gss131

Tell us again how nice it is in Texas, lol

Tell us again how nice it is in Texas, lol

Tell us again how nice it is in Texas, lol

Tell us again how nice it is in Texas, lol

Tell us again how nice it is in Texas, lol

Tell us again how nice it is in Texas, lol

Joey was a "plank holder" in Squad Co. 61 (Bronx), when we were "transformed" by DC Ray Downey (RIP 9-11-01) from an engine co. to a squad co. in SOC. As a newly formed co. we were constantly drilling and preparing to "go-online" as a squad, and many members of the hand-picked company were the original engine members. Joey loved going to the "Rock" every day tour for the months of training- he was always "up" for any type of hands-on activity. Especially when it came to "ropes". He was one of my "rope fairies"- guys who loved to take out the high-angle and confined space gear and rig up scenarios to drill on. I remember one "24" tour where we had spent the whole day training at the "Rock";came back to quarters for the night tour and had chow;drilled again for an hour on "firefighter removal" from the cellar, and then the brothers sat in the kitchem while I did paperwork in the co. office. Around midnight I heard footsteps (not Santa's reindeer) on the roof, so I climbed the scuttle ladder to check it out. There on the roof was Joey and the rest of the crew, setting up to do a "pickoff" from the top floor bunkroom. I was beat, and looking forward to lying down on the couch- but what could I say? I became the "victim" in the window for them to "rescue". You had to admire Joe's burning desire to excel at all phases of firefighting and rescue.
When I got promoted up a rank, he made me a "cutdown" halligan as an officers tool, w/ my nickname welded on it- that was the type of guy Joe was! His Dad (Joe,Sr) is a retired and well-loved Deputy Chief from the South Bronx (Div 6) and my heart gors out to him and the family, and the brothers who knew Joey on FDNY and LI where Joey was also a volly in his hometown. Sorry for this rambling message, but I'm surely going to miss Joey and his quiet but infectious smile and personality. Joey, R.I.P.,brother!

Hello folks, I have not posted in a long time, just cant help myself, what has happened in 3 years:
New Rigs
New repeater portables
New Scotts
A real inventory of equipment
New CAD software and real IT network which we run
Replacement gear and washing and repair
BailOut systems
This is just a few of the examples of progress, Noah Lighty and Ted Beale have put us on a new path and they deserve a pat on the back, with the coming election we dont no what tommorow brings but they have shown leadership and that having your own people up top can make a difference. Lending Hartsdale a rig is a thank you from the past, we have received more then we gave. Might be my last post ( Law Dept.) Thanks to all for the past support.
Jim Loftus
( now a washed up calltaker and IT Whizard )

From my experience Con Ed electric line workers would not climb on top of any vehicle to extinguish burning cable insulation, plus they don't wear short sleeved shirts, white fire helmets, or that style hi-vis vest, particularly one that says CHIEF.:-)

.Also,don't discount that the signs could be from proud Grandparents.

Well,ask yourself this question,lets say you join, and down the road they ask you to be involved in a job action which could be sickout,protest,strike,etc. Would you oblige ??? If your answer is already question mark then you may have your answer.

The same guy that spent Greenburgh's money fighting Ridgehill and Stew Leonards now wants Wally World . I guess that traffic is OK.

Since you're so very well versed in NYC's unions, how did you miss Giuliani's mayoral campaigns and the union support they've received? Bloomy didn;t do too badly either whatever party line he happened to be running on. Absolutely the unions support Democrats. Maybe that has something to do with many Republican ideologies flying directly in the face of union interests.
If you are going to base your politics solely on fiscal matters, nearly impossible by the way since money is what pushes the social agenda, then how could you ever call yourself a conservative republican?? You do not make nearly enough money to benefit from any of their economic policies. Democrats are no friend to your wallet either, but they at least support most union agendas. See, and here we are back at the unions almost universally backing democrats. The right to bargain, workplace safety, pensions, health benefits, etc are all benefits won with the help of democratic legislators.
yes, the unions and the people they represent we all scream "Me me me me me." We take every penny we can get at the bargaining table often fighting protracted fights through the arbitration process and working for years without new contracts. But isn't that the American way?? Isn't that the essence of the American dream to come here and fight for what is yours as best you can? We unionized and did that. Then when cities after years of fiscal irresponsibility come back and say we're broke what did the unions do? They didn't tell the cities to go screw, they asked to sit down at the bargaining table and find a way out of the mess. In yonkers they found concessions and additional funding sources. In Wisconsin they gave up almost everything the governor was asking and delivered a balanced budget WITHOUT HAVING TO GIVE UP BARGAINING. Why then did he take it away? In NYC every agency has met their budget reductions and every union has been meeting with the city to identify cost savings. However unless its a head count reduction Goldsmith doesn't want to hear about it.
So I ask you, how is it the unions and not the politicians that are wrong this time?
Public unions already do not have nearly as many rights as private sector unions. What rights are you referring to?
In your posts you allude to union corruption, and thats a very big issue. However no union has swindled more people out of more money than corporate America. The tech collapse of the 90's was fueled by billions in out right fraud, the savings and loan scandal of the 80's another economic collapse driven by fraud, and today's mortgage crisis a slightly different situation. This time instead of anyone going to jail they all go bonuses. These executives who knew what they were doing was at the very least unsustainable and in many cases out right wrong were actually rewarded for destroying whole companies because they had fairly negotiated contracts that guaranteed them certain compensation. They didn't go back to their investors and renegotiate their retirements. The only changes were restrictions on executive compensation for anyone still owing the fed money. Since the crash bonuses and overall compensation are right back up there yet none of these companies are showing balance sheets to match these increases. I'm just a lowly paramedic with a SUNY education but that math just doesn't add up.

Can you give examples of how my union has not "fairly negotiated"?
Can you explain why my employer takes money out of every one of my paychecks under the title: "medical"?
While I do not have to pay into my "pension", I am paid less than when I was in the private sector and had to pay into my retirement. When I was debating switching jobs the issue was less pay, but more benefits. A hard choice when your single, no children and in your 20's, but I understood that as I got older it would be worth it.
How did we get this pension system? Was it the greedy unions that developed it? We had a city pension system until the 1960s, when the Mayors in NY State determined it would be cheaper for the taxpayers to have one pension system (and they would look good reducing cost), instead of one in every municipality and they convinced the state legislature to develop it.
Interesting way to look at it, I understand it very differently. All FF's are at similar risks of being hurt/killed at an incident, but after figuring out what a firefighter salary should be, the municipalities understand that if they lower the starting salary by up to 50% with a 5 year build up to "top" pay knowing there are still enough people willing to take the job and struggle to make ends meet for those 1st few years. It’s not non-merit, it is what they should have made in the 1st place, but the big bad unions dont have enough power to fight this reduction.
My union contract allows all members to "share" in a college funding account. By contract the city must fund $20,000 per year (not per member) to cover the tuition of all union members. At its height that was 181 members sharing $20,000. If 20 of those union members went to college, each was able to get $1,000 toward their annual college education. Now to get this benefit, the union had to give up something and in the last few years more than $10,000 of the fund each year does not get used and is returned to the City's general fund. Over the last 25 years I think about a dozen members have participated and 3 or 4 have gotten degrees.
And the tax payers benefit from all of this.
We do, we do, we do and while I did benefit from the education, it taught me how to bring over $2.5 million back into my municipality and reducing the cost of property insurance by more than a million annually for the last 14 years. Over the last 25 years $450,000 has been made available to 175 employees, but only about 1/2 has been used. and the return on the investment has been over $16 million.
You still have yet to show anyone how "they sold us out"?
I have given you the history, to bad you missed it in your research. Its true, you are ignorant of all the facts and you make a lot of assumptions, that are not true.
Then how come, for every gimme, we had to vote on giving something up? Or worst it was taken from us by an arbitrator.

All right I will bite...first of all, in the future feel free to refer to me as John, Mr. Flynn, Chief, or even brother (what the heck), but "Flynn" is just rude and disrespectful....
You have made an awful lot of accusations and insults in your rambling, gramatically butchered post, as you have in others. I won't take the bait and will continue to be civil.
At one time I did teach many classes as a NYS adjunct instructor at Camp Smith in Peekskill. I enjoyed it and met a lot of great, dedicated people, including many volunteers. I love the fire service and would have continued teaching but for one major issue....many (not all) of the volunteers who showed up for classes I taught (mainly tech rescue) had absolutely no business being there. Their basic skills were virtually non- existent and they were signing up for advanced training. Some were so incredibly out of shape that they could not climb a flight of stairs without becoming winded. However, there was no mechanism for failing anyone. The unwritten rule was that if you showed up and stayed all day (or weekend) you passed. Some may disagree with this and state that instructors did have the ability to fail a student but I doubt anyone will be able to document many cases of this at Camp Smith. The system was very geared toward volunteers witth the overwhelming majority of classes on the weekends which I also thought unfair. Career guys are forced to work many weekends and nights as it is.
I began to feel that my serving as an instructor in this system, even though I did enjoy it,was hypocritical, so I stopped.
As far as who attends a service for a fallen firefighter, it would be absolutely none of my business to "have a problem with it". Only appropriate family members would be able to speak to that.
You mentioned Tony Pagano a couple of times. If you have a problem with him I suggest you take it up with him in whatever way you feel is appropriate. As far as I can tell, he has never been on this forum and he has nothing to do one way or the other with what we are talking about here.
It is pathetic to me that, due to the fact that you and others have so weak of an argument in regard to this issue, you have chosen to make attacks against me personally and against the career fire service in general. I have stated before that there are many good, solid people in the volunteer fire service...many serving the community where I and my family live. Over the years, I have had the courage to respectfully and openly disagree or criticize where I see fit. I have never found it necessary to make it personal as you have, and I believe most reasonable individuals, career or volunteer, see that.

Push the cop car (that will probably be in front ) down the hill and stand on the roof.

Push the cop car (that will probably be in front ) down the hill and stand on the roof.

I want to d omore to serve the public safety in my community, so I think that becoming a city councilman will give me the ability to improve public safety. THe requirements in my city to run for council are: I must be over 18 y/o and live in the district I'm running for. But wait, I am not allowed to run for office because I am a career firefighter. If I still lived in the district but volunteered as a FF out of town I could run for ofice, but not as a career FF. Dose that not violate my rights? Why am I not allowed to volunteer my time to serve the community I live and pay taxes in?
True its employeers that actually prohibit what I can or can not do. Not the union, since we established that even in a strong labor state I do not have to be a union member, just pay the fee for services they provide.
The States have decided that or lobbying groups have convinced law makers that it was in there best interest to vote on a bill that the volunteers want?
I am sure they are available, you just have to ask. I'm sure CSEA or the Teamsters would have no problem with you volunteering with public works. Funny I thought it was founded by the insurance industry (Ben Franklin) for his own financial interests.

Push the cop car (that will probably be in front ) down the hill and stand on the roof.

Push the cop car (that will probably be in front ) down the hill and stand on the roof.

Push the cop car (that will probably be in front ) down the hill and stand on the roof.

Push the cop car (that will probably be in front ) down the hill and stand on the roof.

SOP is for the engine to stop with the back of the rig parallel to the entrance to the fire building, the men then stretch 1 3/4" or 2 1/2" into the building depending on the size and nature of the fire. The chauffeur then drives to the hydrant and connects or if this is not possible (because a truck blocked him out) he can be supplied or stretch 3 1/2" back to a previous hydrant. FDNY uses dead lays, nothing is preconnected, it is up to the control man to determine how much hose is needed, pull it, break the line, give it to the chauffeur and provide the chauffeur with the details of the stretch. The high rise packs are for use in high rise buildings with standpipe systems. These standpipe systems are supplied by either a gravity tank on the roof or a main fed pump, all of these systems can also be supplemented by an engine streching 3 1/2" hose to the siamese connection.

Home Depot had a shipment yesterday of roof rakes.I just happened upon them when they were putting them out.I think they sold out in 20 min. .Maybe that eye in the sky for the county could give a heads up on some massive roofs that might need some attention.

I don't know about Jeter but I hear Pettitte is available.