Noula

The wall you speak of wasn't built overnight. It's interesting to see what someone who doesn't have a dog in the fight (so to speak) thinks of the situation. In the grand scheme of things, it is kind of ridiculous to have a makeshift garage less than a mile from a fairly large firehouse. That being said, I'm not a member of that firehouse and when engine 8 and 9 were deployed the situation was particularly hostile. So, I'd agree with you, but short of brute force I am not sure how you make the stragglers place nice in the sandbox. And side note, if you think their present housing is bad, you should have seen the crappy tents with christmas tree lighting they were in initially... ouch.

Also, to clarify, the chief you mention is an assistant chief. His dad is the chief of the department, which tells you how long that 26 year old has been involved in the fire service (probably, like my daughter, before he could walk).

Man... dispatchers are bitching about starting at 41k a year? Try being an EMT starting at around 21-22k/year. And that involves lots of carrying heavy patients/equipment around. Medics do a bit better but that's after about a year of 90+ hour weeks managing class rotations and work and even then new medics make about 41k/year. Damn... clearly I got into the wrong end of emergency services :-P

Oh and most dispatchers I know are affiliated with city or county so they have city/county benefits. My company's health insurance costs way too much to buy into and doesn't pay a dime until you pay $2500 out of pocket. So you know, feel like your glass is half full now. It could always be worse, you could be EMS.

Noula, I appreciate your input. There has not been too much opinion from a member of your Department offered here. Although I have significant disagreement with your points, I do think it is important to try and understand where you are coming from.

I will add a few personal thoughts-

It is quite sad that there is such a negative tone directed at the Glenbrook Fire Department. It appears to me that when their career personnel were laid-off and Glenbrook rejected the City's initial proposal, they were embraced by other volunteer Departments for their decision.

After evaluating their position and accepting an agreement with the City, they (GFD) are now almost as hated as Local 786 and Stamford Fire and Rescue (perhaps more?). What is the honest rationale for this? Am I to believe that there is substance for the bashing OR is this merely black-balling for trying to negotiate a reasonable future for themselves?

Now that Glenbrook has been operating under their new agreement for more than 16 months, what is the downside for them?

Really?

What today, has negatively harmed the Glenbrook Fire Department?

Better yet, since we are in the business of public safety (I believe), what has negatively impacted the residents of the Glenbrook service area?

Please let me know, from my limited vantage point, I have not seen it. Perhaps, there is more to the story that I am not aware of?

I can understand your frustration with the City, I personally negotiated labor contracts with many of the same players for more than 7 years. Contrary to popular belief amongst many in the volunteer community, our relationship (the IAFF) has been far from harmonious or amicable. There was plenty of impasse and certainly; serious disagreement.

But, I also came to learn that at some point, the members and the organization was going to have to find a resolution. To continue into an arbitrated setting or for a prolonged time, was self destructive to the job, the employees, and eventually those who we worked for. Unfortunately when we did settle, we usually did so with some concession from our original position. I came to know of that as bargaining.

I have stated before and I will state it again, I am not a fan of anyone being held hostage in negotiations (I have sat at the same table). However, the parties need to look beyond personal vendetta, fiefdoms, and EGOs and find a workable resolution.

I do not believe that the continued bashing of one agency that has found a way to do so (GFD), is putting yourselves on the path to do that.

My apologies for the long winded response. I will reserve additional comment, awaiting for your (or anyone else's) thoughts.

Thanks again for your opinion.

Matt Palmer

Just to point out, I can only speak for myself. I'm not speaking for any department I'm with or any other members or volunteer firefighters. So, take it with that route.

I realize I sound a bit bitchy, accusing Glenbrook of playing firemen once a week. Truth is, it's not really their fault. Their department and leadership accepted that they can't provide a reliable response without paid staff and took the mayor's deal. That's fine, but since I've been in the volunteer fire service Glenbrook volunteers don't get out the door for much of anything. A few major fires in Stamford they've had truck 31 relocate to headquarters and sit there for a few hours but that's about it. The anger or frustration you hear in people constantly throwing Glenbrook under the bus isn't so much directed at the individual volunteers but at the system, the city and the situation.

I could understand training a volunteer house to be a specialized truck company, an auxiliary unit that you can count on in a time of need. Thing is, Glenbrook hasn't proven to me they can be counted on whatsoever. They don't typically respond to reports of structure fires in their own district, be it 2pm or 2am. If you're going to go through all the trouble to train a "reserve" unit as you will, then you need to know they're going to show up. Truth is, if you need a truck five to ten times a year I'm sure working out a decent mutual aid agreement with Darien would function just as well and save Stamford $160,000.

In addition, I don't think Glenbrook receiving full funding would cause nearly as much aggravation if other departments, that make way more than 5% of their calls and offer 3+ other pieces of apparatus didn't have their funding slashed to inoperable levels.

As far as a compromise between the city and the volunteers, I think it takes two sides to come to the table and work out an agreement. I came in after this mess had already started and I haven't heard first hand nor sat in negotiation sessions with the city, but the impression I get from various sources is that there is no compromise being offered. Either do it this way or we take your funding away. Blackmail is also not a sign of compromise or willingness to negotiate. I would hope that if the city brought a willingness to compromise and negotiate to the table the volunteer departments would listen. So far, that doesn't appear to have been the case.

Lets get real, Cogs. With the exception of Belltown, there is NO volunteer response. Having TOR respond with a 2 man engine 15 minutes into a call and having Long Ridge respond with 1 paid driver is USELESS.

STOP BEING REDICULOUS!!!!!!

Everyone should get on board like Glenbrook. Do any of you realize that $163,000 is better than $20,000 per firehouse.

OPEN YOUR EYES. The money is not coming back unless they play ball!!!!!!

A 2 man engine crew can tag a hydrant and do a forward lay in. A 2 man crew responding in a tanker to a fire in an area without hydrants.... priceless. Even one guy responding on an engine that carries 1000+ gallons of water, very useful in an area without hydrants. 1000 gallons is another 8ish minutes of water on the fire. Useless? No.

It's ironic that you say, "there is no volunteer response" (besides Belltown) and rush to bash TOR and Long Ridge. Glenbrook had a reported structure fire IN THEIR DISTRICT yesterday and Truck 31 did not respond. All the training in the world will do you no good if your trained members don't respond to calls. If you want to bash a department for not responding to calls, Glenbrook is your poster child.

Personally, I don't want my taxes to pay for a dozen or so guys to play fireman once a week without serving any real purpose or function. But that's just me. You're entitled to your opinion.

A. Transport the patient as soon as possible to the nearest appropriate hospital.

If you are two blocks away from a hospital, any hospital, do you think its better to go to that facility & stabalize, then move to a trama center or put in a ambulance and drive 15-20 minutes, then try to save them? Give me your HONEST opinion, not NYS protocal.

No offense, but it sounds to me like you don't have much if any experience in medicine, much less emergency medicine. I know shows like ER show trauma means someone bleeding out every possible place, with crush injuries, two collapsed lungs and major airway compromise. Well, I'm relatively new, but I've yet to encounter a trauma patient like that. There's a certain amount of "stabilization" one can do in the ambulance. If you manage the pt's injuries/condition then another 15-30 minutes to a different hospital isn't really going to change much. What will hurt the patient is going to a facility that can't treat their injuries, having to wait to get triaged, wait to get assessed by those doctors, then wait for a transport bus (usually at least an hour from when it's called) to go to the appropriate facility.

You are also spoiled by living in an area dense with hospitals. The fact that in westchester county the closest trauma center is usually only 20-30 minutes away is fantastic. Go live in other parts of the country and sometimes the closest HOSPITAL period is 30-40 minutes away.

All in all, you can say you want opinions instead of protocol, but any EMT/medic that ignore protocol and does what they think will wind up with their license revoked sooner or later. Protocols are there for a reason.

I think it just indicates how lazy most americans are. Lifting and hard work? Low pay? Of course there must be no upside.

Jobs are so person specific. Some people might love working in an office with little social interaction and the glare of a computer screen. Some people would prefer to work outside, do physical labor and interact with people on a regular basis.

At the end of the day, some survey really isn't going to say much about what job is right for you.

If you're looking for more information on the house, check out zillow: http://www.zillow.com/homes/map/1181-Rockr...tamford,-ct_rb/

Approx $2.5mil house, 5 bedrooms, 7.5 baths, 9717 sq ft

And Brandon Jacobs helps rescue my fantasy team from Warner's terrible numbers. Go gmen.

In today's Advocate:

Both articles by the Advocate concering the Mill Spring fire only go to show that the Advocate fails on many levels when it comes to reporting fairly and accurately about, well, much of anything.

I do! I tell my accountant how many calls I do a year, and he takes it from there. Of course it doesn't cover trips back and forth for meetings, drills, etc., but at least it is something!

On the Fire District side, at our Organizational Meeting in January, we use the term "Federal allowance" when setting the $ for reimbursement.

If you already itemize, then it definitely can't hurt to figure our your points/call attendance x mileage from your house x 2 x 0.40 at the very least.

Unfortunately, I live about a mile from the firehouse so it's a whopping $0.80 per call deduction. I make a lot of calls, but I'd have to make every single call for the whole city and then some for it make itemizing worthwhile.

All in all, it's a step in the right direction, but kind of dumb. Why not just automatically go by IRS standards?

Too bad this law does not apply to other faccets of health care -- then insurance companies will have total control over health costs. :angry: BTW, this is not a coment on the billing, or anything else, just the law as reported in the paper.

I don't know what books you're reading out of, but contracts similar to this do apply to almost all facets of health care. For example if you go to your doctor and your doctor typically charges about $125 for a visit. Well, if he/she takes your insurance, they've agreed to a set rate with your insurance company, which is say $75 per visit. If you go to your doctor and he sends you a bill for $50 to make up for the difference, he's in violation of his contract with the insurance company and (in most states) the law as well.

Unfortunately, most people see medical bills and pay them by default so it's relatively easy for a doctor/hospital/etc. to get away with doing this. That and if you don't resolve this bogus bill... it WILL go to collections and bite you in the a**. Fortunately, you can usually resolve it with a quick phone call.

Not to mention, if you don't have any health insurance, all medical bills are negotiable. They'd rather see at least a good percentage of the cash you owe sooner than sending the bill to collections and winding up with a big and expensive fight about it.

Was wondering if anyone on here was planning to do the tunnel to towers run: http://www.tunneltotowersrun.org/

For those that haven't heard of it, it's a 5k (3.1 mile) run/walk starting in brooklyn and going through the battery tunnel to ground zero to commemorate Stephen Siller, who on 9/11 ran that same route to get to the towers wearing or carrying his turnout gear. Unfortunately, he's one of the many that lost his life on that day. The run raises money for various charities, most notable is the pediatric unit of the NYC burn center.

Last year the run drew over 20,000 people.

We always talk in our firehouse about recruitment. The truth of the matter is that most of our GOOD members generally show up on their own, unprovoked. Those that we talk into joining usually don't pan out. Anyone else get this impression?

20% of the people do 80% of the work. I don't care how many members you have in your firehouse, that's just how it goes. You never know who the "good" members are going to be, but that's what why everyone comes in as probationary. But the more probationary members you have join, the more likely you'll have more productive firefighters.

First off when I was young there was usually at least one full time parent (or grandparent) to instill and reinforce core values into their kids...thank God. Today both parents HAVE to work to simply put a meal on the table, so kids are left to their own devices and influences.

I'm sorry but I'm really sick of this being an excuse. Both of my parents worked full-time. My dad was also on call a good amount of time and my mom had kind of odd hours. They struggled to make ends meet for a really long time. But somehow they both found time to be excellent parents.

Truth is, it's not a matter of working or time. It's a matter of caring enough about something to give it the time it deserves.

I'm sorry but that is a retarded statement. Next, you will have new probies saying to themselves, well if the instructor doesnt have to wear all of this stuff why do I and then there go their eyes and fingers. Think before you write.

If you have probies with that attitude you've got bigger problems than proper PPE. And that's coming from a probie.

Does anyone have any advice for EMT-B employment in Fairfield County? Specifically something part-time.

I'd be willing to travel to Westchester County (it's only 15 minutes away), but I have a connecticut EMT cert.

I reviewed the articles ect relating to this whole mess, and as I understand it the consolidation is supposed to save money and provide paid coverage 24/7 to all of Stamford fire districts save LRFCo. According to Malloy and Co. the refusal of the BFD and TORFD to accept this "plan" resulted in their budgets being slashed 90%. To be fair the lack of salaries ect for paid FFs would justify a considerable reduction in those budgets. But I'm sure all of you can understand that $20,000 or $40,000 for fuel for the rigs is not enough either. There are other expenses involved in running a firehouse, and being able to meet the needs of the community such as training, maintainence of rigs and facilities, ect.

So here's one for you to chew on that is as realistic and productive as cutting the VFDs budget by 90%.

Since by the virtue of the Mayor's own statements this is about money and safety, why doesn't the SFRD staff take a pay and benefit cut of say....Ohh, maybe about 15-20%. This will allow the hiring of additional FFs to cover each district with at least one 4 man engine or truck company each, north of the "border" with no increase in the budget. Win - win as I see it. The SFRD gets more firefighters and the residents are therefore safer, and it won't cost the taxpayers anymore than it does now. If the MAIN factors in all this are public safety and the budget, than there is no logical argument.

Cogs

Just to clarify, the 90% cut was to the operating budget. The operating budget pays for things like fuel for the rigs, heat for the firehouse, electricity, gear, equipment, etc. The operating budget had and still has absolutely nothing to do with paid staff.

I think this small note went completely unnoticed as far as I can tell, but I figured this would be the place to post it:

http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/ci_9838188

Stamford Fire & Rescue is seeking an additional appropriation of $194,000 to cover a shortfall stemming from delays in bringing all the paid firefighters from Belltown and Glenbrook fire departments under one labor contract.

City officials estimated an overtime projection of $2.2 million in the third quarter, which would have left an overtime deficit of $75,000.

But overtime spending exceeded the projection because the fire budget was based on merging Belltown, Glenbrook and Turn of River fire departments near the beginning of last fiscal year.

Belltown and Glenbrook firefighters didn't become employees of Stamford Fire & Rescue until earlier this year. Turn of River firefighters made the transition last week. Fire Chief Robert McGrath also wants $46,000 for firefighters seeking pay for holidays instead of paid time off as their contract stipulates.