Doc

Especially when all these disaster response plans, incident management systems and contingencies usually involve assuming that the volunteer emergency services will be playing a role in operations - and crucial ones at that. In this day and age it IS a bit much to assume that employers have the sense to not penalize their employees for acting in the communities best interest in even the most dire situations. Some cannot see beyond the immediate bottom line. My prior employer had no problem demanding employees disobey official local states of emergency and come into work.

What changed? This promise of federal stimulus money for infrastructure projects, maybe? With a potential cash grab like that, counties are going all out for excuses to get a piece of any federal dough. Free Money!!! Free Money!!! Bring out the bad planning!!!! Good luck with this, Tapout and all the residents of Peekskill Hollow Rd. Your "leaders" will paint this as progress and growth and will only stop the project if the outcry against it seems strong enough to prevent their victory in the next election and outweighs the other benefits in their minds. In hard economic times government paints itself as the engine for progress and views awards of big project contracts as "job creation" and "economic stimulus" sending us back our tax money through their chosen contractors. It's also a nice opportunity to payback past campaign supporters. That, unfortunately is just the way it is. I wish it was easier for residents to get informed and stay informed of what's going on around them and then get involved before the state/county/town etc. is beyond the point of public input. The notice requirements are absurd... meetings during the day in bedroom communities, a blotchy photocopy on a random wall of town hall, two or three lines of type hidden in the legal section of the paper and maybe a notice on the public info scroll on public access TV - if that. Then I wish more people took an interest and got up and out to these public meetings. Even then, under the guise of "the greater good" projects get ramrodded through, properties get seized by eminent domain. In the minds eye of a project manager or the politicians the "thousands of drivers who use the road on a daily basis" trump the residents. And if there's an opportunity to claim it's a "safety issue" or "for the children", then there's no solution that's too costly to whomever, wherever and anyone who protests is pegged an evil baby hater, puppy killer, or malcontent. Why speed control engineering methods and stepped up enforcement aren't on the table? Again, best of luck. If I were a Putnam county resident, I'd be writing letters and making phone calls. If you need bodies at meetings, let me know. Route 9 through Fishkill was once a rural route, but over decades it "creeped" to a 12 lane mess. What came first? The roads, the commercial development or the people? It still boggles my mind how Putnam county has managed to greatly retain it's rural character. That whole stretch north of Peekskill to just south of the I-84 interchange is like an intermission from "Metro NYC". It's going to be harder to keep it that way.

Good Job Hughsonville! Got right on it. Very nice shots of a LOT of daytime manpower.

There is nothing more dangerous than pictures of trains! I don't know how many times a good picture of a train has sent me running to the hobby shop with my soon to be emptied wallet. It seems the Amtrak police know this and would prefer I keep my money during these trying times. Thank you Amtrak!!

Serves that terrist right. Why do train photographers hate America?

Following a guy home is one thing, but remaining ignorant of an escalating problem with one of your employees is another. I also think the bigger issue was his not reporting the conviction. Isn't that sort of thing a condition of employment? I can see how this would have slipped through the cracks - state lines and all. I still wonder how long this was going on. I mean, sooner or later, something's going to slip. The priors are evidence of habitual commission and hiding it like this would seem to indicate that he hasn't yet admitted he has a problem. If it's big enough to get three convictions and a prison term, I'm sure there were plenty of signs. Yeah, really. It's amazing what people can get away with. Not knowing the details here, I'd hope that his employer was working with the guy, ie. employee assistance, etc... but it seems that putting a state border between yourself and a job can insulate you. The onus was on him to report his conviction to his employer. They say you have to hit bottom... Being ignorant of how this works outside of non-emergency service employment, what are the prevailing policies for dealing with an employee with drug or alcohol problems? At my day job we have an employee assistance program - to get you the help needed and help you keep your job.

That's unbelievable... How could this have been missed? How long was he pulling this off?

One would have assumed that this would have gotten a bit more attention three years ago, if the goal was really safety. With all the lawyers, politicians and whatnot with vested interests in such policies one would assume that this would have become common knowledge within the emergency services sector. This is an enourmous cluster. "Do it" or get off the pot. CDL's or not? Enough of the "figure it out as you go" policy wonkery. Enough of this "let's just pass it, see if anybody notices it's junk legislation, and bask in the P.R." The quality of legislation making it out of Albany is in decline, or the laws have become so complicated that the lawmakers can't even untangle them. Why bother understanding the laws you pass? Why bother checking to see if and how they contradict one another? Just churn out the laws that pander to your support base and ensure that the lucrative speaking engagements, contributions, connections, and clout keep growing. Just let the court system fix the broken laws years after they've been churned out. Let those who get caught in the poorly contrived machinery and have their day in court do the repair work on THEIR OWN dime. Nothing like a la carte legislative repair.

I only had the pleasure of meeting Rich on a few occasions, but every time was memorable and good. What a great guy. My friends who knew him better attest that he was a class act and universally loved. I think the world is left a bit colder and darker in his passing. Rest in peace, Rich, and God grant his family and friends solace in the wake of this terrible loss. Marc "Doc" Breimer

This is an interesting question and I haven't heard of a case like this coming up in the field of EMS or the fire service. Similar cases have come up in law enforcement, however. Are their any parallels to the question of whether or not a police agency has a duty to protect individuals? In a sense, I could see it since both activities would appear to be equivalent aspects of the agencies duties. If that's the case, then the answer, according to case law, is NO. The police have no affirmative duty to protect. Every case where an attempt has been made to make a police agency liable for their inability to act or act in a timely manner has been shot down. Court cases have universally stated that police agencies are under no obligation to protect individuals and cannot be held liable for damages. A lot of the case law seems to extend this lack of affirmative duty to act to greater municipal government. I'm no lawyer, but it seems logical to me that government will see to it that government is immune from common sense if it means avoiding lawsuits. If this is the pertainent case law, then no, it would seem that a government / municipal EMS service cannot be held liable for it's inability to act or act in a timely manner. Either that or law enforcement is a special case... "Bowers v. Devito, 686 F.2d 616 (7th Cir. 1982) (There is no constitutional right to be protected by the state against being murdered by criminals or madmen. It is monstrous if the state fails to protect its residents against such predators but it does not violate the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, or, we suppose, any other provision of the Constitution. The Constitution is a charter of negative liberties; it tells the state to let the people alone; it does not require the federal government or the state to provide services, even so elementary a service as maintaining law and order.); (No duty to protect) = Rule 12(B )(6) Motion to Dismiss; Cf. Reciprocial obligations;" "Warren v. District of Columbia (444 A.2d 1, 1981) ((O)fficial police personnel and the government employing them are not generally liable to victims of criminal acts for failure to provide adequate police protection ... this uniformly accepted rule rests upon the fundamental principle that a government and its agents are under no general duty to provide public services, such as police protection, to any particular citizen ... a publicly maintained police force constitutes a basic governmental service provided to benefit the community at large by promoting public peace, safety and good order.);" Here's an interesting magazine article on the topic... http://policechiefmagazine.org/magazine/in...;issue_id=52007 I think the EMS issue of failure to respond is far more complicated. I'd hate to be a lawyer on either side of this argument.

Any comment on these? Sure looks like a flag to me... therefore... violates the Flag Code... Looks like a flag to me... another violation. It's red, white and blue, and has one star... This advertisement violates the Flag Rule. Besides being a violation of the flag code, this might be a trademark violation against Ford... This is the Cuban flag... Red, white, and blue, with a star... all the makings of an American flag according to the Flag Rules... I'm not gonna respect it though... How about a picture taken of a person with a flag in the background? Is the picture therefore a violation since it would be a representation of a flag with another image on top of it? Where is the line drawn between a patriotic motif and a flag? It would seem to me that the application of red white and blue paint and stars to an object constitutes a flag since anybody would/ could say it looks like a flag. HINT: Look at section 3 of the flag code... "Any person who, within the District of Columbia, in any manner, for exhibition or display, shall place or cause to be placed any word, figure, mark, picture, design, drawing, or any advertisement of any nature upon any flag, standard, colors, or ensign of the United States of America; or shall expose or cause to be exposed to public view any such flag, standard, colors, or ensign upon which shall have been printed, painted, or otherwise placed, or to which shall be attached, appended, affixed, or annexed any word, figure, mark, picture, design, or drawing, or any advertisement of any nature; or who, within the District of Columbia, shall manufacture, sell, expose for sale, or to public view, or give away or have in possession for sale, or to be given away or for use for any purpose, any article or substance being an article of merchandise, or a receptacle for merchandise or article or thing for carrying or transporting merchandise, upon which shall have been printed, painted, attached, or otherwise placed a representation of any such flag, standard, colors, or ensign, to advertise, call attention to, decorate, mark, or distinguish the article or substance on which so placed shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and shall be punished by a fine not exceeding $100 or by imprisonment for not more than thirty days, or both, in the discretion of the court. The words "flag, standard, colors, or ensign", as used herein, shall include any flag, standard, colors, ensign, or any picture or representation of either, or of any part or parts of either, made of any substance or represented on any substance, of any size evidently purporting to be either of said flag, standard, colors, or ensign of the United States of America or a picture or a representation of either, upon which shall be shown the colors, the stars and the stripes, in any number of either thereof, or of any part or parts of either, by which the average person seeing the same without deliberation may believe the same to represent the flag, colors, standard, or ensign of the United States of America." SOURCE - http://www.ushistory.org/betsy/flagcode.htm Now get ready... this will piss some people off.. IT DOESN'T SAY WHAT YOU THINK IT DOES. Say it with me, "...within the District of Columbia..." Not in Washington D.C.? Not a violation according to the wording of the flag code (USC Title 4, Chapter 1). Sorry. I didn't write it. I DID read it though. Check EVERY legal source on it, it reads the same. If you can show otherwise, please do. As far as I can see, the issues are with wearing an actual flag, not neccessarily a red, white, blue, with stars article of clothes. Similarly, draping a flag on a vehicle is a violation, but painting a vehicle red, white, and blue with stars is not a violation. I think this firefighter's heart is in the right place (as were the owners of the fire truck and car above) but this firefighter needs to respect his uniform and what it means. By Section 8, he should have used a flag sticker on a standard black helmet. As for respecting the flag. I think there is a rational expectation of what desecration of the flag means - in Washington DC or not.

I see a roadway closed to non-emergency service traffic. Nobody was exposed to moving traffic, at least not in the 12 pictures shown. EDIT: Ok, one. But he'd be the one who'd be enforcing the law!

Since this topic came up, I've taken my long ignored handheld scanner out and have been paying greater attention to the quality of the transmission for more calls than just ours. It sounds crisp and clear in the hole I work in AND the hole I live in whereas before it was hit or miss in both locations. A BIG improvement! No, make that a HUGE improvement. Over in Newburgh by the NFA, I used to get static and maybe two or three comprehensible words running off my portable scanner's rubber ducky. I attributed it to being at the bottom of the ridge North J.H.S. is on. Now, transmissions are loud and clear. At home, even in the basement, it's loud and clear. I'm really interested in how they're able to synchronize the transmitters and not get echo or garbling. It's impressive and I think the folks up at Creek Rd. have once again done picked a winning approach. Yeah, I'll miss 46.36 and my trusty old crystal scanner (Bearcat III - works like a charm) and pager. Time marches on whether or not I have funds for personal gear upgrades

I'm thinking the police would do well with Subaru's... or maybe...

Back to regularly scheduled programming.

I'm not going to deny the need to move the technology forward, but sometimes I get sore when my classic scanners and radios become worthless shiny bricks and I'm forced to cough up for new rigs that will also turn into shiny bricks. Hence the reason that I'm no longer into scanners. The benefits of the UHF system over low band are obvious and the simulcasting move is going to be an improvment. There are other technologies that would be great to bring on board and provide valuable new capabilities, improved reliability and versatility, and admittedly others that aren't much more than an excuse to expend taxpayer dollars for cool toys and bragging rights. However, keep in mind that mission critical NASA technology is often run on much older, proven computer hardware. In matters of safety, the bleeding edge of technology is liable to leave you bleeding and systems that cannot be allowed to fail must be tested to an appropriate standard before deployment. I am sure that none of this communication technology is rolling out without thorough NON-manufacturer, third party testing, and even then there will be minor problems, expecially in the difficult Hudson Valley terrain. In the meantime I'll be sending my personal Minitor II out for a UHF board conversion. Oh, yeah... JetPhoto, and the Jager fixed most of the problem.

Oh well, looks like I have to find some alternative arrangements. It seems the constant march of progress is stripping my ability to go to calls. UHF can't get over / around the ridge into my house reliably. Some days my UHF radio is OK, others it might as well be a rock. That plus it's 3-hour at best battery life, my department issued radio is heavy, cumbersome junk. I'd have to bring three batteries to work with me (only have two and one is pretty dead) and watch to swap batteries. Now I only turn it on when my spidersense says we're going to get a call (spidersense doesn't work well), assuming I would bother - the reception in Newburgh is poor - which is Ok, it IS a whole river's width away from Beacon. Yes, it opens for calls but all I get for audio is static - sort of like a portable roof siren. At least the VX-180U is heavy enough to hammer framing nails efficiently so I can't call it useless - and it makes nice beeping sounds when I turn the fancy knobs. Does anybody know how to hook a Minitor III to a roof antenna and how many feet of cable is reasonable? I'll need at least 200 feet so I can have my pager working and on my person when doing yard work. Otherwise my option is hoping we're going mutual aid with the Village and I'll be outside to hear their roof siren. No, I'm not expecting the county to fix my problem that didn't previously exist. I'll just move. Also, aside from paperweights, anybody have a use for some minitor II's? I was going to use them to hold down the tarp on my picnic table this winter. So, when will DC911 get with cell phone messaging. Working with some folks from Orange and Ulster, I've seen that it doesn't suck. It would be nice when us folk in the boonies of Dutchess get caught up these new-fangled gizmos from the big cities like Middletown and Walden.

JBE is right. I've visited most of them (including Aviation before they fell apart again). Back to the topic... A lot of smaller cities and bigger villages farther upstate have been dealing with this issue for a while. The Village of Endicott has lost 2/3 of it's tax base between IBM and Endicott Johnson pulling up shop, and the resulting flight of the young and able. The result is a population that is increasingly unemployed, unemployable, and poor or elderly. The demand for services is staying consistent, but the budget simply can't keep up as those left don't / can't pay. Calls for forming a volunteer department since ~1999 have gone from half-joking to nearly serious, going as far as village board meetings. The strategy seems to have been to look to state and federal aid for any and all other departments and then divert as much tax revenue into emergency services as needed to stay afloat. This only works so long as the state and feds are offering money at all. One thing EFD has done with the situation is to join up with the county's cross-staffed engine program http://www.endicottfire.com/engine98.html These upstate cities/villages are ahead of their time. The problems they're facing are our future problems unless the economy makes a drastic upswing.

I'll second that. McCain SHOULD have gotten the republican nomination in 2000, and WOULD have been our president these last 8 years had he done so. The concerted character assasination by the republican party machine, lead by Karl Rove, and the poor advice of his party sanitized "advisors" doomed him then, to propel Bush into office. The minute Karl Rove spoke for McCain before the South Carolina contingent at the republican convention, I knew that the campaign was lost. Am I the only one who remembers Rove starting the rumors that McCains adopted daughter was a love-child among other wingers? You want to talk about what is wrong with the republican party... Karl Rove is the most public tip of the iceberg tht's killing the republican party - the old-school, old money, corporate-entangled, money hungry Wall Streeters who have been running the show. Palin was their choice and part of McCains sacrifice to appease them. If you want to know who's REALLY been running this country for the last 8 years (probably MUCH longer) cross-reference the information on this site (corproate governing boards, CEO's) with the membership of the GOP, influential washington think tanks, campaign advisors, presidential appointments and special interests. It's impressive how so few are involved in so much of what makes our country operate. Yeah, it sounds like tin foil hat conspiracy theory... until you actually look at it.

Well, I hope this serves as a wake-up call for the Republican party to retrace their conservative roots, step away from the Jesus Juice Fundies, and remember what they're supposed to stand for. That's things like the Constitution (separation of church and state + bearing arms), fiscal restraint and state's rights. First McCain disappointed me when he unzipped the Neo-con fly and bend down before them. The John McCain who ran in 2000 was the John McCain who would have run this nation to greatness. We'd be in a MUCH BETTER PLACE NOW if THAT John McCain had taken the nomination in 2K. What I saw these last months was a convincing marionette likeness dancing to the tune of Rove / Cheney. That REAL John McCain is where the future of the party lies, and this election proved how toxic the NEW Republican party is. Sarah Palin? The future of the Republican Party? Please. She belongs at a church bake sale. There were PLENTY of FAR MORE qualified and realistic female VP potentials out there. WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?! Honestly, I almost hope that picking Palin was a deliberate stab at throwing the election. The present economic situation is part of the immerging global economic cycle. It WILL be worked out, but the probable time-scale will make THIS new president look ineffective. Best to let the Democrats take the fall . I look at it this way... the Democrats have been handed the opportunity to hang themselves good and high or shock us all. The way I see it, Obama has 1.5 years until the mind-term elections to prove that he and a Congress-full of Democrats can find their butts with the aid of both hands. If he proves as ineffective as many believe, the blue tide will shift to red again and his chance is vapor. He WILL be the new Carter and a TRUE CONSERVATIVE Republican will step in. Will OBama destroy this country? I think you give him too much credit. Bush didn't, but he and his men behind the big curtain sure tried. So long as the 2nd Amendment secures my right to bear arms and so long as the police, military and other similarly patriotic citizens realize their responsibility to be the true protectors of our nation, even from a corrupted leadership, I doubt it.

Ah, the differentiation between a non-point source and a point source. I'm always amazed by the DEC's continual regulatory process... the more rules they make, the more they conflict, the more rules they make, etc. Luckily I'm at the money-making end of this process.

With the rainfall we've been having, all it would probably take is a blown bilge pump or leaf-clogged scuppers to do it.

The 1957 ALF was bought in 1971 (when Rombout was formed) from Mt. Hope, NJ. It's unusual in that it has a 1000 gallon tank. I'm pretty sure that that was done by Mt. Hope at some point, and not from the factory. It was red, gas powered, and had a manual transmission when we first got it. Some members of Rombout painted it in the old fire station on Wood Pl. Back in the 1980's the engine blew up and got replaced with a diesel and automatic transmission. The process of towing the thing is why it has the unusual tow hooks up front. The original tow hooks were, apparently, not very functional. I'm glad to see it FINALLY got sensible mirrors again. I don't know who/why/when those "Erector set" things were retrofitted. Yes, we "borrowed" Beekman's Chevy/ Sealand for quite a few years. If you check around the insides of the doors you can see the cream paint under the scratches in the red.

There are idiots who could/would/do find their way around all the above said warning signs and obstacles and hit a firefighter, oh, but the vest... the vest will fix it? ny10570 is right, the issue ignores the real problem and treats a symptom... if you're not creating a back-up of cars creeping by and sticking a few tons of apparatus down any other tenable path to hit your personnel you're doing it wrong in the first place. Create congestion, limit the publics options, and then put metal between you and them. Not inconveniencing the public is NOT an excuse for endangering yourself. The simple and most effective solution is abaducks - Close the road every time. But that solution makes people unhappy and interferes with the critical matters of the motoring public, ie... B-B-BUT I GOTTA GET TO WAL-MART, I GOT COUPONS !!!111!!!!ELEVENTY The old adage is, "mankind's ability to make things fool-proof is bested only by natures ability to make better fools."

Sounds like a simple but inconsiderate solution to me. With all the GPS systems in cars now, I'm sure the inconvenienced travelers will find a rail line to detour the accident scene So, vest over the SCBA or under?! I'd assume over, since the tank would block the vest thereby negating the value of the vest.