markmets415

Sometimes having people that are not FF is better than having a guy with preconceived ideas or who thinks they know better than the chief. In cases where the commish is not an FF, they should be advised by the chief of department who should be the subject matter expert on the fire service.
The board should consider the needs of the department and the demands of the taxpayers and choose the best course of action with both in mind.

GAW6, excellent post. I wanted to clarify something; I hope my comments did not offend anyone, they were simply made in haste with a lot of anger towords a few of our commissioners who are seemingly trying to turn our department into a business. They get mad when we dont turn a profit....and seem to not care that we have equipment needs. We have an ambulance that Im amazed even starts any more, and engine that failed pump test three times and they still throw money into it and hope it works, an old rescue truck held together with bondo and duct tape, a number of sets of gear about to go over the 10 year mark, a bunch of SCBA bottles that will need to be replaced soon...they just dont want to spend money where it is needed and complain about it. We cant provide the service we need to without this equipment but we cant explain that to some of these members because they have no emergency services experience, and its frustrating.
I am glad to see you work well with your board and that you understand these issues at least, members like you would be a welcome sight, its just some of the people I have to deal with that bothers me. Hope I did not offend anyone.
Stay Safe

Meetings are open to the public and you do not have to be a taxpayer to vote on items such as resolutions, all you have to be is a registered voter within that fire district to be heard. Our district adopted a public comment section to their monthly meetings just for that very reason "public comments". Sadly it is the same people that attend monthly, the fire commissioners and a few officers, even when we went through the purchasing of the new engine that failed on the first vote, no one from the public attended a meeting, once in a while we get a "hot" topic and a few individuals show up. I personally would like more people from the public to be on the board, instead of just members or past members, I've found that many times some of our own members that haven't seen a fire or been an active member for a great length of time really have no idea what is going on in today's emergency services either so are they really an "asset"? I think not. I would like to have five members that a are financially responsible and not "yes" members to the Chief. As always like you did above, do your homework ahead of time, be prepared, justify your expenditures and make a presentation to the members that have been voted in to over see how the taxes are spent, as well as the public, chances are if you are prepared, you should have no problem with getting approval for items, at least that's been my experience sitting at the other side of the table.

My dept and district have no drama, which is rather unusual. We are a cohesive team, and no, the commissioners do not "steamroller" the chief, nor does the chief/dept create problems and vise versa. Our dept isnt huge, we dont run tons of calls, and we are a pretty decent family. The Chief doesnt ask for crazy things, and the commissioners do our best with in our small budget to get what we need to provide a high level of fire protection to the town.. Our meetings are open (as all fire districts in NYS meetings are), and we have one citizen that shows up to show his support for the dept/district. Honestly, I wish more citizens would get involved to see how we operate. I think all they really care about is that the big red truck shows up when they have a problem so we can fix it.

As a "civilian" fire commissioner, I feel I must respond to this post. Although I have 25 years experience in emergency services, I am not a firefighter and know nothing regarding trucks or firefighting. I rely heavily on my fellow commissioners who are firefighters/Ex-Chiefs/Ex-FDNY.
You are probably asking, "what purpose do you serve then"? In my position on the Board, I handle the insurance and I am the LOSAP Administrator. As a former Treasurer of the District, I also help out with the fiscal responsibilities.
As said previously, we not only have to answer to the tax payers, we have to answer to NYS. We have an outside professional audit done every year which is forwarded to the State Comptroller's office.
To have a Board the consists of all "civilians" would be ridiculous. I know of a neighboring District that has a majority of "civilians" on their Board and they have been spending more money on "consultants" than anything else. The "consultants" should be your experienced members, not some "white collar" person who knows nothing about the fire service.
I am very glad that I have four very experienced members of our department sitting beside me.

Rig looks great. Good luck with it!!

Exactly what markmets said..

Meetings are open to the public and you do not have to be a taxpayer to vote on items such as resolutions, all you have to be is a registered voter within that fire district to be heard. Our district adopted a public comment section to their monthly meetings just for that very reason "public comments". Sadly it is the same people that attend monthly, the fire commissioners and a few officers, even when we went through the purchasing of the new engine that failed on the first vote, no one from the public attended a meeting, once in a while we get a "hot" topic and a few individuals show up. I personally would like more people from the public to be on the board, instead of just members or past members, I've found that many times some of our own members that haven't seen a fire or been an active member for a great length of time really have no idea what is going on in today's emergency services either so are they really an "asset"? I think not. I would like to have five members that a are financially responsible and not "yes" members to the Chief. As always like you did above, do your homework ahead of time, be prepared, justify your expenditures and make a presentation to the members that have been voted in to over see how the taxes are spent, as well as the public, chances are if you are prepared, you should have no problem with getting approval for items, at least that's been my experience sitting at the other side of the table.

Meetings are open to the public and you do not have to be a taxpayer to vote on items such as resolutions, all you have to be is a registered voter within that fire district to be heard. Our district adopted a public comment section to their monthly meetings just for that very reason "public comments". Sadly it is the same people that attend monthly, the fire commissioners and a few officers, even when we went through the purchasing of the new engine that failed on the first vote, no one from the public attended a meeting, once in a while we get a "hot" topic and a few individuals show up. I personally would like more people from the public to be on the board, instead of just members or past members, I've found that many times some of our own members that haven't seen a fire or been an active member for a great length of time really have no idea what is going on in today's emergency services either so are they really an "asset"? I think not. I would like to have five members that a are financially responsible and not "yes" members to the Chief. As always like you did above, do your homework ahead of time, be prepared, justify your expenditures and make a presentation to the members that have been voted in to over see how the taxes are spent, as well as the public, chances are if you are prepared, you should have no problem with getting approval for items, at least that's been my experience sitting at the other side of the table.

We are accountable to the taxpayers, members of the department, as well as the state comptrollers office to name a few. And if I may ask can you elaborate a little more when you say drama stems from or is blamed on fire commissioners? I see a lot of drama and it is usually disgruntled people that like to throw gasoline on things and make things bigger than they really are.

Shame this does not appeare to be open to FD's. I can think of a handfull of searched for at risk subjects in the past 3-4 years that my department alone has assisted in....

Mark on the side mounted fire extinguisher, we have the same on Engine 58 but found that is to much room for the extinguisher to side within the compartment so we made a cardboard spacer to cut out the space behind the extinguisher and make up about 2 in.

A few from today, just waiting for the programming update from International to be completed and then we shall take delivery.
Front bumper compartment, they added the small mount for the silicone spray bottle to help with the raised gaskets on the 6" Storz connections

and the above compartment covered

A few from today, just waiting for the programming update from International to be completed and then we shall take delivery.
Front bumper compartment, they added the small mount for the silicone spray bottle to help with the raised gaskets on the 6" Storz connections

and the above compartment covered

End of the day and week shots sent from the shop, the guys are working tomorrow to complete the punch list from our last visit.
Hose bed lighting supplied are 4- Whelan 3" round White/Red LED installed at each end of the bed in each partitioned area, the partitions are adjustable as well, under the photos of the lights installed is a link to show what these lights are like, it will be nice to be able to change the lights to red or red/white at night so they are not so bright when packing hose and the lights are shining directly in your eyes. Yes I see the bolt sticking up in the second photo for the hose bed divider, we'll get that corrected, don't want any hose getting hung-up


http://www.sirennet.com/wh3s.html
The cab brow light bracket was painted flat black from the aluminum at our request to help reduce flash back from the inner light bar, the light bar was also tilted down, these two items eliminated the flash back

Looking down past the CAFS air compressor fan you can see some of the components for the CAFS systems as well as the vents placed at the ends of the 3 suction compartments to help keeping this area vented.

Fire extinguisher placed and rubber wheel well opening installed, we went with the rubber to match the cab.

The past few days I spent in Austin/Round Rock/Georgetown, TX (and no, not the ACL Music Festival, to visit my mom). I got these photos while out and about.
Port Authority-JFK International Airport EMS

jetBlue tails at sunrise

City Of Georgetown, TX Engine 3-2013 Pierce Contender

Georgetown FD Station 5 (New additional station, opened 2012) Engine 5, Truck 5, Brush 1 in addition EOC and Fire Training Center

Georgetown FD Station 2 (Replaced former Station 2, opened 2013) Engine 2, Battalion 1

City Of Georgetown, TX Car 64- 2013 Ford Police Interceptor SUV

Round Rock PD Car E76, 2012 Chevrolet Tahoe PPV

City Of Austin Medical MCI/Evacuation Bus 2012 Bluebird/Sartin

Austin-Travis County EMS Mueller Station 2 International/Wheeled Coach dual medic ambulances and ESU-1 (Pierce Contender EMS Rescue)

City Of Austin Engine 5 2013 Pierce Impel

City Of Austin Chief Of Staff 2013 Ford Police Interceptor SUV

Southwest Boeing 737 w/ State Of Arizona livery

Bastrop FD Engine 41 - Ferrara

City Of Georgetown, TX Truck 5

Texas National Guard Surplus Cargo Trucl

Scott and White Round Rock Hospital ER w/ Scott And White 2013 Chevrolet/Wheeled Coach ambulances

the $25 dollars to display is for the museum has nothing to do with the firehouse that is helping to host the event its actually a fund raiser for the museum which is trying to get established in dutchess county

Feel free to add any that aren't posted.
South Salem Fire Department:
October 12th 2013
11am - 1500hrs
1190 Rt 35 South Salem, NY
Bedford Hills Fire Department:
October 13th 2013
1300hrs - 1600hrs
332 Bedford Road, Bedford Hills NY
Katonah Fire Department:
October 13th 2013
1300hrs - 1500hrs
65 Bedford Road, Katonah NY
Town Of Mamaroneck Fire Department:
October 19th 2013
12pm - 1500hrs
205 Weaver Street, Larchmont NY
Brewster Fire Department:
October 13th 2013
12pm - 1600hrs
501 North Main Street, Brewster NY

End of the day and week shots sent from the shop, the guys are working tomorrow to complete the punch list from our last visit.
Hose bed lighting supplied are 4- Whelan 3" round White/Red LED installed at each end of the bed in each partitioned area, the partitions are adjustable as well, under the photos of the lights installed is a link to show what these lights are like, it will be nice to be able to change the lights to red or red/white at night so they are not so bright when packing hose and the lights are shining directly in your eyes. Yes I see the bolt sticking up in the second photo for the hose bed divider, we'll get that corrected, don't want any hose getting hung-up


http://www.sirennet.com/wh3s.html
The cab brow light bracket was painted flat black from the aluminum at our request to help reduce flash back from the inner light bar, the light bar was also tilted down, these two items eliminated the flash back

Looking down past the CAFS air compressor fan you can see some of the components for the CAFS systems as well as the vents placed at the ends of the 3 suction compartments to help keeping this area vented.

Fire extinguisher placed and rubber wheel well opening installed, we went with the rubber to match the cab.

A great video showing just some of WHFD's training they have their junior's complete.

View a previous thread about their Junior Corp.
http://www.emtbravo.net/index.php/topic/47918-west-harrison-junior-firefighters-video/?hl=%2Bwest+%2Bharrison
Keep up the excellent work WHFD!

A few sent from the shop today, the doors on the rear our now completed
Doors completed and installed, now awaiting the chevrons, shown here closed, you can also see they added a diamond plate kick panel just above the upper 8" step.

In the open position

This one is kind of blurry but these are the LED lights we added to the front two 2 1/2" discharges, which will also help light up the area in and around the pump.

End of the day shots sent from the shop, hose bed grating is in and the compartment are topped with diamond plate for the drip edge and appearance, the item that is boxed in on the right front of the hose bed is the CAFS air compressor cooling fan.
Yep even the hose bed grating is yellow



And one other shot of the ladder storage area with the three lengths of 10' 2 1/2" suction, the 9' and 10' folding ladders and long tools will be placed at the station once the rig is delivered

The last of the fabrication is completed and the hose bed cover installed and chevrons are almost completed, one small piece as you can see is getting placed, looks like HOPEFULLY an early next week delivery, sent from the shop so these are a bit blurry.
Hose bed cover, I like how they left the netting over the CAFS compressor cooling fan.

Rear chevrons being installed over the ladder and suction doors

Not to toot his horn but, he is one cool cat.
Whitey

Everett is indeed a very good leader. Good command of scenes, and good morale booster for the whole department. I look forward to seeing the new BRAT in person.