company and a few individuals and the looser is the tax payer again. Tell the public the TRUTH. If the avg. taxpayer knew ther REAL numbers...like it might cost you another $200 a year for career ff's who would also respond to EMS calls and you wouldn't have to worry about these hidden charges...like fund drives, LOSAP, Tax breaks which now the tax payer must make up the difference, a proposal now for HEALTH CARE for Vols., Property tax breaks which again the tax payer must make up the difference, free use of the town pool which the taxpayer pays more...stipends, 3 chief cars, fuel, insurance. Trucks with gold leaf instead of stickers (just so it looks nice!). More trucks then are ever needed at what cost....and then the 1 million dollar LADDER TRUCK IN BLUE for a firehouse that doesn't fit it so now we need a new one at at cost of ?...the inspection dinner that cost 30 g's, can go on and on and on....should start another web site called the REAL TRUTH.com If you want to do the job and are going to do the SAME job with the SAME training (because fires don't care that you are only a volunteer and don't require the same training)and do it for free with out wanting all that "special" stuff and yelling that you better give it to us because we are vol. or we will threaten you with propaganda of the HUGE cost of a hiring then more power to you. If you want to do the SAME job but for free (just like EMT's) then step right up. But stop the Lie's stop hiding the fact that the trucks don't get out, Vol's don't cost money, they are trained the same...if you feel that way then you should be offended that NYS differenciates...right? there is no difference...right?....there are vols that do take many class's...and many career who never go past the academy....so make the MIN. the SAME!!! THAT is the reason for all the vol./paid problems....they are NOT EQUAL and that is not true for the country...in many states they must ALL meet the same standards. Is the $1000 tax break a lot of money...no...but the cummulative of all the hidden costs are...don't circumvent the civil service req. which many many vol. ff's are on by hiring a person and calling them a Janitor because you need FF"s but don't want to pay them.

My thoughts exactly Pbpvm. When exactly do we cross the line to paid...is there a dollar amount? and the 7 year rule, what are the requirements for the 7 years... can you coast for 7 and then be exempt?....tell me honestly...if you want to vol. then you are going to volunteer and if you don't want to you won't. This is only going to cost taxpayers more....pension plans, million dollar ladder trucks that are in no way needed, gold leaf, new buildings, tax breaks, stipends and "you better give it to us because we do it for free"...well ok so it isn't free....just hidden costs and in the end the trucks don't get out anyway...shouldn't we stop pretending... and fix the real problem...and spend money on that