poor snowplowing

With the first snow event of the season out of the way and a dismal showing of road clearing ability, I read the Times Union article stating that budget cuts had no effect on the snow removal. They quoted Albany County Public Works Commissioner, Michael Franchinni, as saying it was a fast moving storm of short duration that led to the early morning commuting problems. I don't doubt that the timing of the storm played a part of the problem, but if budget cuts become an issue, as he further stated some positions have been eliminated in the 2010 budget, perhaps they can follow the example of the fire service. Put a contingent of volunteers to work to augment the paid staff. In fact you could replace all the paid staff with volunteers. After all you know when a storm is scheduled, as we have highly paid T,V, meteorologists and their predictions. Simply page out the volunteers to drive the plows and sand trucks. Come on now, we all know someone and some have said ourselves, we could do a better job at plowing. Think of all the money you would save by not paying professionals to do the plowing and replace them with volunteers.

Gov withholding local aid.

Well the Governor will not be paying the localities state aid so he has enough money to pay the bills. Well, isn't state aid to localities a bill? It seems to me that the Governor needs to pay the bills as they come due and when there is no more money, stop paying. He would need to go to the Legislature and ask for more money to pay off our debts. Why is no one in the media asking our legislators what their plan is for paying our bills? They are the ones who refused to address the shortfall of cash. They voted to close most of the budget cap but not the whole gap. What do they think will happen? Call you legislators and ask them.

It's nice to see Patterson is backing Spitzer for his return to politics. For someone with polling numbers so low, does he think it will really help?

Public meeting

On January 13, 2010 at 6:30 PM at the EG Town Hall there will be a public meeting to discuss proposed amendment of the current contract with W.F. Bruen Emergency Squad and the proposed disposal of Rescue Vehicle 62. BE THERE PLEASE!

EG Town Board meeting

Last nights Town Board meeting was the last for Dean Kennedy and he took the time to address some issues he wanted to get off his chest. I don't know Dean, I don't think I ever had a personal conversation with him, but I was quite moved with his farewell speech last night. There were things in the elections he reportedly were behind that were dirty and underhanded. Those affected decided to keep those out of the public and I will not repeat the charges here because, 1. I was not involved and if the parties involved don't want them brought up, I won't. 2. The election is over and it is a time for healing.

What I will give Dean credit for is how he addressed the use of anonymous and screen names in blogs. I have stated before and will repeat, if you have something to day, take credit for your point of view. If you are afraid of repercussions for your thoughts and/or beliefs, then you are apparently not passionate enough to take a public stand. There is a reason the Town Board requires you to state your name before you speak and why the TU requires you to sign your name in letters to the editor. Where Dean and I disagree is that I believe the blogs are useful and in today's world of no forum for debate, the blogs can be useful.

Dean, You stated you don't read the blogs, unless someone calls your attention to them, well if you read this one, I thank you for your service to the Town for the last eight years. You spoke about it is sometimes a thankless job and you are right. It takes a person who is passionate about his community to continue to stand up and keep getting hit. Regardless of your political alliegence, you have made a difference in this town and I am grateful.

Tiger in the tank

Well another one bites the dust! Here is Tiger Woods, a man who found his passion (no not that - golf), and appears to have thrown it all away. His beautiful wife has left him, gone back to Sweden, he is now facing allegations he was driving, well attempting to drive, while either intoxicated or stoned or both. At last count 10 women have come out and claimed to have been "with him". On Fox today I heard that there were parties where women were "imported" to meet his tastes to be available on his road trips etc. Now Gater Aid has dropped him and will no longer sponsor him. Is this the first of many? I think so.

My point? Here is a man who seemed to have everything and just tossed it all away while throwing away his integrity. That's right. He threw his integrity away and everything else is now going out the window with it. Tiger, at least it seemed, was unique. He was a quiet superstar. He never appeared to be a partyer and was not airing his dirty laundry in front of everyone. He seemed to be a man of integrity, honest and proud, not so much anymore. Once you give away your integrity, that's right no one can take it from you, you stand to lose everything. What ever you do, learn this from Tigers mistake. No matter what opportunity is presented to you, think. Is my integrity worth what I can take advantage of for the moment? I'm sure that Tiger had women throwing themselves at him as he is successful, handsome and rich. I can't speak of his personality, but I'm sure it was nice, but by not thinking about his integrity, he has now lost so much of what he loved. His professional career will be always scared from this. He has apparently lost his wife and now possibly so much of his earning potential and his net worth.

Can Tiger recover from this? Of course, but it is going to be oh so hard. He will need to work so much harder to get his integrity back and be trustworthy again and so much more difficult than if he had made the hard choice and asked himself about what his actions would do to his integrity.

The lesson, ALWAYS ALWAYS ask yourself the most important question before acting, How will my decision and actions affect my integrity? The more you practice this questioning, the easier it will be. I think if you asked Tiger now, was his choices worth all that he is in the process of loosing, he would answer NO!

Health care cost that no one is talking about

As the health care debate continues to churn the stomach acid, no seems to be giving much thought to the cost of the bill for the first four years. Sure people are talking about having to pay for the proposed health care plan for four years prior to benefits beginning, but what they appear to be missing is that while we pay for the plan to be, we still need to pay for our existing plan! How does anyone expect the general public to be able to pay for our current plans AND the proposed plan at the same time? Please let me know if you have thousands of dollars available in your personal savings accounts as I could use a bail out.

Fire District Elections coming up

Don't forget the elections of Fire District Commissioners is coming December 8th for the East Greenbush Fire District. This is for Sherwood Park, East Greenbush Village, Route 4 corridor areas. (The date might be the same for the other two districts, not sure).There are three fire districts in the Town. If you don't know which one you are in, find out! Get involved and vote. These elected officials are generally voted in by active members of the fire departments and their family members solely because not enough other residents know about the elections. They are also members of the departments they are in charge of, but don't have to be. This is letting the fox guard the henhouse. If the only people voting for you are the people in the fire departments, how would you as a commissioner spend money? The fire districts are the closest thing we have in politics that residents have direct control over. Look at your tax bill! There is a fire tax listed on it as well as and ambulance district. These are volunteer organizations but not a free service. Generally, the commissioners are responsible stewards of our tax spending, but not always. Ask yourself why does the City of Albany with 90,000+ residents and double that during the work day and a paid fire department run 8 engines, 4 ladder trucks 3 paramedic squads and a heavy rescue for 20,000 calls versus East Greenbush Town with approx. 11 engines, 2 ladders trucks, various utility vehicles, 2 or 3 ambulances and at least 6 Chiefs cars for (guessing here) approximately 7,000 calls (be careful here as car accidents with personal injury or assumed PI will count as a separate call for the FD and for Bruen so simply adding all department totals together will inflate the number). The City of Albany has eight fire stations and our Town has 8 fire/ambulance stations. Clinton heights are less then a mile apart and East Greenbush North station and Bruen Ambulance less then half a mile apart! If we reduce the number of engines, we could reduce the number of stations. The Fire Districts, our tax dollars, own the fire equipment and pay the Fire Companies rent to house the trucks in the independent company stations. The fire fighters "work" for the company, but most of the funds are from the rent paid for by the districts. Other funds for the companies are from fund drives and rentals of fire halls, etc. Did you know that the paramedics in town are paid, not volunteer? Did you know that the Town fire chiefs utilize their department vehicles to drive to and from work with work locations within town and outside? Why are we subsidizing their commuting expenses? for the rare possibility that a call may come in on their way home from work? Can they actually leave work to respond to a call? There are many ways to save money in the fire districts, but only if you get involved. Did you know that the fire fighters earn credits for their time and rank that they collect as a "retirement" after age and service time requirements are reached? It may not be a lot of money, but they are being compensated for their efforts. Did you know, once they start collecting these "pensions" they can continue to serve? These are just some of the things going on that we as voters have control over, but only if we get involved! Watch the pennies and the dollars will take care of themselves! With three separate fire departments in the Town, at any given time approximately half of the available volunteers can't respond to a call because it is in the other fire district. If they need help, they will call out the other department(s), but with fire doubling in size every minute, seconds can make the difference between life and death! Don't get me wrong, we have some of the finest fire fighters and EMS personnel in the region and I am proud of the service they provide, but why don't we watch the costs of these services just because they are volunteers?