Thanks

[faxmachine]

I want to thank the Boro of Chambersburg Fire Chief for causing the President of the Friendship Fire Co. to quit today. I'm sure that he and Eric are having a celebration right now. Enjoy the moment and remember "what goes around comes around".

[theduke]

I just want to say thank you to Chief 1 also. The President of the Friendship Engine and Hose Company is a very fine Man. He was there if any of his members had a problem. He would do what he could to help his members. Then comes along someone that talks out besides of his mouth. One minute he is saying that the Friendships need to get their boro active members numbers up. And then he turns around and gets rid of members that do more work in one day at the station then some of the paid guys do all week. The reason that he is getting rid of them members is because they are a criminal record that is over 6 years old. Now I know that there is someone that did federal time and is still and active member of the boro. Can we say double standards. Now I am not posting this to piss anyone off, I am posting this because very few people listen to the little man and I think people needed to be aware of this problem. You all have a great day

[theduke]

sorry for the misspelling it was meant to both sides

[whitecoat]

>:(I always come here and read what people writes. But I had to make a account to reply to this topic.

Friendships seems to be going to the dumps all their good members are getting tired of all the crap going on their.
If one would stop and think their had to been a reason for Gigs to say the heck with them also.
Now I guess MR Warne is Priesdent hmmmm here is another position of many that he will have his noise involved in.
Why cant this person just retire and let the new generation of responders and members take over?
Don't get me wrong he did alot for the company and the fire police organazation in his time BUT its time to go forward with the new and the future. QUIT trying to run things from the past and the old ways. Did one ever think why all the good members droped out of both and said the hell with it let him run the show??
HMMMMMMM IF IT ISNT BAD ENOUGH LOOK AT FP1 LOOK AT THE DOORS ON THE CAB SEE WHOS NAME IS THEIR!!!!!!
It's nowonder the fire police cant keep new members eaither or officers. WHO IS THE BLAME??? Sorry to see you go Preston we will miss you. Maybe the BIG HOUSE will get another x member from friendships.

[pearhead]

I don't believe that we are all looking at the BIG picture. Its not about who may or may not be taking the roll of president. Its about the Boro as a whole. Mr. Oyer, Finch, and the Fire Chief do not want volunteers in the Boro. they would rather have a full paid staff and let the volunteers come from Marion, New Franklin, and Sta 4. If you really look at the picture you will see that they put paid guys at McKinley street years ago. What happened they started acting like most of the Boro paid firefighters do and started running out the volunteers. The paid guys went away here came the volunteers again. Now I believe in October 2007 they bring back the paid guys and guess what no more volunteers at McKinley St.. I was driving past about 2 weeks ago and seen that the doors were up so I figured that I would pay a visit to my old home. I walked into what use to be that bunk room that is now the TV room and seen an interesting sight. There were two people in the chairs sound asleep, one of them being a paid guy and the other looked like a street bum, greasy hair, glasses and his hat almost falling on the floor. Now is it just me or is that a public building from 8-5 through the week? How would that look to the public if they come walking in for information and to see the firehouse and there is the "staff"( and I use that term lightly after seeing that) laying around on recliners sleeping. What a good image.

Now after doing some research I have found out who these people are and I will not say names but I will say that I am not surprised and the least. The volunteer has no job nor does he have a place to live and from what I hear should be considered disabled and not active. The career man well lets just say that he is one of the biggest reasons there are no volunteers in that building. I thought that I have seen it all back in the 80's when they use to put pears on the ramp and Sheppard wanted the building closed, but nothing compares to what is going on there now. The Friendships should pack there things and leave they would be much better off in the long run. That company being the oldest active in the Common Wealth deserves a HELL of a lot better than what they are getting from these mental midgets. That company was the first fire company in the Boro back in 1780 and nobody in that Boro should treat they like they do. I have not been to a meeting in I know 15 yrs but I will go to one just to find out what is going on and why they have not pulled out all the stops and turned this into a blood bath, by calling some organization like the ACLU of something like that.

Will post more as I hear about it I am sure that there is more to come. Just hang in there guys you can win this one!!!!!!!

[faxmachine]

I would like to thank pearhead for his very well written comments. I know the greasy haired bum you spoke about and lets be thankful no one from the general public did walk in. Only the good Lord knows what filth would have came out of his mouth and the possible law suit that might have followed. But look at it this way, he's went from bum to the paid stooges right hand man.
Lets move on to the jest of the problem. I'm not going to refer to the clown at headquarters Station as a fire chief. He's not. Period. He's a paid flunky for the morons up town. Lets take the white shirt off him and dress him as he should be....big nose, orange wig and size 40 shoes. A clown.
I agree that Eric the jerk has a agenda and that is to get rid of the volunteers. Now we can just announce that we're closing the building and it's been fun, see ya but I'm not sure the public would appreciate losing their fire protection in the south end of town. So what do we do? We run them out. New rules every week. The 3 paid stooges stabbing the volunteers in the back and saying what ever comes to mind and the fools down town believing it. What recourse do the volunteers have? NONE! When their union rep is one of the 3 stooges it's hard to bring any displinary action aganist them no matter how grevious the crime committed.
In short maybe this town should burn down again and start over. Lets hope the surrounding companies stay away due to lack of man power that night. I don't see any hugh loss.

[faxmachine]

With over 1100 hit this thread seems to be seriously popular. I only wish others through out the county would express their views. But that wasn't the reason I logged on tonight. Rumor on the streets is big trouble is brewing and it's about to explode. A little explosion is good now and then but when the powers to be refuse to fix it thats when you hear the bang. Well it's comming boys and girls. Get those ear plugs ready.

[pearhead]

Well you are right "faxmachine" there is going to be a big bang. Big enough to maybe get the "powers to be" off there as%es and do something about it. When the volunteers of Co. 14 realize that they need to file grievance's against the "paid guys" for harassment and creating a hostile work environment then there will be a BIG BANG. ;D ;D ;DI heard through the rumor mill that a certain paid guy thinks that he can go through ET 14 (private property of Co. 14) and tell the officers of that company what they can and cant do with fireman's relief equipment. WRONG that equipment has nothing to do with the "paid guys", hopefully somebody informed the company officers of this so that this BS will not happen in the future. Well thats all that I have for now.

P.S. This has been read over 2,000 times. I would think that somebody else wants to say something.

[faxmachine]

That my dear friend is call the 'arrogance of power". I heard that same rumor and the paid person mentioned is arrogant. Some would say down right ignorant. But remember...we're suppose to bow down and and be little rats to these people who were able to spell their name right on a application. I'm willing to bet there are 100 true volunteers in this county who could do a better job than the 3 stooges at McKinley St. Station.
Gee, I can mop a floor. Look at me Mom...I can drive the engine downtown for 4 to 5 hours to workout. Golly jeepers, is that a new video game? Lets play that for 8 straight hours.
Give me a break. These clowns will not be missed.

[faxmachine]

We all know from reading the paper or from the news on the web that most states and large cities are in deep trouble budget wise. I would assume that most smaller towns are feeling the crunch as well. If I was a manager of one of these towns I'd be looking for ways to save a dollar or two. With that in mind I've put myself into good old Eric's shoes and came up with this idea. Now remember this is just a idea and it's my opinion. But then I'm sure Eric is reading this and I don't see his opinions on this board. So heres my plan to save a few dollars if I was a town manager. Lets run the volunteers out of a paid department. Sound familiar? Now with no volunteers we can close McKinley St. Station and more than likely sell the property to the school board. God knows they buy everything offered to them. Since we have no more volunteers who's going to fight the fires? Volunteers!! But not from Chambersburg. Volunteers from the surrounding companies. Lets see who we have....Station 4, Comapnies 8, 17, 18 and even 3 in a pinch. Just think of the money we're saving by letting those guys fight the fires. No turn out gear, no tee shirts, no job shirts. We can be one little happy family letting other people do the job and it dosen't cost the Boro of chambersurg a penny. Wake up people.....you not may not realize it but you're helping to get rid of the Boro volunteers every time you answer a call inside the Boro limits. If you want to end up being screwed like the Boro volunteers are keep on comming. If you don't think it'll happen to you just ask anyone at McKinley St. If theres anyone left.

[GOAT]

So someone please fill us in what's going on other than the "rumors" these folks have posted!

Is it really what they say OR is it the fact that someone is enforcing the rules?!?!?!?!?!?!

Also, who owns the building?

[pearhead]

Goat,

I am not sure as to why you believe these are "rumors" unless you are one of them. You may be but than you would know what is going on.

Fact: The Boro has a "memo" that they go off of when doing a back-round check. This memo was wrote without Boro Council knowing, they do now, and from what I have been told they do not agree with this memo.

It states that if you a summary offense (parking ticket, speeding ticket) you are not permitted to volunteer for the Boro for at least 1 year. If you have a mister-meaner of the 2nd or 3rd degree you may not volunteer for 2 years. If you are charged with a mister-meaner of the 1st degree or a felony you are not permitted to volunteer for 10 years or until the Assistant Boro Manager feels you have done your time and you have been restricted long enough.

First, any lawyer or the ACLU would have a field day with that, the way that is worded and how it is written. It was not even signed by the Assistant Boro Manager. From what I understand the FEHC has already looked into this memo to find this out.

Second, when the Boro Chief was hired he came to each of the 4 companies meetings and said that he is to recruit more volunteers and get the numbers up. Now go around Chambersburg and get 20 people, run there back-rounds. Now you are down to 3 that pass out of 20. In this day in age you will not find that many people who have squeaky clean back-rounds. The term squeaky clean came straight from the Boro Fire Chief. He feels that EVERYBODY should have a squeaky clean back-round.

I am not against that, but if a person who has been a member of one of the 4 companies for a year and a half almost two years and does more at the firehouse in one day then the paid guys do in a week, was convicted in 2003 for writing bad checks. Which was a mister-meaner of the 2nd or 3rd degree, he or she was told they could not volunteer until 2012. Why wait for almost 2 years to tell this person they can not be at the firehouse or on the property do it before they are voted into membership.

As far as the President of the FEHC resigning, yes that did happing. He felt that with him being a law enforcement officer and the law being broke that he should have no part in it.

Now on to the "paid guy" who thinks he owns the place.
FACT: He did go through the ET without a Co. 14 officer being present . He did confront 2 officers from the FEHC off Boro property while he was on duty and proceed to tell them that they had to remove identification stickers from Boro property.

Anybody with any commonsense would know that they were put on Boro property to insure that what ever the property maybe it would be returned to the ET on a call or after the call was over. It was not because the company wants to take possession of the equipment, its because the company wants to ensure that the equipment gets returned to the proper place. So if nothing else the Boro should thank the officers for taking care of there and keeping track of there equipment.

Now on to the BIG part, as far as the FEHC filing grievances against the "paid guys" they can do that. The Boro considers the volunteers to be employees of the Boro. Therefor all the rules that apply to the "paid guys" apply to them. The volunteers should not have to work in a hostile work environment nor should they be harassed by the "paid guys" in a public parking lot.

The hostile work environment was created when the paid guys at the station started thinking they could tell the FEHC members what to do with the ET, writing letters of complaint to the water and sewer supervisor and faxing them from the firehouse while on duty, going through ET 14 and jumping the officers about things, there I am better than you attitudes and many other various and childish examples.

So now I ask you Mr. Goat, is there anything else that you want explained to you? If so than please feel free to ask I am sure that somebody will answer you. ;D

[GOAT]

Pear,

No need to call me Mr and no need to get all defensive.

All I did was ask a question.

And my view on the issue of criminal backgrounds is they should be MANDATORY. If you knowingly take in members with certain types of convictions, you can cause problems down the road.

[pearhead]

Goat,
I have to say the you are right they should be mandatory, only if you are going to do the same across the board with everybody. I also believe that if they are going to do these background checks they should come up with a better way to base there conclusion on. I apologize for getting up tight, but these are problems that the Boro does not want anybody to address and when people do address these problems they do not get straight answerers to the questions it's like they don't know how to answer them.

[atriplef]

Rumor on the street is that the repo man is coming to the McKinley Street Station to pick up an engine tanker, is that true???