On Darien firefighters want chief to take action against troublesome employee
Posted on August 30 at 8:31 a.m. ( Suggest removal )
Neckcuta- If you are truly a tax payer in the Village of Darien I think you should have bigger concerns over where you tax dollar is going rather than the relatively small amount of money it may take to educate a few new firefighters. Although you might be someone who thinks it is all right for the Public Works Department to be setting up and preparing for the Darien Beerfest with Free Corn or maybe you enjoy walking past the same dead animal on the road for weeks. Perhaps you may even think the Darien Police Department is stationed out of the Corner Market (formally Rollette Oil). Have you ever seen what Village clerical staff wages are, come on it is only Darien. I agree with Ram003 maybe it is time for the Village and Township to explore the option of hiring some higher qualified individuals to fill some positions within the Fire and EMS departments. Have you ever called EMS and have another municipalities ambulance or private ambulance show up at your door after a half hour of waiting. I feel it is due time for change. Neckcuta, you write about how highly qualified these firefighters where, maybe you should research a little more before making this statement. I was also eluding to the fact that some previous members that may already be qualified may want to return to the department after the three pre mentioned “members” are gone.
On Darien firefighters want chief to take action against troublesome employee
Posted on August 28 at 3:05 p.m. ( Suggest removal )
Has DFD received applications from anyone now that Iverson, McKInney, and Morgan have left. Just a thought.
On Darien fire department handling problems itself
Posted on August 14 at 8:09 a.m. ( Suggest removal )
As I read the two articles and comments about the recent events within the Darien Fire Department I am somewhat concerned and confused. It seems to me that the governing bodies (the people that were elected to represent the citizens of both the Village and Township of Darien) are washing their hands of the problems of the fIre department. I ask myself, "How can this be"? "Are the elected officials not concerned with the safety of the citizens"? Another issue that seems unclear to me is who in the Village or Township oversees the fIre department. I would think that they both would have a vested interest in that organization, because of monetary reasons and public safety. It almost seems as if the involved parties view the fire department as a nice club to belong to, rather than an organization that provides a valuable service to the community. It has also been written that the First Assistant Chief has over stepped his authority. My questions regarding this are, "Who grants his authority, and is there not a Chief ahead of the First Assistant Chief that could resolve these problems and issues prior to having them exposed to the media"? Secondly, "In what ways does the membership perceive he has over stepped his authority"? Has he tried to make changes to provide better service, has he tried to maintain facilities and equipment better, has he tried to implement changes that make responders safer, if so these are things that sound like a Chief Officer of a fIre department should be concerned with and try to use his authority to change.
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On Darien firefighters want chief to take action against troublesome employee
Posted on August 30 at 11:52 p.m. ( Suggest removal )
Nekcuta- I would like to start off by apologizing to you, my intentions where never to offend you with my opinions. First and foremost it is my opinion that you do not need to be a taxpayer of a particular community to be concerned about community events and concerns. If you have family that resides within the area that the Darien Fire Department serves or for that matter any area, in my opinion you have every right to be concerned with the quality of emergency serves that they may or may not be receiving. As far as the cost of training new personnel I understand that not only can it cause a monetary strain on the budget of the fire department, that then can put a strain on the general budget of a municipality and certainly with the condition our economy is in now we all have to be somewhat cognizant of how money is being spent. I also fully understand that attending and completing these courses can take many precious hours away from ones family. However when I referred to the training as being relatively inexpensive I was trying to look at the bigger picture and was referring to what options the Township and Village of Darien may have, cost of hiring a 24/7 crew that are professionals that can conduct themselves in that manner or even contracting services out. Both of those options would put a bigger monetary burden on the Village and Township than educating new personnel. I have attended the Darien Cornfest for the majority of my life as well. I have always had the understanding that the Darien Fire Department operates the corn stand itself and has done a great job for many years. Again, I was looking at the bigger picture and beyond the corn stand and have seen many hours spent by Village employees preparing and cleaning up after the festivities. It is only my opinion but I think that their time could be better spent. So in closing I feel taking time to volunteer for your community in whatever way you can is great, weather as a firefighter, EMT, or participating in community events. It seems to me that we are all concerned about the current state of the Darien Fire Department. I hope that these issues will be resolved soon, however until they are I am sure the Darien Fire Department could use everyone’s support and will continue to do the job to the best of there ability.