doc13mets
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Posts posted by doc13mets
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On 7/13/2017 at 11:32 PM, Guest Guest said:
doc23mets is obviously some Firefighters mommy and a LIAR who cannot take criticism of her baby boy. The overwhelming majority of Kearny Firefighters make well in excess of $50,000. The Chief alone makes over $200,000 to start. Also, at what point is the town of Kearny of responsible for the ENTIRE tax bill? The school and municipal portions are seperate but does that make the burden on the people that actually LIVE IN KEARNY ANY EASIER? The residents want the tax increases stopped! It's time to crack down on the hiring of people who only enter the town for the basis of taking as much out of the taxpayers pockets as possible (the Firefighters) and start rebuilding a community atmosphere that is all but dead. Firefighters who drive to Kearny 2 days a week to sleep, eat, watch TV and conduct personal business contribute NOTHING to the community! Any resident could easily walk into any Fire House 24/7 and witness the lack of an active contribution for their 100K+ a year if not for the bolt locked doors. It's a disgrace!
About 40+ firefighters have been hired over the past 2-3 years to replace the guys who retired who were making higher salaries. These new firefighters start at 33K a year... it will take about 5 years to even get close to 50K... keep typing keyboard commando
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On 7/6/2017 at 9:11 PM, Guest Guest said:
It's clear to see where the town leaders place their priorities. They are celebrating the multi-million dollar Firehouse renovation upgrades for the $100K - $200K a year, non-resident, part-time Firefighters while the schools and facilities are falling apart. The sky high property tax money all goes into one pot but is distributed very unfairly. Nepotism and Patronage town jobs like the Firefighters and Department Heads ALWAYS come first but these people and their children DO NOT live in Kearny! I guess there's nothing wrong with laying off public school Teachers as long as the Firefighters have a top shelf gym, kitchen, beds, big screen HD TV's, electronics and new SUV's to kill their 23 hours of idle time each shift? What a disgrace!
Multi-million... that's pretty comical. Also school budget is from a different tax revenue. The one has nothing to do with the other.
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23 hours ago, Guest Guest said:
The incident was in Jersey City and not S. Kearny. A bored Kearny Firefighter is trying to mislead the residents into thinking the KFD did some actual work for a chance but failed. Kearny has over 100 Firefighters being paid between $100,000 and $200,000 a year while Teachers are getting laid off. The Kearny Public Schools are falling apart while the town pours millions into Fire Dept. fraternity houses for non-resident Firefighters. The Firefighters job can be done by teenagers as a summer job for $10/hour because they do the same thing; eat, sleep, watch TV and sit around bored. Kearny residents need to thank the Mayor/Council & Firefighters for the abusive property tax bills and one of the WORST school districts in NJ! The student to Teacher ratio is unacceptable, the students lack basic supplies and the schools are a disgrace but the Firefighters are getting historically high salaries, raises & promotions. Three Teachers can be hired for what the town pays for one non-resident Firefighter. It's a clear message that the people who pay the taxes have NO VOICE!!
It's clear this poster doesn't understand how taxes work in Kearny. Municipal taxes do not pay teacher and School taxes do not pay firefighters. The School System is a separate tax and separate budget, just as the municipal budget/municipal taxes.
Also close to the majority of the FD makes well under 50K a year, and that's before anything gets taken out.
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On 6/22/2017 at 11:44 PM, Guest Danny said:
That is correct public school system has nothing to do with the fire dept but I would rather have more teachers.
Education system is important & with a good education system in place it will make the town better in the long run!
Time to vote this Mayor out!!
The mayor has 2 full time jobs....Mayor & Clerk for the county...he has no time to focus on Kearny!
Not only are the two budgets completely different. They come from two different sources of taxes. One has ZERO impact on the other. Also that being said the Mayor has ZERO control over the school board. They are two different bodies all together.
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You must be smoking some good stuff!!! I'm not even going to address the absurd comments. Just clear up some of the ones that actually deserve attention.
1. The Mayor and Council can not impose residency requirements. It's State Law. That's just it. Can't do anything about it. Contact a State representative regarding that.
2. You can't have 1 officer and that's it. Unfortunately my response to this would require a lot of typing and my hands will hurt after. Neither of these departments even have a Battalion Chief so your obviously making thins up as you go along. A civilian fire director would have no authority of Day-to-Day operations of a fire department. Can't even take command at a scene even if you are a former qualified firefighter.
3. They don't have clothing allowances anymore. If a uniform is damaged or in poor condition they turn it in to be replaced.
4. Firefighters clean their own clothes.
5. TV, Cable, Internet, Recliners, Sofa's are provided for by the firefighters out of their own pockets.
5. Firefighters clean their own sheets. (That they provide out of pocket)
6. Have you been in a firehouse kitchen lately. HA! It may surprise you!!
7. Firefighters train every day.
8. The Harrison FD and the Kearny FD have amazing response times. Compare it to other towns or the national average. These times blow the standards away!
Keep up the good work!
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As it turned out, Harrison didn't have the manpower to provide a ladder truck. Kearny instead went to mutual aid from North Arlington for a second ladder truck..
Say Good Night, Gracie or should I say Harry?
Don't know about Harrison manpower on that day. But they did send an Engine to the scene, Jersey city sent an Engine and Ladder to the scene as well.
North Arlington sent 1 Engine, 1 Ladder and Rescue to Station 3 for cover.
East Newark sent 1 Engine and 1 Ladder to Station 2 for cover.
This is the truth.
Great stop KFD! Keep up the good work.
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Or you could have Googled the quoted language, thereby discovering its source and possibly not making a fool of yourself.
I did google it. Nothing came up that matched in the first few pages except this forum. Please provide a reference, I would like to read.
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Thanks for clarifying the way the grant would work and taking the time to explain how Nutley does it.
Your plan does have merit that is worth looking into. For this to actually work though I would keep paid personnel at each station in case the volunteers are working their other jobs. Where I live now, there is one County who uses your idea and it does work by using both. But the stations are manned by full time Fire Fighters and use the volunteers who are at the station also. Plus there are volunteer Fire Companies in the county that respond when needed.
The idea of awarding bonus points would be a way of getting people to volunteer, but this might be a problem with Veterans Preference.
also, would the volunteers have to go to an academy for training. You could check with East Newark to see how they do it.
Since the problem of staffing is going to be on-going why not draw up a proposal for the Town Council to form a Commission to look at your idea. One warning though. For this to happen you have to make sure that the Chief and at-least one Fire Fighter, preferably the Union President be on the Commission. I would limit it to seven people with both included and have the others who are committed to making this work and exclude people with personal agendas or biases. Take the time necessary to look at what would work or not work and ask for input from the people. And above all else make sure that it doesn't become political. The Mayor and Town Council should not be a part of this nor should they appoint anyone. This has to be truly a group who's sole purpose is to come up with ideas to help the Town and not be used as a Political feel good so the people will leave us alone Commission.
Of course volunteers would have to attend the fire academy. That's a State requirement All volunteer and career departments are required to abide by the same initial training requirements. Same academies train both Volunteer and Career and they are mixed in the classes together. East Newark and Kearny both send to Middlesex Fire Academy as of last check.
Volunteer Points is already an established method by the Civil Service Commission and works in conjunction with the Veterans preference. Bloomfield and Nutley are both combination departments in the area and use this. What happens is Veterans always go to the top of the list, but once out of Veterans the volunteers would most likely have a better chance to be the next hired as they would have some bonus points on their score. You get one extra point for every year of service, up to 10 points max. Under this system we would see more of the volunteer hired which would also be local people and more homegrown people back in the "West Hudson FD"
The reason I made 2 pure volunteer stations is to avoid any issues with a mixed house. This would probably not be welcomed at first and there could be a lot of tension in a mixed house. The stations are all close enough together that response time would not be highly effected.
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The Town of Harrison should sell the firehouse on Cleveland Ave. If that hasn't already been done. Harrison FD will never have more than 30 guys rendering that firehouse useless. Then Harrison can hire 4 more Police Officers. Maybe that will slow down the mass exodus of people out of town.
EMS runs out of that station. No need to sell. Good use. Central location to respond to Harrison/East Newark for EMS.
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When a department accepts a SAFER grant for hiring the are required to "MAINTAIN CURRENT STAFFING LEVELS" so if they did get it and guys retired they would have to hire on their dime otherwise they could be forced to pay the grant back as they would have violated the agreement of the the grant.
Nutley's paid guys run out of HQ. There volunteer companies run out of HQ and another station. Volunteers only respond when the pagers go off.
Works pretty well for Nutley.
If the 3 towns got together I could see a combo department as a viable solution.
My thought would be:
West Hudson Fire Department (I've re-numbered the stations)
Station 1: HQ - Midland Ave, Kearny
1 Paid Engine / 1 Paid Ladder / Car 1 (Chief of the Department)
Station 2: Davis Ave, Kearny
1 Paid Engine / Car 2 (Paid Duty Deputy Chief in Charge of Tour)
Station 3: Sussex St., Harrison
1 Paid Engine / 1 Paid Ladder
Station 4: South Kearny (No current station but thats another topic for another day bottom line, they need one)
1 Paid Engine / 1 Paid Ladder
Station 5: Kearny Ave, Kearny
2 Volunteer Engine / 1 Volunteer Ladder / Car 3 (Volunteer Battalion Chief)
Station 6: Sherman Ave, East Newark
2 Volunteer Engine / Car 4 (Volunteer Battalion Chief)
Quick attack and foam tender would be stationed in most reasonable place. Could also get a rescue truck which would be nice.
Career guys handle most of the day-day calls. When they are overwhelmed with calls and resources run low you put the volunteers on Standby to man the volunteer rigs...
When a fire comes in career guys respond first while putting the volunteers on standby to be your next alarm and cover the town in the meantime.
By placing 1 engine and 1 ladder in South Kearny you reducing the relocation of resources that happen now while increasing fire protection to some of the biggest tax payers in town.
This would reduce some overtime costs and increase fire protection in the whole area.
Volunteers would be getting bonus points on the Civil Service test to eventually be hired so you would most likely see an increase in volunteers as they would be wanted extra points for the job. Add that with East Newarks current volunteer numbers and you have a viable combo department with NO REDUCTION of current paid man power. This is crucial as we would maintain the proper level of service our towns expect.
With so many local resources would not have to go out of area often to deal with fires/coverage.
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ENFD was not called to either the Folgers fire, the smoking outlet or the fatal fire & 100 times are you out of your mind! You better check you info especially about the certifications of the EN firemen & their officers
Never said they were called to those. Those happened after the FDR fire. I said Kearny was called to those. Can't you read?
In 2012 I would bet East Newark responded to about 100 calls in Harrison. Request the records from East Newark. It is public info. Obviously don't request the Harrison records because who knows where the Mayor got those numbers from in the article. I believe he said Harrison only requested M/A 14 times?!?!?!
If there is a real concern about the EN fireman certificates someone should contact the Mayor or the State, not Kearny on the Web.
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Ethic?? You better do your homework a lil before you put your faith in them. All of this is public record so go ask to see it. In the last year *** ***** got rid of everyone on the dept living outside o Hudson county so be could get rid of the *****/******* that's caught up in a misconduct lawsuit and put a guy in charge who wrecked a fire truck with a load on in another state that killed people. Factor that in with a ****** and a ******* that aren't certified to be in the positions their in and a ** who was arrested on distribution charges and recieved pti for it. Yup role models if you ask me
I'm not really sure what this all means. Is the part that was censored actual names or curses?
If these are serious concerns someone has then they should approach the Mayor of East Newark with them or contact the Division of Fire Safety. Or are these just ramblings someone wishes to post on a website. Personal attacks are never fair without proper evidence. If someone isn't certified to be in a certain position the issue should be brought up to the proper authorities and not just posted on a site.
It was upsetting to see East Newark lose some valuable members. But they still have many dedicated people. Dating back for the past 2 years when Harrison was first chopped up by the Town Cronies, East Newark FD was there to help, not there to steal jobs. Most of the East Newark guys want to be paid F/F's. East Newark provided assistance for the past 2 years with little or no incident. It wasn't until there was a spotlight put on the HFD at the recent fire that they tried to blame there neighboring volunteers. Playing the blame game doesn't help anyone or solve any problems.
If Harrison was so in the right and East Newark FD was at fault why has the Harrison Fire Director dropped off the face of the media planet following his out of line comments?? These guys need to all work together not work against each other, otherwise you will have more fatalities.
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Not sure where I come out on providing fire services in Harrison and Kearny, but your threats on filing a lawsuit are misguided. Here's the basic law in New Jersey on liability for municipal public services. Last I checked, firefighting is not a private function.
1. Where a municipality pursues a private function, its
liability is coextensive with that of a private person similarly
engaged.
2. If the function is governmental, a municipality is not
liable for either its neglect to perform or its negligence in the
performance of such duty, and the same rule applies where the
default is on the part of its employees.
Could be get a reference source for this? I could creativly write something...
1. Where a municipality pursues a private function, its
liability is coextensive with that of a private person similarly
engaged.
2. If the function is governmental, a municipality is
liable, if negligence is proven by a jury, in the
performance of such duty, and the same rule applies where the
default is on the part of its employees.
3. A municipality is at fault on Tuesdays and Thursdays if
negligence is present. The county is at fault on Monday, Wednesday
and Friday if negligence is present. The state is at fault on Saturday and
Sundays, excluding Christmas and Easter when the municipality is always
at fault.
Look I can just randomly create laws with no basis or reference too.
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The state law states that the minimum number of firemen on duty is 5. Harrison has 7 so they are in good shape. Harrison only requested mutual aid 4 times and rendered mutual aid 14 times. At this rate that would be , at best, needing mutual aid about 8 times this year. The real problem is having 3 Police Officers on duty per shift. On weekend nights one serious call and the rest of the town is rendered unprotected. 3 Police Officers to protect 14,000 residents in so incredibly dangerous. Right now, due to recent activities, the FD is the primary topic. One shooting or car jacking will change that focus real quick. Look at the big picture. Your chance of being a crime victim is 1000% chance higher than a fire. More Police are sorely needed but funding is the issue for both.
Those numbers are not true. I would make a bet East Newark alone responded to Harrison about 100 times in 2012. Request the reports, it's public record.
I'm pretty sure the Mutual Aid request numbers for 2013 are even higher. Where they are getting there data from is obviously incorrect. I can recall off the top of my head 5 times starting with the FDR fire that Kearny provided Mutual aid. The FDR fire, the following Wednesday night Harrison Requested Kearny's ladder respond to a "smoking outlet". The bakery fire, the Folders fire and the fatal fire. And thats just the past month or so. I wonder how many times East Newark responded prior to that?
Yes it is true the police are also understaffed. They need hires as well. All services are suffering, this isn't just a FD issue.
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A lot of people on this forum like to slander good people making good efforts to make this place better and more safe and livable. When was the last time anyone walked into the firehouse and thanked the guys that are there? Volunteer depts are the future! Especially with all the budget cuts still looming. The best thing to do is collapse all the paid fire depts and make the depts volunteer. And without saying it, They should all follow the Ethic of East Newark' dept. There I said it!
The answer is not to eliminate paid fire departments. I personally believe every town needs paid firefighters. It's crucial for life and safety reasons. East Newark is just lucky they have decent response times because they have a core group of very dedicated firefighters. It's not the same everywhere, nor could East Newark FD protect all of West Hudson on their own. It's just not practical and it's just not safe. East Newark currently draws volunteers from all 3 towns. They can't even fill there roster, the volunteers just aren't there.
Personally I think well organized combination departments are the future. With a core of paid firefighters and volunteers to supplement their initial efforts. West Hudson could be combo if all 3 towns just put their budgets together and merge the departments. You probably would see even a small increase in volunteers and they would be afforded additional bonus points on the civil service test to be hired in the new department. They would also be a way to increase local hires to this newly formed "West Hudson Department". But believe me you still need about 100 paid firefighters between the 3 towns. Being able to staff a certain number of career engines and ladders would be critical. The volunteers could staff the rest and be a strong second response and also decrease overtime costs. Use Jersey City and North Hudson to come in and cover the town when the volunteers respond to the incident.
It would not be easy to get on the same page but other towns have done it, so obviously it's a possibility.
But 1 large volunteer department is not the answer and would not get the job done in these communities.
Harrison desperately needs more manpower and Kearny does too as they are very short. Solutions to these problems are right in front of them.
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Thank you to everyone who responded to this post. It goes to show that the retired and former firefighters have the class and intelligence to entertain what my uncle thought up. Posting your real names would give the posts a bit more substance, And I'm sure that the Firemen in all three said departments that became firemen to be a help to the entire community and do so with good intentions. Would get a moral lift in the recent troubled times. Might be cool for you to pass by your former depts and give the men a clap on the back. That would really help out with all the mud slinging that has been going on as of late. Thank you again
You are right. Many of the firefighters in West Hudson do care about the community. But we must realize some of them have no ties what so ever and to them it's just a job. This is due to the NAACP lawsuit from the early 90's. Many of the recent firefighter hired were from out of the area and to them it's nothing more then a job. All the volunteers in East Newark are obviously locals tied in to the community and most of the HFD and KFD that have been on the department for awhile obviously have ties to. They care. But the issues at hand having nothing to do with individuals feelings. It has to do with current budget issues and the positions the towns are in due to recent economic troubles. The firefighters want to do the best, but they don't have the support they need due to budget cuts and manpower.
The fire leaders of West Hudson need to put politics aside, need to put paid vs volunteer ideas aside and come together to find a way to better serve all the residents. All 3 departments need each other.
Kearny FD recently has started using more M/A from across the river and that will eventually bite them in the ass when the shit hits the fan. Resources that take 20 plus minutes to arrive should not be counted on as your first call for help. Wake up before a Kearny resident perishes next. All the West Hudson towns should be the first call to work together. I swear if a relative of mine dies in a fire in Kearny and Jersey City FD is the first call for mutual aid at the fire, I will sue and I will make sure the town pays dearly, no settlement, I will make sure a jury gives my family a hefty reward.
And just wait, next time there is a little fire in Kearny and the whole department is there. Wait for the second emergency call to come in... when Jersey City is still 15 minutes out and there is that GAP coverage because they chose not to contact the neighboring departments first for aid again, I hope who ever loses life or property because of it will make sure you pay dearly. Kearny hope you increased your insurance policy because with decisions like this you are going to need it. I promise.
The only real solution for the area is for the 3 towns to work closely together. Maybe the problem is the Harrison Fire Director isn't talking to other local department heads just like he isn't talking to the media I don't know. The guy seems to be a phantom these days. When it's time to lead, lead if you can't lead step aside. Let someone else do it.
As for the HFD well I hope they get there shit together. None of those guys deserve to lose their jobs. They work hard with little resources they have. East Newark use to be automatic on fires, well they seemed to have stopped that since the last 3 fires ENFD did not respond at all. Same dispatch would have been easy and quick. Who knows a block and half or so away maybe they get there first if enough guys were around, maybe they don't. Maybe a life is saved, maybe it's the same outcome. The truth is no one knows. One thing for certain is when you put pride and as someone quoted earlier "ego's" ahead of life and safety you've missed out the whole reason fire departments exist. Time to go back to the drawing board Harrison cause your new philosophy just failed and resulted in a death.
As for East Newark... well what can you say... volunteers... when called upon they help with as much as they can... when they aren't called... well they don't help...
One thing is for sure. It's time for change. It's time to again put life, property and safety first. It's time to re-organize mutual aid or combine these departments.
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You are correct there ladder truck was in a bad spot. First ladder on the scene and they couldn't see the fire building from where they were. No excuses for that.
There was a request made for a means of egress to be put on the other side of the building, backdraft occurred before task was carried out. East Newark was originally venting the Davis St. apartments roof, it wasn't until much later they were asked to cut the roof, there is even video evidence of this.
They went from the Davis St. roof to the 602 roof and started the ventilation process.
They did have those tools on the Davis St., I've been told that those tools are now lost as they fell in the fire building because they were left on the roof after a speedy evacuation.
Lets be real. The primary cause of this backdraft was the fact the windows were boarded up from the inside on the second floor. Fault falls with Fire Prevention/Building Departments on that one. Secondary cause was the fact no department put a ladder up to any window on the second floor to knock out some windows (they would have then noticed the plywood!) this fault falls with departments on both Frankie Rodgers and Davis St. Natural ventilation was started by East Newark on the building and they were in the progress of attempting to cut a hole when the backdraft happened. Or so I've been told at least. Has anyone asked them on the record about this? Also can someone explain to me why Jersey City FD is even going to the second floor when the building has been burning for like 30 plus minutes?! No one paid attention to the signs of the backdraft on the front either, in video you see smoke pushing threw the bricks.
No one department is at fault for this backdraft. The simple fact is Harrison is hurting for man power and they need to hire.
Unfortunately for Harrison, Kearny will now play the good guy and try to be big brother to Harrison only to have Chief Dylahan stab them in the back and get them dissolved one night while they are asleep. Keep calling them boys, hand them all your ammo!
Also I can't find a picture of an East Newark Firefighter with no gear. I do find civilians getting in the way. East Newark should have removed them and when Harrison IC came over the should have also removed them. No one seemed to care. Heads should roll.
Find the Harrison FF with no PPE!! Where's waldo?!
Honestly these towns need each other.... they've always seemed to work well together in the past... these departments just need to get over this fire, obviously mistakes happen, no one go seriously hurt that god, we could have had 10 or more guys in bad shape... learn, grown and train together... Thats what these guys need to be doing...
It's not the HFD fault for what's happened to this department it was years of mismanagement by the town and now they are suffering...
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The hallow accomplishment, if you think it is one, of being a fire captain in Kearny or Harrison is like pretty sad. It's like being the boss of a two of a two person business where the one guy that works for you has no respect for you as a person or anyone with even rudimentary skills in anything. There captain to fireman is almost a 1:1 ratio. The firemen do little work and the captains do none at all. Why their is more than 3 captains in either town is nothing but more expensive welfare. Those are the opinions of a senior citizen who has been around for 80 years and retired a broken down lonely fireman.
Yes, Harrison has 5 Captains... 4 Lt's? and 20 Firefighters... Clearly it's almost a 1:1 ratio... Maybe you should stop back in a 3rd grade math class, looks like someone needs a refresher.
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The Harrison FD did an excellent job during the Hurricane. They ran many calls and rescued numerous amounts of people all around town. East Newark during the actually Hurricane responded as a 2nd engine to only 1 call. It was a report of smoke coming from the basement and the staged a block away from the building ready to bring in water if necessary. That was 1 of probably a 100 or so calls for Harrison that night. Harrison did a great job.
When it comes to any fire in the area all the towns work together. They put all the BS aside and get the job done, that’s a fact. There is no 1 hero on any department, there are 3 heroic teams in West Hudson, the Heroes from Harrison, Kearny and East Newark. That simple. No one wants individual praise, and even if it's deserved no one cares if they get it. They are all there to do a job and they get it done.
What’s happened to Harrison FD is not any one FF's fault, it was the fault of the politicians for allowing Harrison to live in LaLa land for many years. Come on guys the tax revenues is a political issue the FD had nothing to do with it.
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Harrison surely was requested by Kearny FD for mutual aid assistance but did NOT put out the fire in Duke St the other day. The HFD duties were not to supress the fire but to assist in other duties. East Newark does the best they can with the little they have, but get your facts right. In this incident, the ENFD was initially requested to the scene, but then was asked to cover the town of Kearny by going to their fire station on Kearny Avenue. The volunteer ENFD had an extremely terrible response time for this incident. North Arlington also went to the same station and had an equally terrible response time, yes they are volunteers also. Usually, the ENFD members rush to the firehouse in 3-5mins and get to an incident anywhere between 3-7 minutes (which is excelllent for a volunteer department). On this incident, it took EN to get to the Kearny FD station about 20 minutes. Yes, 20 minutes from the initial request. The dispatcher had to send dispatch pages 3 times to ENFD since there was a lack of response. Unfortunately, this is what you get for a volunteer FD during the Monday-Friday business hours. Do you really want this in a much larger city like Kearny where fires and emergencies are more frequent? Get real. "Jus Sayin..." .... MIND YOU, the East Newark Mayor/Council just removed 5 members (some were top members) off the fire department, word is, ******* *********. Volunteer FD's need the more members the better, to avoid lack of responses like this incident since you never know who's working or out of town. Additionally, if you are so pro-volunteer, why don't you take a stroll to the EN fire station and request an application. Becareful what you ask for though. You got that, "Just Sayin.." ???
East Newark was not initially dispatched to the scene. Yes usually they have excellent response time for a volunteer department, but didn't have the best response time this time around.
I saw the same article on nj.com very odd how it was worded that way. Not sure why. The entire KFD was at the scene and 1 engine from Harrison. Seems like the bad job was done by the person who wrote the article, all the FD's did a great job at the scene, as usual.
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All BS. The Harrison Fire Dept. TOLD the mayor that they are not being drug tested. The Firemen ordered the mayor and council to shut-up. Now they ordered the mayor and council not to merge so it will not happen. A merger could make juniors future not directly under total control of mommy and daddy. Kearny FD conduts drug testing and the HFD is scared out of their minds about the prospect of getting ONLY a 40% crack pension instead of 70% plus benefits. That kills the merger. The HFD is also very top heavy with chiefs with just a few indians and an expen$ive overblown budget. Why would any town take on the mess that is the HFD?
Ha ha. The only BS is this post. I was actually listening to you for a second then I came across a statement that is 100% false, so I decided not to believe anything you said as it is mostly likely also 100% false.
Tell me something... how can Harrison be top heavy with chiefs if they don't even have ONE chief?? That's right they don't have ONE currently. Which is also a shame but that's a different convo for a different day.
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Sorry, but that's not gonna happen. You have over one million dollars in salaried personnel on duty at all times in a one square mile town and you want more? What idiot of a mayor in any other town or city would take on a dept. that is 50% to 75% deep with supervisors at inflated salaries? Would another town be willing to demote their own supervisors of their own dept. because a Harrison fire dept. member has more seniority? No way, Jose!
To tackle Harrison's problems in one post is impossible.
But if a merge happened seniority doesn't necessarily get transferred over. At least many other towns it hasn't. Look what’s happening in Camden, disbanding of one department and hiring by another, all those guys are bottom of the list in seniority. Same thing has happened in other New Jersey towns.
Harrison needs help, don't know how to do it, but something should be done.
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You know I've been reading the posts on this site & I've done some #'s crunching. The budget for police & fire are around $2.7 million each, but for argument sake we will round it to $3 million. So for each resident that is about $100.00 per year for coverage for each ,so $200.00 for both police & fire per year. If you break that down it is around $.30 a day or $.60 a day for both. It would cost an additional $.05 X 2 to add additional manpower for both. At $.75 a day to keep the public safe, less than a cup of coffee, I most certainly think that is worth the cost. They both do a fine job & have made some sacrifices during tough times for the town, I think it is time to start rebuilding our public safety forces.
You have been doing poor research apparently.
For 2012 - Budget for Fire Department Salaries = $3,599,500 plus then you have the other costs of the department... this is ONLY salaries.
For 2012 - Budget for Police Department Salaries = $5,045,400 plus then you have all the other costs of the department... again this is ONLY salaries
Where did you get your research from? I got my direct from their budget.
I do agree with you on one point, they need to increase manpower in both departments. It is in the best interest for the safety of the community. How to do that is the question. But it needs to be done.
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Stop bashing the FD their hands are so short handed due to the cuts made by the town and shame on the state of NJ for allowing this to happen. The table of organization had to be approved by the DOP and the DCA controls the purse strings in Harrison. Assuming that you are referring to the Washington St fire the ENFD vented the building making conditions in the building better for the men that were on the inside.
Harrison should have man power to man two engines and a ladder not 1 full engine and 1 partially manned engine. It is not the Fire Department or the Police that is the drain on the budget in Harrison it is the mismanaged debt and the cronyism hiring practices in town that are the drain on the budget pretty much your last sentance summed up the problem in Harrison.
Agree 100%... lets understand something though... 3 men on an Engine.. that is not fully manned!! In my opinion Harrison should have at least a 4 man engine, a 3 man second engine and a 3 man ladder, any less is not acceptable. Would be good to have 4/4/4 though!
Hire Firefighters & Lay Off Teachers?
in Kearny
Posted
I guess one out of three is hall of fame stats in the MLB. Do people actually take this board seriously?