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| White Elephant One has arrived! Still no word on funding for operating costs and the local share of maintenance and training. Will it effect response times if the crew from Station One is following the Coast Guard Boats around instead of operating on dry land? (see related story ) |
14 comments:
Not being a fire fighter or ambulance technician myself, it’s not immediately clear to me how staffing and maintaining this piece of equipment will solve the problem with slow response times to East Sandwich? Are most East Sandwich residents living on the water, perhaps?
Bob you missed one great use for this torpedo boat. The town can now use it to enforce the new personal docks down on Peters Pond now that THAT silly lawsuit is dead in the water, pun intended! Hell, those engines will last a thousand years with a speed limit of only 15 mph on the pond!
I think they should call this boat "The Johnson" --- either to describe the person who thought it was a Good Idea ..... or because it costs about the same as what they will end up paying to Dr. Johnson to settle that lawsuit!!
Greg first of it was not a silly lawsuit it was an appeal.
The appeal was about the group not following the regulations imposed upon any one placing piers on public owned water ways. They circumvented the whole process and our Natural Resource Department went along with it.
What was not stated in the article was that the state fined the group for all of the violations they were allowed to get away by not only the Natural Resource Department , but by the Conservation Department as well.
A new order of conditions was issued from the state that reflect some dramatic changes to what our town allowed this group to get away with.
What will be interesting to see is from the 18 families listed as part of the Canvas Back , how many will actually pay a portion of the fine accessed and all the lawyer fees?
One good thing that once the piers are in place , they must be removed from the water for the winter and that the property taxes will increase the values on the homes affected and bring in a little more cash to the town.
I am sure that those who will not have a pier to use will not likely want to pay more taxes for some one elses benefits. This all may seem a done deal, but it still has a way to go before these piers get back in the water.
If the group and the town had done the right thing from the get go and not attempted to privatize public property [Peters Pond] and destroyed the habitat in doing so an appeal would have never been filed
I did some checking on the fine accessed it was $8,000. Just think what type of damage the town allowed them to do on public property and no oversite from the Natural Resource and Conservation departments on behalf of the citizens of Sandwich , who pay there salaries.
To my old friend the Truthmaker, I was attempting to make a small joke at the cost of the publicity that surrounds those docks. I could not agree more with your conviction to keep after those who attempted to do these things without the proper documentation. I also agree that our ability to reach the waters edge is endangered every day by those who feel it is solely theirs to view and use. I just renewed my fishing licenses....this year both fresh and salt. I need some down time. Maybe the town can lend me the torpedo boat to fish for some stripers eh? By the way, listening to those Canvas Backs reminded me too much of my military history.... long stories can make anyone think they are entitled. Stay healthy Carl!
Sunday approximately 10:00a.m. Sandwich ambulance parked next to marina on the grass. Sandwich firefighter just sitting in the boat. Sandwich Firefigher boat sitting next to 2 Coast Guard Boats. Picture Perfect Waste of Money!!!!!!!
We all love the Fire Dept --- but this is a bad joke. Today's CCT story was nonsense -- we don't have sufficient manpower to staff the boat without incurring substantial overtime.
When is the last time we had a fire on a fishing boat? When was the last time we had an ambulance call in East Sandwich? Don't you think THAT is where we should be putting resources?
The idiots who allowed this waste should be fired.
So, we have a million dollar taxpayer funded boat to fight fishing fleet fires -- of which I can not remember one in the past 20 years.
Yet, we can't open the East Sandwich fire station which has multiple ambulance calls almost every day.
Seriously?
Since the chief justifies this boat expense in large part because of the risk of boat fires, all you internet junkies may want to “google” Sandwich Marina Fire and Cape Cod Canal Fire just to see how many boat fires have been reported. Hint: I wasn’t able to find a single reported fire event using my PC’s search engines.
If this thing is soooo wonderful why has it been such a secret for 2 yrs?
You may want to do a little research this subject matter has been spoken to before in the past year or so now. No one was paying attention until they see it on the water, spraying water.
This boat is a tribute to the non management of the town manager and the fire department. Managers can man east sandwich- or build a new one and then man that from the OVERTIME costs from the 36 firefighters and dispatches. They collected $778,000 last year alone. That equals about 12 firefighters that could at $65,000 per. The overtime costs are do to the unwillingness of management to address the "working and sleeping" schedule and the union rules that were common in the 1980's. This boat and the $100 grand in OT built into the grant are spent in the wrong direction. This highly complicated machine will force the department to hire a mechanic. This does NOTHING to better this department and our community.
Bob G. is right about why the building was vacated. However, it took years for the BOS to decide what to do about it. They didn't even know until last year that a historic preservation restriction already existed for the building via the Old King's Highway Historic District.
You recall when it did go to Town Meeting to be voted for a sale, there was not a historic restriction. Town said no.
That year, 2011 the Chair of the BOS agreed to let the town's historic commission weigh in. It was to take a reasonable amount of time, but the year came and went and no recommendation even though it was brought up time and again in BOS meetings. The next administration came and went.
So here we are. Sometimes it is not just about the leadership. The politics of all the town boards and how that impacts these things is a huge piece as well. Let us not forget the side bar time and energy put into the Chamber wanting the town to give them the building, go after CPA funds to restore it and move it.
Small town politics run amuck. Sandwich is not alone in this I am sure.
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