petervonb

I am waiting to see what the investigations actually turn up before I start throwing accusations or other negative comments around willy-nilly.

I am waiting to see what the investigations actually turn up before I start throwing accusations or other negative comments around willy-nilly.

I am waiting to see what the investigations actually turn up before I start throwing accusations or other negative comments around willy-nilly.

Enough of petty bickering

The best part of this whole discussion is that we're bantering about who got to go sit in someone else's fire house... Not who got to go to the job, but who got to go and sit.... Priceless really....

Simple version:
Town Board creates a Fire Protection District and then contracts with some firefighting entity to provide the protection. Mt. Hope contracted with the Village and its FD and the residents of the Fire Protection District paid taxes to the Town (on a separate line in the tax bill) for the amount of the contract.
Now they want to create a Fire District, which is a municipality and will have power to tax. The former Otisville FFs have created a fire company and that company will still exist, but the Fire District will create a Fire Department and it will likely consist of all the people in the new Mt. Hope company. The District's Fire Department will be the operating entity - the Company will involve itself in related matters (including recommending a Chief to the District, which recommendation the District will accept or reject) and raise funds and do other stuff. The majority of the cost of firehouses, fire trucks, equipment and lots of other things will be borne by the District (and not the Town government) and they will be able to float bond issues to borrow money to pay for it all. The taxpayers will still be levied for the funds and it will still show up on the Town tax bill on a separate line. There are a number of actions the District takes that will require voter approval.
The District will be governed by Commissioners - usually five - who will probably first be appointed by the Town Board and then will stand for election within a year. The one with the most votes will serve 5 years; the one with the second highest vote will serve 4 years; and so on to the one who came in fifth, who will serve for one year. After that, one Commissioner will stand for election each year, so you can't throw them all out at once, except in that first election.
The Town Board will have no more say in the operations of the District or its department or its taxes.
It is possible that the District might be a Joint District between the Village and the Town, but that doesn't appear to be in the works as it appears in the Record.
This story reminds me of what I have been told about the formation of the Philipstown North Highlands Fire District, which covers an area that used to be covered by Cold Spring FD - though I think the problem was more with the Town Board than the Village Board - and the residents used the petition process instead of having the Town create it. (If anyone has better info on that old story, let me know.)

So maybe we should come up with a SPOT-FILLER badge, a SPOT-FILLER helmet front piece and SPOT-FILLER lettering for the back of the turnout coat.
Maybe the design could be like a circle, partly filled with some sort of material, and a putty knife sticking out of it. Appropriate level numbers could be written on the handle of the putty knife, to show whether the person is a Level 1 SPOT-FILLER, Level 2 SPOT-FILLER or a Chief SPOT-FILLER.

So maybe we should come up with a SPOT-FILLER badge, a SPOT-FILLER helmet front piece and SPOT-FILLER lettering for the back of the turnout coat.
Maybe the design could be like a circle, partly filled with some sort of material, and a putty knife sticking out of it. Appropriate level numbers could be written on the handle of the putty knife, to show whether the person is a Level 1 SPOT-FILLER, Level 2 SPOT-FILLER or a Chief SPOT-FILLER.

So maybe we should come up with a SPOT-FILLER badge, a SPOT-FILLER helmet front piece and SPOT-FILLER lettering for the back of the turnout coat.
Maybe the design could be like a circle, partly filled with some sort of material, and a putty knife sticking out of it. Appropriate level numbers could be written on the handle of the putty knife, to show whether the person is a Level 1 SPOT-FILLER, Level 2 SPOT-FILLER or a Chief SPOT-FILLER.

My understanding of the pilot program was because they have so many guys on the line their hands were reducing the flow to the nozzle. 2" hose is much harder to compress than 1 3/4.

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There is no hard and fast rule that consolidation of fire companies (in fire protection districts) and/or fire departments (in fire districts) into one larger district will lead to financial savings.
If paid employees are involved, and those employees have paid supervisors and paid managers and paid department heads, etc., etc., there is a good chance there could be cost savings with consolidation - that's why it might make sense to consolidate DPWs, PDs, school districts, etc.
With volunteer companies and departments - usually with no paid employees, it is a whole different financial ballgame to begin with and the only way to see if consolidation makes sense is to conduct a very, very thorough review of all the groups' financials, operating methods, SOGs, etc., and those financials would include everything plus the kitchen sink - mortgages, leases, investments, equipment ages and other asset valuations, and on and on - along with tax assessed valuations and rates.
In the meantime, the smart thing for all those fire companies and departments to do is constantly make extra, extra efforts to work together in every way possible. First thing is to stop worrying about sharing information. Like, how is it really going to hurt if you tell the officials of one company all about how you operate your own? Exactly what really important secrets do you have (especially in this day and age of FOILs)?
After getting past the fear of loss of power by sharing info, the next thing is to start planning a whole bunch of things together, especially automatic mutual aid - and that could very well include things like rearranging responses based on closest apparatus, combined with response analyses. For instance, it doesn't do much good to have truck A from company X always be the first due responder to location M in Y's area, because A is closer to M than Y's nearest truck, if truck A can only get manned quickly at night.
Along with all those automatic responses, don't forget you have to have written legal contracts with all parties to particular agreed response protocols - not just a verbal deal between chiefs (EXCEPT, the first step WILL probably be a verbal deal between Chiefs and notification by both to the dispatching agency, but many of the response deals will eventually have to involve written contracts or there will likely be many big problems with the taxpayers).
These sorts of arrangements will give members of all involved companies and departments quite some measure of comfort knowing there will be quick backup; will give residents more confidence they will get a rapid fire suppression response; and might well lead to improved ISO ratings - in turn leading to reduced fire insurance premiums. (Also, local insurance agents won't have to keep telling little white lies about exactly how far away the nearest fire apparatus that can be expected to respond is housed - often a problem technically because there are no contracts between the fire companies involved - the one in whose district the insured property is located and the one whose equipment is closer.)
When the companies and departments work at working together, they can often operate just as efficiently and effectively as might a consolidated district. It ain't easy though, and that's why it so often appears to be easier to just consolidate - truly a cop-out.
By the way, when legislation was adopted around 1934 creating the concept of fire districts and fire protection districts, most Towns were rural and the fire protection was provided by - and usually paid for by - volunteer organizations, and the Town governments were not paying them much, if anything at all. The District concept made it possible to create a payment method outside the Town government, and that was often extremely important.
Enough on that angle for now though - it is fodder for more study and commentary later.