Quoted from 147

Hey TakingItBack, I think you should add "Hamburg" to your disclaimer:

TIP TO NEW VISITORS TO THIS FORUM - To improve your blogging pleasure it is recommended to ignore (Through editing your prefere) the posts of the following bloggers - DemocraticVoiceofReason, Scotsgod08 and Smoking Bananas.  They continually go off topic, do not provide facts and make irrational remarks. If you do not believe me, this can be proven by their reputation scores or by a sampling of their posts.  

Quoted from rampage

I'll second thst except thinking of theonewhoshallnotbenamed getting into costume in the basement to play the part.

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SITTING DUCKS
    “Parked cars, fixed objects, those are the things we can control,” she said. “Hitting fixed objects: just look around you.”
    Cool Insurance and its auto liability subsidiary, Trident Company, will offer training during the day and in the evening so that city employees won’t have to come in on overtime. Each course will be one to two hours, Alam said.
    Residents have long complained that the city has too many vehicles, which it must buy, maintain, fuel and insure. Last year, McCarthy said he wanted to reduce the fl eet, to cut costs as well as getting revenue by selling cars.
    He said this year that reducing the fleet has taken longer than expected.
   This isn’t the first time the city has faced criticism from insurers. The trash collectors were retrained after a city consultant followed them secretly one day to fi nd out why they were making so many workers comp claims. In her report to the council, she said many weren’t wearing gloves or boots. She also said workers behaved carelessly at times and took unnecessary risks, including drivers reading newspapers as they waited for others to collect garbage, rather than watching out for cars that might strike the workers.

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SCHENECTADY
City writes driving policy to address crash rate
BY KATHLEEN MOORE Gazette Reporter
Reach Gazette reporter Kathleen Moore at 395-3120 or moore@dailygazette.com.

    Schenectady has no written policies on how employees become eligible to drive a city vehicle, what training they must have or how they will be disciplined if they cause accidents.
    But after drivers got into 98 accidents last year — in some weeks, there was an at-fault accident every day — the City Council is trying to hammer out rules and regulations.
    The policy debate might also severely restrict the number of employees who get to take a city car home.
    Council President Denise Brucker wants the policy to start with the basics: employees must report every accident, including every detail that would normally be provided to an insurance company. That includes the name of the driver, among other things — a detail the insurance company did not have for some of last year’s accidents.
    It’s also not clear whether employees or their direct supervisors informed department heads of minor accidents. City officials say the mayor’s office was not told about many accidents.
    The council first learned about the accident rate this year when its insurer said it would increase the city’s premium by $1.5 million. City officials negotiated a deal in which drivers will take a training class and the city will pay up to $25,000 per accident, essentially covering the costs of almost every crash, rather than paying an additional $1.5 million up front.
    The new driving policy will likely also require regular driver training. Some drivers are already getting specialized defensive-driving classes, and Councilwoman Barbara Blanchard said that should continue for every city driver.
    She also wants to make sure fi refi ghters get specialized driving classes before taking long hook-and-ladder trucks out to a fire. Unlike most truck drivers, fi refi ghters don’t have to have a commercial driver’s license.
    Police already get driver training during their six months in the academy, but she said all emergency workers should get a refresher course if they start causing accidents.
    If those drivers don’t improve, council members are willing to take away driving privileges, even if it means employees will lose their jobs.
    “Maybe we could give them another job, but I can’t see putting other drivers and passengers at risk and spending a lot of city money repairing these vehicles,” Blanchard said. ....................>>>>..........................>>>>................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r01100&AppName=1

Quoted from Shadow

Allowing employees to drive large trucks/equipment without a CDL and exposing the city residents to costly lawsuits is just plain negligent.

Quoted from Cel

Haven't had my scanner on in months but gonna turn it on today. This time I am going to keep count of how many times the plows hit the cars.

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SCHENECTADY
City-run body shop could close
BY KATHLEEN MOORE Gazette Reporter
Reach Gazette reporter Kathleen Moore at 395-3120 or moore@dailygazette.com.

The city’s huge insurance costs this year may spell the end of the city-run body shop.
Last year, the body shop barely broke even by collecting city insurance payments for repairs to city vehicles, as well as fixing six county vehicles.
This year, the city is on the hook for up to $25,000 in repairs for each accident. That means the body shop won’t get any insurance payouts to make its budget.
Michael McNulty, who had been hired as the body shop manager, is hoping to make ends meet by getting paid jobs from other municipalities. If he fails, the shop may close.
“If it doesn’t make money, we have to cut it,” Councilman Carl Erikson said. “If he can do it, I’m for it. If he can’t, it’s got to go.”
Last year, the fi rst year the shop was open, it brought in $178,000. Almost all of that came from the city’s insurance. Its other income was county payment for work on two dump trucks and four plow trucks.
    It was considered a promising beginning: the shop made $30,000 more than it cost to operate, mainly the salaries for the two workers. Also, those workers had so little to do that they spent half their time working in the city’s mechanical division, at no cost to that division.
    Commissioner of General Services Carl Olsen wants the shop so he can sandblast rust off his heavy equipment and keep it running for years longer than normal. That’s only affordable if the body shop can bring in enough money on paid jobs to stay open, so he was delighted when the shop did so in its fi rst year.
    McNulty isn’t giving up despite the loss of most of the body shop’s revenue.
    “We had a very good start,” he said. “After the snow season, we will start visiting the other towns, showing them what we can do. I would say it’s too early to pull the plug. We’re still going to reach out to other towns to try to reach into their business.” .......................>>>>....................>>>>..................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r01502&AppName=1

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Last year, the first year the shop was open, it brought in $178,000. Almost all of that came from the city’s insurance. Its other income was county payment for work on two dump trucks and four plow trucks.
    It was considered a promising beginning: the shop made $30,000 more than it cost to operate, mainly the salaries for the two workers. Also, those workers had so little to do that they spent half their time working in the city’s mechanical division, at no cost to that division.