moggie6

Well that's a kick in the nuts.

Until the 7th Inning!

The New York Mets have announced their EMS Appreciation Night for EMS week on May 19th against the Washington Nationals. Discount tickets are available for EMS members and their families. Game is at 7:10 PM. There are tickets available in the Coca Cola Corner for $77 which will include beer and a burger and fries or $21 for the Promenade Reserve. Grab some tickets while they last and put in the shift request now for your commercial workers out there. http://m.mlb.com/nym/tickets/info/ems

Taxpayers and voters are the ones who place Commissioners into office. Taxpayers and voters are the ones who change fire districts. End of story. I am employed by a fire district who has no problem having voters come out in December to vote. The taxpayers in Dutchess County have answered the vote when they (key word) felt the service could be delivered better, thought things were not being run accordingly, and found candidates that they thought would do a better job at representing them. As far as the election date, time, polls etc. That is NYS Law pal, go to Albany or call your local representative to have that one changed. What facts can someone prove wrong? You listed equipment, salaries, and operations in your one response. Those are facts. The ideas of consolidation and how the two organizations could be run more efficiently is nothing more than an opinion. The opinion that commissioners should feel morally responsible to deliver the best service at the lowest cost and exploring new ways to do so is also an opinion. Fact is they do a job and unless the State of NY or the court of law comes in and says "hey guys, not cool. You can't do it this way anymore" then I would only speculate that they must be doing ok. A horrible (this is my opinion not a fact) politician once told a group of angry tax payers "You guys are complaining about the way they do business here. I don't know why? You are the one's who voted them into office. If you don't like it get out, find a candidate, and vote in December. I shouldn't have to tell you how local elections work!" I know what drives me away from taking part in this forum as a member is threads like this. When I click on Fairview Appoints New Chief and this is what followed. And to make matters worse I go to work tomorrow and I don't have a new chief. You all tricked me into thinking I had a new chief!

Congrats to the new chief of Fairview! I will direct all complaints from up north down to your office line to buy us some time lol. Good luck with trolling out for the merger of two fire districts. The tax payers in those districts don't have a problem with the services they are receiving and more importantly the services they are paying for. If they did you can bet your butt they would be at commissioners meeting complaining, forming tax payer groups, and practicing their rights of free speech. But I don't hear that...I never see it. I never see an article from the Fairness for Hartsdale Taxpayer Group or the Fairness for Fairview Westchester Taxpayer group. I imagine and speculate it's because the people are happy with the service they get. They pick up the phone for help and someone shows up with in a reasonable time. Has any Hartsdale or Fairview Fire Equipment gone second dispatch? Do they ever call out crew awaiting a driver? I'm sorry but if there is one thing I learned from being "involved" in a merger study...leave things alone. People are happy about the services they receive. If they were not happy things would change. They will vote new commissioners into office and effect change themselves.

Chief Elleber is just trying to destroy the fire department even more. The guy is a legit scumbag. He has an axe to grind because people are comfortable. I imagine when he was on the line he was the 2% guy and no one wanted to help him out.

In Dutchess quite a few departments have ice water rescue training and equipment. Fairview and Roosevelt are both equipped and have worked together in the past at incidents very well. Arlington and LaGrange have their very own swift water rescue team that falls under the or will fall under the LaGrange, Arlington, and possibly City of Poughkeepsie Technical Rescue Battalion.

Always a tough decision and hard pill to swallow. I'd like to know a couple of things about Chester VAC myself to make a true informed opinion. However I'm sure that no one out there is going to turn over their call numbers for the last 12 months, analyze the amount of responses, no responses, average response time from dispatch, responding, ambulance arriving on scene, and patient contact. As far as the Town of Chester, they are merely exercising their rights and responsibilities as a town in the State of New York. You might not like the decision but as elected officials it is theirs to make. The people voted them into office so they are the people's voice. We will know if the right decision was made come election time.

Why was this merged into a topic that has nothing to do about the questions I was asking for discussion?

So recently (past several months) the Hudson Valley area has seen several fire\emergency\police incident alert pages pop up with a lot of support. I know I have used these pages myself to see what was going on when I hear sirens or do not have a scanner\pager with me. I like being informed and deep down inside who doesn't want to know whats going on. We all understand and can all agree on things like free speech. In the age of social media information is spread as fast as we are getting our calls for service. Where is the line drawn in the sand though when it comes to regulating information that is being delivered to the world via social media? Who, if anyone, that is running these social media websites and pages have over site in what to post and what not to post? Do they have a mission statement and a set of ethics and values that they follow? If you are running a social media page do you disable the ability of people to make comments that are publicly viewed. Let's say i'm the sole operator of Hooterville Buff Fire Alerts and Do-dad's. I post an incident alert about a vehicle accident and 20 mins later someone who is following the page releases names of individuals who have died in the hypothetical accident? I post an alert about a police incident and another member of the public is also listening to the scanner and places information about police units and personnel onto the page under the comments section. A building fire happens in The big City of SmallvilleUSA and the fire chief calls mutual aid from MediumvilleUSA but BigvilleUSA is closer. Now people comment on how that is an improper way to run an operation. It escalates as other's question an incident that they are not at, nor are they in charge of. How does this look in the public perception? What is the liability of such groups in regards to privacy, safety, and security or emergency responders and the public? Your thoughts?

Today I have learned that a true legend has passed away after a long battle with Cancer. Her name is Irene Gremmert and she was a paramedic I had the honor and privilege to work with. For many of us in the Emergency Medical Service community she was at times a "Mom" to all of us. Irene had one of the most important skills that someone in EMS can have. Empathy. She could empathize with her patients and understand where they were coming from. She had an unmistakable laugh that was infectious spreading smiles far and wide. I will remember cleaning ambulances, amazing response times, the art of listening to Iron Maiden while driving to a call, and having fun at work because life is too short and to demanding to let work bog you down.I will miss you Irene. May you rest in peace and look over us as we go out there and do work.

Also you can go to either the Fairview Professional Firefighters Facebook Page or the Fairview Fire District Group 3 Facebook Page for more info. https://www.facebook.com/events/498040836929300/ https://www.facebook.com/events/535314516532299/

This is a bump but it's a fun one at that. We still have seats left on the Fairview Professional Firefighters Bill Spadafora Bus Trip that will be happening on June 26th. If you have the day off and have no plans, come on the bus trip out to Mohegan Sun Casino. It's going to be a great day. Anyone of us who work in an ambulance are in this together. Let us show support for Bill! We have almost $500 of raffle prizes for the bus. It will be one of the best bus trips you ever go on. EVER! Send me a message or email me at rridley@fairviewfd.net Thanks again everyone!

I just want to thank the Roosevelt Fire Company 1 and Croft Corners Fire Company for their donation to ensuring the success of this bus trip.

The requirements where I work for the volunteers are Firefighter 1, Survival, and the NYS FAST Class as well as taking part in some "in house" Rapid Intervention Work...... I think the formation of actually FAST\RIT teams is a little overrated for the area that I work. WITH THAT BEING SAID I do agree that there should be a Rapid Intervention Team for anyone who is operating in the building. Rapid Intervention Team work is everyone's job. If you are putting an SCBA on your back you should be fluent in rescuing the person you are working along side of. Also the FAST and RIT (what ever you want to call them) works a lot better when they are dispatched on the initially with the first in units. Very few fire departments have a FAST team on the initial dispatch. It's very frustrating to hear a neighboring fire department get dispatched for a fire and know that we have to wait for the 2nd Alarm, 10-75, IT'S A WORKER!!! or what ever magic words the IC has to say to get us rolling out the door. Add into that turn out times for some of the volunteer departments and you are looking at a 5-15min window where with the exception of your 2 in 2 out crew no one is there. And for the departments out there who read this that have a FAST\RIT on the initial dispatch to a building fire my hats are off to you.