Dobbs Ferry VAC: Missed Oppurtunity

[x635 4,066]

I was reading an article in "First Responder Newspaper: New York Edition" April 2011, about the history of Dobbs Ferry VAC's 1948 Cadillac Meteor ambulance by Frank Rauhofer. It was aqquired by the newly formed Dobbs Ferry VAC in 1962 from it's previous operator, Dobbs Ferry Hospital. It was sold in 1964, to a retired Dobbs Ferry Police Officer to ultimately move to AZ.

It was found in October 2008 in a California salvage yard, still reading "Dobbs Ferry VAC" on the doors.

Members wanted to buy back this vehicle and restore it, but apparently the DFVAC board declined it as a "waste of money", and was sold on an online auction site and shipped to Europe. Even though a resident offered a place to store the vehicle and work on it, as well as storage after the resoration.

This kind of stuff ticks me off. First, there should be a proper Fire/EMS/PD museum in Westchester. Another rant for another day. History like this should not be passed over. In my opinion, again my personal opinion, they should have at least aqquired the vehicle and stored it until they found a proper home. EMS history like this is hard to find, many FD's have antique fire apparatus but many EMS agencie's don't have much to highlight EMS history. And now, quite possibly, this car is gone forever, to someplace in Europe.

I'm aware that the VAC has other financial commitments, but after talking to some people about this, there was quite a bit of people willling to step up and help out and this would cost Dobbs Ferry VAC very few dollars.

Thanks to Frank Rauhofer for highlighting this, and hope he does not mind me sharing this information here. Also, if he is a member here, I hope he'll add the photo to this thread.

[Guest alsfirefighter]

We are all entitled to our opinion...and you stated yours very well...and here is my opinion...the board did the right thing. I understand some history is important, however sooner or later they would have to find a way to store it...and that means adding to an existing building, or if they every built a new one added cost to increase the size to store it, or to pay to store it somewhere else. I've seen this happen time and time again. I also for one lose no sleep that there isn't a museum in Westchester for emergency services. Who would run it and what benefit would it have..other then getting some antique apparatus out of some firehouses or to not have the need to use taxpayer dollars to build an area to store them. Most of us need money for equipment and operational things...and sometimes its just not fiscally responsible to spend money on such things at certain times. I hope whoever bought it gives it a good future life wherever that may be.

[JohnnyOV 2]

Government, should not be spending money to restore, maintain, store any antique apparatus, or tools. It is a waste of taxpayer money imo, and irks me to see departments budgeting money year after year for it. What benefit does it give the taxpayer? Nothing.

[abaduck 123]

ALS is spot on. This isn't a matter for the board, most especially in the present economic climate.

If members felt that strongly about it, they could have had a whip-round or formed a charitable trust to acquire the vehicle privately. That this didn't happen suggests a lack of enthusiasm amongst the membership.

I'm all for preserving history, and I put my money where my mouth is; I have an entire garage and basement full of ancient computers saved from scrapyards. But I don't expect to be supported by taxpayer dollars.

Mike

[Bnechis 3,961]

Government, should not be spending money to restore, maintain, store any antique apparatus, or tools. It is a waste of taxpayer money imo, and irks me to see departments budgeting money year after year for it. What benefit does it give the taxpayer? Nothing.

You are correct, what a waste of government money to maintain any antiques (like this 125 year old antique).

Wait. History is important. I really wish My dept had not gotten rid of some of those wonderful pieces of history that all we have left is some pictures.

Since everyone has jumped on DFVAC as being a governmental agency, has anyone considered that they maybe a private not for profit corporation and not an arm of government.

Edited April 9, 2011 by Bnechis

[abaduck 123]

You are correct, what a waste of government money to maintain any antiques (like this 125 year old antique).

Wait. History is important. I really wish My dept had not gotten rid of some of those wonderful pieces of history that all we have left is some pictures.

Since everyone has jumped on DFVAC as being a governmental agency, has anyone considered that they maybe a private not for profit corporation and not an arm of government.

Oh that's a low blow Barry; difference is the gov already own that antique!

If they're a not for profit, fine - but unless they can make a case that it's part of their business, they should go right ahead and form another non-profit dedicated to preserving old ambulances...

Mike

[nycemt728 49]

I love the statue analogy!!! For the record, she's only 124. Still looks damn good for her age. I completely agree with Bnechis, the government should be involved with history and preservation. It's bad enough we lose so many things with a storied past because people either don't know or don't care. I understand the importance of budget and priorities but to simply paint with such a broad stroke is just plain short sighted. It further is upsetting when there are legitmate offers of help and interest that are ignored as cited by X635. In this case all it might have taken was a phone call...

Edited April 9, 2011 by nycemt728

[norestriction 10]

I was reading an article in "First Responder Newspaper: New York Edition" April 2011, about the history of Dobbs Ferry VAC's 1948 Cadillac Meteor ambulance by Frank Rauhofer. It was aqquired by the newly formed Dobbs Ferry VAC in 1962 from it's previous operator, Dobbs Ferry Hospital. It was sold in 1964, to a retired Dobbs Ferry Police Officer to ultimately move to AZ.

It was found in October 2008 in a California salvage yard, still reading "Dobbs Ferry VAC" on the doors.

Members wanted to buy back this vehicle and restore it, but apparently the DFVAC board declined it as a "waste of money", and was sold on an online auction site and shipped to Europe. Even though a resident offered a place to store the vehicle and work on it, as well as storage after the resoration.

This kind of stuff ticks me off. First, there should be a proper Fire/EMS/PD museum in Westchester. Another rant for another day. History like this should not be passed over. In my opinion, again my personal opinion, they should have at least aqquired the vehicle and stored it until they found a proper home. EMS history like this is hard to find, many FD's have antique fire apparatus but many EMS agencie's don't have much to highlight EMS history. And now, quite possibly, this car is gone forever, to someplace in Europe.

I'm aware that the VAC has other financial commitments, but after talking to some people about this, there was quite a bit of people willling to step up and help out and this would cost Dobbs Ferry VAC very few dollars.

Thanks to Frank Rauhofer for highlighting this, and hope he does not mind me sharing this information here. Also, if he is a member here, I hope he'll add the photo to this thread.

I was on the board at the time and Seth your info is one sided , without naming names or getting into to many details the veh purchase price was $10,000 then it would have needed $100,000 to renovate. I was originally for the plan and I actually pushed the board to do it but at the time there were many financial discrepancies with our books and there was a change of the board which took a more conservative approach with its finances.

The DFVAC has a poor record on covering calls so what ever money we had was to be put into recruiting. One last thing we threw this around the town and there was no way we were going to raise the $100,000 to restore it and that is on the low end we looked into it , also putting the veh on a residents private property was not a good decision for a Ambulance corp that has to answer to a village board.

One last thing this was over 2 and a half years ago that this all went down so why is it in the 4/11 issue is beyond me. No one was stepping up to donate to fix this car so that is not correct , we asked around for months thats how we got the $100,000 estimate along the way so there is no "quite a bit of people" that wanted to step up. They had the chance to step up and NO ONE did.

Edited April 9, 2011 by norestriction

[ny10570 745]

There are so many things worth protecting but the local VAC and VFD history doesn't really rank that high in my book. Check out the NYS museum in Albany. They are a bit focused on the capitol district but have a variety of revolving exhibit and do an excellent job with their displays. Do we need a museum for Westchetser, Putnam, Dutchess, Rockland, Orange, Ulster, and on and on?

[Guest feraldan]

I'm going to say this: norestriction is accurate in what he's saying.

History is deeply important and should be preserved, but not at the cost of accomplishing the fundamental goals of an EMS agency, mainly providing actual emergency medical care. I can think of a lot of great things an EMS agency can do with $100k and restoring that vehicle would be about last on the list, especially for one stuck in rough seas. The board made the right call for that agency, at that time.

[x635 4,066]

I was on the board at the time and Seth your info is one sided

Thank you for the correct and factual information from your side, much appreciated. I know DFVAC has always had financial restrictions with their response fleet, and as with most agencies, staffing challenges, as well as all the other things an EMS agency has to worry about. I was just presenting the information that I had, and glad someone chimed in, because that's part of what this forum is about.

It's too bad though, still, that no one who wanted to restore it, whether in Dobbs Ferry or elsewhere, won the

auction and it's now in Europe.

Never noticed, but there are photos on DFVAC's site:

http://www.dfvac.org/Dobbs_Ferry_Volunteer_Ambulance_Corps/Photos.html

New thread created about the musuem debate:

[Bnechis 3,961]

Government, should not be spending money to restore, maintain, store any antique apparatus, or tools. It is a waste of taxpayer money imo, and irks me to see departments budgeting money year after year for it. What benefit does it give the taxpayer? Nothing.

Government should be very mindful of how it spends taxpayer money. But are their not benefits to promoting esprit de corps? We do that in many ways: By having dress uniforms, dept patches, company logos and/ slogans, awards for heroic actions, Giant flags hung from ladders along with a flag drapped coffin and Honor guards for our departed brothers. Parades and open house events. The fire bell on the rig or the gold leaf & murals. While many take this to extremes, what benefit to the tax payer are these things?

Their is value in these items, in building up an organization. If not why dont we paint every ambulance white with an orange strip (as in the original KKK standard). why not 1 color for fire trucks? wouldn't that save taxpayer money?

Esprit de corps

Morale, also known as esprit de corps when discussing the morale of a group, is an intangible term used to describe the capacity of people to maintain belief in an institution or a goal, or even in oneself and others. The second term applies particularly to military personnel and to members of sports teams, but is also applicable in business and in any other organizational context, particularly in times of stress or controversy. While the term is often used by authority figures as a generic value judgment of the willpower, obedience and self-discipline of a group tasked with performing duties assigned by a superior, more accurately it refers to the level of individual faith in the collective benefit gained by such individual sacrifices.

According to Alexander H. Leighton, "morale is the capacity of a group of people to pull together persistently and consistently in pursuit of a common purpose".

Note: I am not knocking DFVAC for this missed oppurtunity. They debated what was best for them. My point is how fast everyone is willing to write off the value of this concept.

Edited April 9, 2011 by Bnechis