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SCHENECTADY
Benefits of new DPW building touted
Building is safer, shelters vehicles, has body shop
BY KATHLEEN MOORE Gazette Reporter

    Inside the most expensive city building built in years, the work areas are furnished with picnic tables, cement floors and corrugated steel ceilings.
    But to the employees who used to work in crumbling buildings with broken windows covered in plywood or, even worse, under a bridge without even a portable bathroom, the $20 million public works complex more than lives up to its half-in-jest nickname of “the Taj Mahal.”
    “You don’t appreciate what you’re seeing here because you were never in the old building,” Acting Mayor Gary McCarthy said, adding ruefully, “The old building was an OSHA-free zone.”
    The old workplace had a shelf with bottles of water on it so that employees could douse themselves if they touched one of the caustic chemicals they use. Now there are eye wash stations and showers.
    Every barrel of potential pollution, from car fluids to chemicals, sits in a frame designed to contain any leaks. There are folders on the wall detailing how to clean up from any spill. Before, there was nothing; employees had to call supervisors in the hopes of fi nding someone who happened to know how to clean up a particular chemical. Now they can simply grab the nearest folder.
    “We’re protecting the site,” Commissioner of General Services Carl Olsen said, detailing how the city spent years removing toxins from the ground before constructing the new building. “It cost $5 million to pull it out of the site. We want to keep it clean.”
    Employees love the new complex. But some taxpayers have questioned whether the city should have borrowed $25.5 mil- lion — including cleanup costs — when Schenectady had to cut its work force by 10 percent and can’t even afford to fi x sidewalks during road paving this year.
    Olsen argued repeatedly that the complex would save the city money. ...............>>>>...............>>>>.....................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....ppName=1  

Oh yeah, it saved money. Sure. We are dumb and can't add. Only governmental dukes, barons and earls know anything, Regular people like us know nothing and should be kept quiet by our masters.

Quoted from GrahamBonnet

Oh yeah, it saved money. Sure. We are dumb and can't add. Only governmental dukes, barons and earls know anything, Regular people like us know nothing and should be kept quiet by our masters.

nothing to see here...move along move along.......here's a quarter for the feed dispenser, now bow your head to be petted......

Guess it takes a certain level of distain to spend $100K repainting a garbage truck just to parade it through the decimated neighborhoods.

Very basic: you take care of the people who LIVE in your City first. You lower their taxes before building a $20 million dollar man cave.

Quoted from rachel72

Guess it takes a certain level of distain to spend $100K repainting a garbage truck just to parade it through the decimated neighborhoods.

Very basic: you take care of the people who LIVE in your City first. You lower their taxes before building a $20 million dollar man cave.

Exactly right! With the debt burden it's a $40 MILLION noose around City taxpayers neck. No one is calling it a Taj Mahal in jest. Why not consolidate with the County? The DEMS like to throw the word consolidation around and then build-BUILD! A failed attempt by the Gazetto to defend this wasteful expenditure.

     BTW take a look at Foster Avenue-with all the new curbs and sidewalks a total mess. Homes collapsing-roofs falling off-porches imploding. This is symbolic of three decades of DEM overspending while ignoring basic quality of life issues. You can't drive down City streets but the City Taj Mahal can do body repair! Had enough-YET?

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SCHENECTADY
City’s body shop not hurting private shops
BY KATHLEEN MOORE Gazette Reporter
Reach Gazette reporter Kathleen Moore at 395-3120 or moore@dailygazette.com.

    There’s a new competitor in town.
    The city of Schenectady’s body shop is now competing for repair jobs — but because the shop is bidding only on jobs involving city vehicles, private body shop owners said they’re not particularly worried by the competition.
    “They always did a lot of stuff in-house anyway,” said Todd Plemenik, vice president of Frank & Sons Body Works in Scotia. “Of course, we don’t want them to take any work from us, but if it’s run properly, it may be a way for the city to make money.”
    The city recently won the bid to repair Fire Engine 11, which was damaged by a car that crashed into it. The owner’s insurance agreed to pay $21,000 for the work.
    That wasn’t necessarily a profi t for the city, but it more than covered the cost of labor and materials, Director of Administration John Paolino said.
    “We do include overhead. We want to recoup some of the costs we incurred in building that magnificent facility,” he said.
    But he added that the city can’t bid too high or the insurance company will reject it and go to another shop. “We submit an estimate like other body shops do,” Paolino said. “We’ve gotten some. We haven’t lost many.”
    He openly worried that body shop owners would say the city was intruding into the private sector.
    “We don’t want to hurt any body shop,” he said.
    But body shop owners said they got very few city insurance claims — mainly the occasional police car. ......................>>>>...................>>>>..........................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r01301&AppName=1

Another idiotic defense of the new DPW Taj Mahal. How come they didn't interview Vince Riggi?-lol- Socialists and profit should not be used in the same sentence. Prediction: It loses money like everything the City DEMS propose.

And if perchance the body shop business takes off, to not have to turn down any business (which the argument there will be the more we do the faster the debt load of the garage will be reduced, but omitting the initial cost,20 mill.) will they say will need more hires to keep up with the demand?   More tax payer benefits/expense benefits etc.

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City doesn’t have to bid for body shop work

    I read with great interest the April 29 article, [“City’s body shop not hurting private shops”] about Schenectady’s city-run body shop and its venture into the collision repair of city-owned vehicles.
    In respect to the article, I agree that we should not be in competition with private facilities to do outside customer work, but as far as the city doing collision repair on city-owned vehicles, I strongly disagree with Schenectady’s Director of Administration John Paolino’s opinion of “bidding” to get the job. It is not necessary or required. Section 2610 of New York Insurance Law clearly states that an insurance company may not require that repairs be made to a motor vehicle in a particular place or repair shop, otherwise known as “steering.” The city has the right to have its vehicles repaired in the shop of its choice.
    The city needs only to submit its own estimate, no other estimates or bids are required, and the insurance company must negotiate the claim, “in good faith,” with the city to obtain an agreed fi gure. The city is entitled to a fair settlement paying for all damages to restore the vehicle to pre-accident condition.
    If the city’s body shop cannot negotiate “in good faith” with an insurance company to an agreed profi table fi gure from doing said collision work, one could conclude that either the insurance company is “low balling” or the city’s total expenses to run the body shop in this “magnificent facility” must be extraordinary. In the case of insurance company “low balling,” the city would have recourse with the state Insurance Department, which would investigate the claim for validity.
In my opinion, the city should not be creating new jobs when the threat of layoffs looms large over the city’s work force. Our former mayor warned that rising pension costs will add an additional $5 million to the budget over the next few years. Adding a new department, when outsourcing is a perfect option, makes no sense.

VINCE RIGGI
Schenectady
The writer has worked in the body shop industry for 50 years. He is a candidate for City Council on the new Alliance Party line.

http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r00704&AppName=1

Nothing the City DEMS do makes any sense. Instead of promoting public jobs and getting City residents involved in more money losing schemes they must concentrate on slashing oppressive City property taxes. This would encourage home ownership and promote private business creation. Instead they hatch more half baked schemes; free rent in City owned property that no one wants, lower down payments on City homes no one wants, slicing the federal Community Block grants into smaller pieces of pie. The only answer is a brooming in November.