fdalumnus

sharp looking, as was their former patch

I kinda like it, looks ready for business. Wonder how much it costs ?

He was top shelf, we'll miss him. R.I.P. Barry Seth, If you can post the funeral arrangements, I, along with others, will really appreciate it.

And all this time I thought you were RE-tired

Again, The fire service has changed. What you were brought up with is not the way things are now. Any engine drive or truck chauffer, paid or volunteer, knows the duties.( I hope) First and foremost,search and rescue. If there are plenty of able bodied responders, the chauffer, engineer, MPO, whatever you want to call them, stays and operates the rig with other responsibilities associated with his or her tasks. Back to the City of Kingston FD; theoretically a combination department, in reality, only five or six volunteers. That's the way things are, no fault implied on the vollies. Again, if you think otherwise, well, go with the "100 years of progress, held back by 100 years of tradition." I stated before, I'm not looking for a debate. I just think its incorrest to refer to someone a term that they are not. Lets get back to original topic. The dept is getting the proper apparatus for their response area. In addition, they will now have a spare TDA, making things better when the new one goes out of service.

We had a mayor publicly call us "A bunch of glorified truck drivers" when we were negotiating a new collective bargaining agreement. He also stated in the newspaper article that we "just drive the trucks to the fire, the volunteers fight the fire." We kicked his butt in arbitration. His motives (I think) were to divide the career and volunteer members. Didn't work. But the public, unfortunately, thought otherwise till we educated them on how our department worked. But that's ancient history.

Never looked down at the dispatchers at 60 Control. Bickered with some at times, but everybody has a difference of opinion now and then. I also always considered them my co-workers, just like the firefighters riding with me. We would many times invite them to our firehouse for a meal or coffee. To me, they did a great job. Of course, some in my profession treated them, lets just say, differently.

Just going by the word of some ex-chiefs. Alan, In the career sector, its taken as an insult, like calling a volunteer a volunqueer. I'm not looking for a debate on this, do anybody really think a so called paid driver just drives a rig to a call ? Enough said.

reporters should get their facts straight before writing an article. paid driver ? want one, go to the cab stand. its an archaic term, used by, heck, don't want to even go there. glad the brothers got the rig they wanted and needed. regarding middletown, the volunteers stormed the city council meeting wanting another tiller. the city fathers went the rear mount route, citing cost differences, and the real reason, to be able to cut four jobs. most of the volunteers were against that also. give me a tda anytime.

Boy, I am old, I remember when the GFD ran the ambulances

Was talking to a couple of the Kingston brothers a few weeks ago. They spec'd it for a Seagrave TDA about four years ago. City appropriated the money then sat on it for a few years and couldn't understand why they then didn't have enough money for it. Guess they didn't know about yearly price increases. Then they wanted FD to get a straight frame aerial citing cost difference of a TDA vs say, a rearmount. (one less operator needed, you know where they were going with that.) At least they're getting what the firefighters wanted. Kingston has so many tight streets, it's the logical and logistic way to go.

Can this ruling (hopefully) be appealed ?

The rig for sale is the "old" Eng 58. it was replaced in 2010 by a Pierce. It was used as a spare for the two "paid rigs" (E 58 & 59) and also as a fill in for R40. The village is considering selling the present 58 and 59. Sad part is, they'll get pennies on the dollar, especially in the case of E58. It's a well thought out rig, perfect for use as a squad. If sold, the taxpayers of Port Chester will be paying for it for a good many years to come. That $800k they saved is small compared to the amount of money it's costing them.

What has the OFD been using in R14's place ?

But do they have enough in coverage to cover their losses ? Is the insurance company going to pay in a timely factor ? I recently spoke to an old friend of mine whose is a career ff in one municipality while being a fire commissioner and and volunteer in the town he resides in. Told me his vfd has trouble just getting a rig out the door. I suggested it may be time to hire. His response was his taxes were close to 20k a year, how much more can the citizens afford. I told him whre I worked (combo dept w/ 3 around the clock} the average homeowner paid about three hundred dollars a year in fire taxes. Of course the people with the mansions paid lots more, but they were happy to pay, they wanted service. Conversation ended. Again, when ISO comes into the equation, things change. BNechis could elaborate better than I ever can about the fire ins. premium vs fire tax story

Go the website http://fairchesterhosehaulers.org/ and fill in the blanks. I'll also let you know when the next meeting is, we can use a good man like you.

seth, as you come in the gate, come over and introduce yourself

I'm sure the senior citizen that owns it will gladly accept monetary assistance and volunteer labor

4 down (or should I say up) and 4 to go. Rye Brook hired another FULLY TRAINED EXPERIENCED former pcfd firefighter. City of Rye FD has also recently hired 2. Hopefully the other 4 will find jobs. But I've been wondering. The Port Chester mayor changed his ways when he saw, in plain black and white, that the response times since the move to an all volunteer department, have gone up. Simple common sense. How much longer does it now take for a fire dept response ? On another note, I heard that the captains of Rescue 40 (Fire Patrol and Rescue) and Engine 63 (Putnam Eng and Hose) have resigned their positions in protest of how the three chiefs are running the dept. Have also heard many other members have somewhat "walked away" due to dissension. Sounds like a rebellion is stirring.

he's not a guy i would get along with. and he's an officer? i was actually happy the other day when i read the article about the fdmv crew who bought an a/c unit for a person. finally some positive news. then this. [shaking my head]

In the old days we did the same as the navy. Broke a bottle of champagne over the front bumper. Usually gave the honor to one of the wives of a deceased firefighter. Six aerial devices throwing water, another rear mount standing nearby; whose minding the store where these rigs came from ? Just a thought, not looking to start a s&%tstorm.

A classic case of personalities over principles

the old saying, "Arrive Alive" comes to mind sometimes

when I first started out as volunteer,(yes, the apparatus was motorized) we were instructed in the "Essential of Firemanship," the ins and outs of the blue light laws of NY State. I still remember Jim Taxter, who I believe was a volunteer with the Tarrytown FD, stressing that the blue light was just a courtesy light. Gamewell hit the nail on the head why I never used a blue light. Standing at a red light made me feel like a jerk at times. For me, its common sense to safely move over whether the light is red, blue, green or amber. I was taught by my father, when operating a motor vehicle, I was responsible for the safety of everyone, including people sitting on the side of the roadway. Defensive driving seems to be a thing of the past. I prefer that warning lights be visible 360 degrees. just safer, but that can be a point well debated.

time to eradicate these scoundrels from the face of the earth ! Also time we start holding the "host" countries responsible. Some of these countries get money and other aid from the USA. Cut them off pronto. My condolences to the victims.