boca1day

Remember that when you take your department car to the NYS Chief's Show at Turning Stone Casino. And you guys are worried about a commissioner's car at Woodbury Commons.

There is no public perception IMO one way or another. the public does not really care. Nor do the public officials.
We are the only ones who care. Usually some bitter member is the person who makes it a problem.
Yeh, I know... 9 years as a chief officer and I never had a problem taking my town issued car to work ( grant it was in the next town and I did respond to when I could. Ya know who made it a problem, a member that was disgruntled. He went out of his way to document via photos the 3 chiefs cars at work, at shopping etc. Needless today, one car sits in the chiefs driveway while he is at work the other two sit in the FD parking lot 18 hours a day and only used when a member wants to go to the pizza joint.
As one of my mentors and favorite Chiefs once said..." WE have met the enemy and WE are them".

Other than the taxpayers, who wouldn't know the difference of what type of vehicle it is or why it's out of district, the only people who really seem to care are US idiots on EMTB! Everyone who has or has had a take home car has abused the privelidge in some way, shape, or form. Some people take it to the grocery store, others take their kids to soccer practice, and others go to a fancy restaurant in the next county. But, who really cares? The abuse of the take home vehicle, both career and volunteer, has been going on for years, and will continue forever on into the future because the only people who can legally stop it (the taxpayers) aren't going to take the five minutes out of their days to write to the commissioners about the "vehicle" found three counties away! I know some of you here "ovey the rules" of the take home car, but face it, any one that has a free ride is going to use it.
I just find it to be a moot point for us to argue over when we're not the people who can fix it.

WHO CARES? Seriously............FDs in different counties have different rules when it comes to department or district vehicles and how far out of their response area they are permitted to go.
As long as the Chief, Commissioner or whoever has permission to take a vehicle out of the area, then it is not an issue.

Not making excuses...just an observation. If you are really concerned than call the department and ask why he was there.

There is enough waste of taxpayer resources in my own district to be worried about someone 100 miles away.

Our mechanics are really looking forward to the KME's. I think they all bought brand new cars in preparation for the delivery.

Engine 561

Quint 565

Engine 563

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.

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.

The law isn't that old and why is necessary to turn this into a liberal government thing, seems this is has turned into more of a political complaint then anything else, you asked why police vehicle do not have blue lights facing forward, you were given the exact reason why then reply you already know? So now we've gone from blue lights facing forward now to guns, drugs, sorry you keep saying NC this NC that then please why not then move to Greensboro???? This is my first post to question another posters comments or motive but clearly this seems more then about blue lights and please I cannot speak for the moderators, let's keep the political BS off the site!!!! Blast away as you may!!!!!!!!

Valid point, particularly with the loss of tax revinue from the fire (& potential loss in tourism) and the lawsuits that may come from the lost properties against the municipality for failing to replace the salt water damaged electricals under the boardwalk. A clear violation of standards and it appears the cause of the fire.

Yeah it would have made a huge difference. You would have had someone who didn't win a popularity contest actually in the position and who was trained to an exact level.

Maybe everyone just needs to stop bashing all companies. We all do the same job no matter who we work for. EMStar is a company from pennsylvania who took over care 1 who took over hudson valley paramedics who took over empire state ambulance. All it is a name change for them. Transcare is the 3rd largest comapny out there. AMR being number 1 but again who cares. We still do the same job and that is take care of our communities. And I think that everyone forgets that.

For those of you who remember the classic American LaFrance Century series, and who were as deeply disappointed as I was by Code 3's awful attempt to replicate them, have I got a "kitbash" for you!
To my eyes and many others, the Code 3 model wasn't even close to the original LaFrance. In fact, Code 3's botched Century, followed by an even worse 900 series tiller, are what put the first nails in their coffin. The most obvious flaws with the Code 3 were that the cab had a flat roof, a flat nose, and a straight windshield. A friend on a hobby board that I belong to suggested "squeezing" the Code 3 cab in a vise to get the roof curve. So I figured "why not?" and tried it.
The vise certainly improved it, but I had to fashion a brow over the windshield to catch the tapering effect of the Century's classic lines. Next, I had to grind down the original cab (the Code 3 was too tall) and widen the doors by filling the gaps in the casting, and scoring new ones with a razor saw. Finally, I had to scratch build a whole new windshield. Anyway, I have been pecking away at this master for a while, and it's just about ready for resin casting.

This is a factory-fresh Code 3, which any old time buff can see is a disaster.

This is after I stripped one and gave it a squeeze in a vise, then added the stiffener around the rear of the cab and the brow to the roofline, over the windshield.

The cab is beginning to look better. I filed down the original windshield, but ultimately would replace it with a scratch-built one.

This is the new nose and roofline, and the new scratch-built windshield. I am going to vacuum-form a new windshield from this one, and thus have a nice clean copy. The crappy one-piece clear parts that were headlights have been removed and the holes filled in. The front nozzle and trash line tray have also been removed. I dumped the clunky and out of scale original bumper, the new bumper is scratch-built.

A lot of adjustments were necessary to get the modified cab to work with what's left of the original Code 3 model. With installed wipers and new body mouldings, the cab is ready for casting. The windshield with the wipers will be vacuum-formed as one piece.

These are 2.4mm Swarovski crystal rhinestones, which on the final casting will serve as headlights. They are a big improvement over the plastic parts that Code 3 originally used. The "jewelled headlights" were one of the things about the old Corgis that really charmed me as a child.

I haven't cast or painted it yet, but I was curious to get an idea of how it will look. This is a simple photo manipulation using Windows Paint.

So, Westchester, you've been a member here for a month or so , welcome.
How many years have you been around Irvington?
What about the 15 years prior to Dobbs Ferry hiring paid personnel when Irvington covered more calls in Dobbs than they did in Irvington?
Maybe Irvington can back charge Dobbs for all of the calls and they would have enough money to hire paid personnel?

I find it interesting how many people are blaming the barge in this incident, but yet those people do not seem to understand that the operator of the speed boat was drunk. They went to the restaurant were the bartender said it appeared that they were drinking before they got there, proceeded to have more drinks, then left on their boat and headed for Tarrytown most likely to drink some more.
Meanwhile people say the lights on the barge are not bright enough, but yet I can seem them from Sleepy Hollow, and other people say they can see them from Piermont. Lets place blame were it belongs, To the Operator who was drunk piloting a speed boat at night, not the barge which was just sitting there being a barge lighted to US Coast Guard Standards. The construction company stated they will put more lights on the barges now, hmmm wonder how many people will complain now that it is too bright, and bring law suits for that.

Trust me, people feel that it's ok to pull up to a marked car and talk and text so they aren't going to be on the lookout for unmarked cars.
These cars are purchased from the state contract and the prices to the PD are not as costly as it is to the general public.
Even if they are a few inches higher, they are patrol vehicles and will be used for other purposes, not just traffic enforcement. The NYSP is always obtaining new vehicles and these will just be a little higher.
The increased summons revenue will help pay for many of these vehicle.
Lastly, if this idea is one of the dumbest thing you've heard since being on this site then you obviously don't read some of the posts that carefully.

Captain Morris was my Captain at Ladder 28 and at Rescue 1. It was an honor and a privilege to have worked for him. As a "proby" in L28, I made a mistake at a fire and thought for sure he was going to rip me apart for it. Instead he said "do you know what you did wrong, did you learn from it, and will you never make the mistake again?". That is the essence of leadership. Last night at his "Last Tour Party", I reminded him of a conversation we had back in L-28 after he had turned down Battalion Chief for the final time and I asked him why and his response back then was "I still have 10 miles of hallways to crawl down and doors to force". Last night I asked if he had made the 10 miles of hallways and he said he came close but the clock ran out. I congratulate the Captain on his retirement and thank him for letting me serve in his companies. As a friend said to me the other day: "the man had a lot of influence on my fire department career".

No one is questioning your father-in-law's qualifications. I'm sure he's a very able attorney. What he probably doesn't know, just as you don't and I don't, and everyone else here doesn't know, is the specifics of this case. You said the "cop had no right to search the magazine". That's a very definitive statement. There is no way for you, your father-in-law- or me to know that based on this newspaper article. The only way you could say that with 100% certainty is if your father-in-law is personally involved in this case. Is that the case here? If it is, such as he's involved in this arrest or prosecution, he probably shouldn't be discussing it with you, and if he is, you shouldn't be posting it on a public forum. If he's just assuming the officers had an unlawful search, that's different from saying the "cop had no right to search the magazine". And your right, there is no doubt as to the classification of the law. The uncertainty lies in the application. But, you know that right?
(P.S. It's a Class "B" Misdemeanor, not a Class "D" Felony, so I might suggest you update your Penal Law.)

You and your "attorney slash LE Commissioner Father in law" got all that out of that article posted above? Given the scant details, it's impossible to know what happened at that car stop. What if the search was by consent? If it was, there's no Forth Amendment violation. I have no idea if it was by consent or not, but since the article doesn't give us the details, it's impossible to form an educated opinion. We need more details to decide.

Helicopper,
While I understand serving the public can be a little frustrating, isnt that part of the job? I was nowhere near the accident, do not know the area that well, but...
If roads are closed down, and it is the PD closing those roads or at the point where the road is closed to keep the public out, is it too much to expect them to be at least a little bit courteous or helpful? I doubt everyone who got caught in the traffic knew a back way around it or had GPS to help them.
I know you and many othe LEO's feel there is an anti cop bias here (maybe there is), but to dismiss the complaint of the member above as the public are morons and poor drivers is a little disingenuous. You are not shy about jumping in on fire topics, so here is my first jumping in to an LEO topic: If you are at a barricade of a closed road, at least be outside of your car and try to be helpful to the public. If at such time you feel the need to draw your revolver, ask for another car to relieve you.

I have depended on "sfrd.." for much information regarding many depts. He is a buff and a volunteer firefighter. I don't think it is in his nature to try and impress you. He has a wealth of knowledge about many departments throughout the northeast. Is he right 100 % ? Maybe not. Maybe he wasn't right this time, But if I was a gambling man, I'd put my money on what he says. And at 22 years old, or there abouts, "I think he's a Credit to his generation".
I hope he isn't discouraged from posting on here because of some misunderstanding. I'm sure there's more than a few of us who sometimes have our stories or facts somewhat distorted on various occussions.
If I thought he was some cocky, know-it-all kid, I'd never posting here in his defense.

Yet another reason why I dont mind paying what I do for their services. Great job once again AFD!
You will never hear me complain about higher fire taxes, because you get what you pay for!