It's getting worse.
Not only did the generators at Police/Fire HQ, the Emergency Operations Center at HSB, the High School Emergency Shelter, and the Oakridge School all apparently fail (or run out of fuel?) -- the Town's fueling station also went down!
According to the Broadsider, the DPW pumps went down, forcing cops to buy their own gas for their cruisers -- until Hess ran out of gas! It's bad enough that the Town's fuel supply was apparently inaccessible in a power outage -- but there was no backup arrangement with multiple local gas stations to fuel emergency vehicles and then bill the Town?
Huh?
And, the Oakridge damage is now expected to exceed $500,000 -- not even considering the loss of class time and additional costs for parents who work for a living. How much would it have cost to maintain a working generator?
No word on the cost of replacing the SHS generator.
The folks at The Broadsider apparently have a sense of humor and have been saving this little nugget since last fall -- Before Warren was elected!!
 |
| At least the lights were still on ..... |
(Note: This post has been revised as more facts become known about recent events)
14 comments:
We need to spend less time evacuating schools and playing war games ---- and far more time making sure the generators work .... and have sufficient fuel.
Not as sexy as a mass evacuation -- but way more likely to be a concern!
The BOS needs to have a very public discussion about this incompetence --- there is no excuse for not testing & maintaining emergency equipment.
Heads need to roll.
Ah the wackiness of it all. There was much publicity for the blizzard and foreshadowing of winds and high tides. Yet not one single person bothered to do a dry run of the town back up systems in case of loss of power. Unacceptable!!! How did they pick the $300,000 price tag for Oak Ridge? One estimate? Or guess what we have to get it done and vendors are just throwing out numbers? Our town insurance rates are going to go thru the roof.
If the powers that be think they are going to get a 72,000 sq. ft. public safety buidling they will be continuing to be out of the minds.
Please tell me he didn't say that. The only headline that should appear on the cover of the Sandwich Enterprise:
"FAILURE"
This is beyond the "lessons learned" category.
Mr. Dunham is showing his political party side, his comment to Senator Warren was rather rude. I'm sure he would of struck a different tone if Mr. Brown had been in the room.
10:48, gimme a break! This problem has nothing to do with political affiliation!!!
Based on her own stupid comment, Princess Fake-ahontas showed how out-of-touch she is with local government.
Bud said nothing rude .... he's so used to "getting by" he doesn't even make an effort to try to do anything different.
The reality is that it would have cost nothing to use existing staff to regularly test, maintain, and fuel the generators.
We have a Town Facilities Director, A School Facilities Director, a Town Safety Committee, a Fire Prevention Officer, and a variety of maintenance & publc safety employees. Nobody could check the generators in advance?
How could EVERY major generator in Town fail? Why weren't there any arrangements to fuel vehicles in a power loss?
I agree -- this was pure unprofessionalism & stupidity.
Why should I give these people $30 million if they can't even maintain the small facilities they already have?
I hope the Selectmen have the balls to question the situation and demand changes.
I also think its funny the Broadsider decided to run this item from last October.
It's also worth noting that Warren was not Senator at that time --- just an attention-hungry candidate looking to take advantage of other people's problems for her own benefit!
This ain't a political problem -- its a problem with Bad Management and Bad Supervision!
I was speaking to a retired Oak Ridge teacher who said the pike that broke has had multiple problems of leaking over the years. Staff has come in before to open the room over the office and found water. It was only a matter of time that a large problem would happen. Maybe the design flaw will be fixed this time unlike the leaks happening during the last 3 superintendents.
The Truth Maker would respond by stated the generator at the fire/police station is checked four times a year.
Even if they were not to fail they still did not have enough power to keep the heat on the buildings going.
Now as far as the high school goes, how was it that this generator was allowed to be inside a public building all these many years. A sure program for a disaster to happen/
In order to keep it running they have to keep bringing up the fuel by hand
Where was the public health and building inspectors thinking in allowing such a devise to be installed inside of a building that houses severel thousand children. This sounds like some bad dream from another world.
These generators catch fire, deplete the levels of Oxgen and can explode .
Some one had there heads in the sand when this generator was allowed to stay inside a building, never mind on the third floor
The comment of we are use to doing things on a shoestring is ABSURD!!!! These disasters only go to show that the administration and heads of towns and schools are lost. We pay the highest tax rate on cape cod but we get by on a shoestring? where does our money go? School issues....Facilities director gets employee of the year after one year term and then this happens? Really....employee of year? Dr. canfield is too worried about his stem program and saving the community school. Maybe he should back out of bailing them out we may need tat $35,000 for equipment upgrade or repair. Tis town is a joke!
I agree that this town lacks management at all upper levels. It is time for Dunham to go. Give Wack a little more time to see how he handles these cops who can't keep out of the news. Canfield, the jury is still out. I feel his priorities shifting. I just can't handle another superintendent search. The Wing Principal is retiring this year. Let's start fresh, not hire from within. Booras, pack your bag. I can't speak for the other 2 schools. Time to start over. This storm was an epic fail. It cannot be business as usual.. If our BOS doesn't question decisions, they need to go too. Families have had it.
Funny how Mr. Pierce hasn't chimed in since the blizzard.
I got to thinking of all the missued money in the past few years. We'll start with the whopper I-pads; cameras around the police station which the chief used to monitor his staff when he was on vacation; fences all over town so people can't turn around or pull off to the side of the road (especially in an emergency); consultants galore; community school; OT; the Dr. Johnson debacle; union negotiations; firing/dismissal payouts; paid leave employees; a substantially declining student enrollment but staffing staying the same; wanting to hire paid security personnel for the schools (not approved yet)and on and on. What have I missed?
Will insurance cover Oak Ridge if its been a known problem for years? Never heard what the former tree warden wrote to the town when he resigned, bet that was an enlighting letter. Have transfer station employees been assigned to different departments or are they staying on full-time as transfer station employees even thought the hours have been reduced?
The Truth Maker would say you missed passing the bill onto another generation of Citizens to deal with.
Why were the generators so undergunned to handle the emergency problems . Is this another penny wise and pound fullish way of investing in town security?
If we are to use the keystone cops at the high school I hope that they will well trained in sniffing out the alcohol and drug problems that are driving local students to other school districts.
We also hope they will be trained in hand to hand combat, since they will not be armed.
I find it interesting that loosing around town was so poor this morning. Was informed that it was fie to two snow plow's being down for repairs. Can nothing in this town be maintained. ?
Post a Comment