The Inside Story - a twisted tale

A bit ago I brought the interesting goings on of The Volunteer Fire Department at Turn of River with the musings of "Why do Politicians Lie?" The story came out because of extreme construction behind the Stamford Ambulance (which is City property) where no neighboring residents were notified before hand. The fact that no notices or information was forthcoming from the people who were orchestrating the fast paced work made everything seem like an undercover operation. One worker was extremely out in the open about the lack of proper notification.
He also backed away from involvement.

Scott Mirkin, a rep for the city actually tried to find out what the plans were and was fairly rebuffed:

The item is on review this month on the Fiscal committee agenda. I placed several calls before I left for vacation on 5/25. These were bits of information but nothing concrete. Whatever is going to happen with the project will most likely be different based on the agreement that was mentioned between TOR Volunteer Fire Department and the City. BTW...I returned from vacation and have been digging out.

He called my friend and told them at the meeting nothing concrete was again reveled, but he has the feeling that the mayor has a bug up his rear-end about the volunteer fire departments in general. (my speculation-was he refused one time entry?)
The end result of this action is that we would have the same issue as with the police - many people who don't live in Stamford and don't really care about Stamford in general working in important positions of emergency response.
Again Scott Mirkin told my friend to go visit the area of Turn of River Rd with its 'temporary building' and said the same is planned for this part of Long Ridge Rd.

It is now July and the temp building is in place And a Fire Truck Now sits in the Stamford Ambulance Parking Lot, for what purpose? And what is the problem the mayor has with the Volunteer Fire Department?

Why do Politicians Lie?

Any one who has read any of my posts, knows that I am a 'civil servant' and that I frequently take issue with the politics of the moment. I have been work a long time and have tried (not always successful) to give service in my capacity to the rest of the citizens who come to me for assistance. I have no problem telling some one that I can't help them, but I might know some one who does - or I have no clue. I have no problem going out on a limb and saying what my knowledge tells me, even if it is not 'company policy'. I have no problem giving an educated guess - even if that guess turns out to be wrong and I have no problem being wrong about something. But I have never bald face lied to any question given to me.
So why do they do it?
This situation occurred just recently - with something that was a simple query concerning construction occurring at the Stamford EMS on Long Ridge Rd. I wanted to know what was going on cause some one had told my friend that there was quiet a story going on.
Now I don't fully understand the Mayor's dispute with the volunteer fire companies and I generally like what the mayor has done in this town at least as far as upgrading the 'stone age' items we were working with as far as record keeping and communication are concerned.
I do have a problem when anyone does something behind everyones backs and is sneaky about it, particularly when they are a 'public servant'.

So the story is I want to know what is going on at the Stamford EMS and all the construction. I E-mail a few people with some picutes and ask what is going on?

and then I see Bill Callion, the Director and oversight of Police, Fire and Health and think surely he must know. I do so as a citizen of Stamford, not an employee.
He says that There is nothing going on and they are not putting a firehouse there and says that there is already a foundation there.
Representative Day, District 13, E mails me and says it is only an expansion of the parking lot.

I am now curious, so I go over and take more pictures and notice that the storm drain in front of EMS is being moved and that there are electrical panels being put up.
An article in the advocate exposes more issues and all is clear,

Territory dispute mars volunteer fire talks - By Wynne Parry
Staff Writer

STAMFORD - Turn of River volunteer fire officials said they learned last week - days before today's scheduled mediation with the city - that city officials plan to set up trailers for paid firefighters in their district. View Full Story

So the question again is why do politicians lie???

More Email to me confirming the story, which I am sure are available via FOI.

So the question again is why do politicians lie???

The system does not work part 2

So I get a frantic call from this person, because she is a friend, saying she has to get out of her apartment, that the landlord (who is her cousin) has no money to pay and she has to pay for the motel. Remember - the damage was maybe 3 sq ft large in the kitchen. I knew that there used to be policy concerning this and the city had some funds to provide for these situations. I go to the correct person and find out the city won't do fires any more, but the Red Cross has a Federal Grant to work with this. One night has past and my friend and 3 children are in the Stamford motel cause it is the cheapest motel around. I call the Red Cross, cause the people whose job it was, forgot to. They provide money for 3 nights at a much better place and food vouchers.
Meantime I go and ask
1) why the Red Cross wasn't called and
2)why the unit was condemned

The Red Cross was an over site because this was part of the cross training thing for inspectors and this was this persons first fire. (but it happens with other inspectors - save one)
The unit was condemned because of the smoke and THE HEALTH DEPARTMENT HAD TO COVER ITSELF, JUST IN CASE!
Ii AM GLAD THE HEALTH DEPARTMENT DOESN'T COME INTO MY KITCHEN WHEN I AM COOKING CAUSE I PRODUCE MORE SMOKE THAN WAS IN THIS APARTMENT.

To be continued...

The system does NOT work-part 1

I was not sure If I was going to post this or not and it might take some time to compose.
The system is broken - a friend had a small kitchen fire in her apartment, not super bad, but the fire department was called and then the health department. I was going to take a picture, but did not and should have. a 1 ft section above the stove was black, a small portion of the ceiling was black, a window pane was cracked and the interior portion broken and a portion of the frame was black. That was it, not 'fire' damage per say, no water damage. A Cockatiel sitting in its cage in the kitchen was not harmed. The Health Department came, they called the owner of the unit (who was a cousin of the tenant) and they condemned the unit. The rooms where they slept were not damaged. She does have 3 children (the youngest is 9). The owner told the Health Department person that they would take care of putting her up until repairs were done. The Health department left.