SCHENECTADY Little things add up in city’s budget BY KATHLEEN MOORE Gazette Reporter
Want to know where your tax money gets spent? Sure, the Police Department is 20 percent of the city’s $72.7 million budget, and the Fire Department makes up another 13 percent. But most of the city budget is spent on little projects that residents simply take for granted. Each spring, residents drive around newly painted crosswalks, avoid the stream of water from hydrant flushing and pass by dozens of workers in the parks without ever realizing how much money is spent on those endeavors. Enjoying the fresh flowers and mowed grass in the park? The landscaping bill: $24,000. Hauling away the yard waste and rotten trees to clean up the parks costs another $50,000 every year, and the city runs through $12,000 replacing those trees. As for the “free” entertainment at Music Haven: the city’s tab is $30,000. Equally unnoticed is the cost of the city’s streetlights and the municipal phone system. It costs taxpayers $1.9 million to keep electricity flowing to the street lights each year, and $210,000 just to keep the phones at City Hall working, before factoring in the cost of employees to answer those phones. HYDRANTS CRITICAL But the most obvious service that residents overlook many be the yearly fire hydrant maintenance. Residents generally assume that their hydrants will work if a fire breaks out, but three workers spend three months every spring making sure of that. Every year, they find about 50 hydrants that must be replaced and many more that need new caps or caulking, Engineer Bernie Sisson said. To test the hydrants, workers flush all 2,200. Hydrant flushing can be seen in almost every municipality this time of year. There is real money going down that drain. The city pays for every gallon of water and spends $40,000 on new hydrants to replace the ones that were broken by plows and drivers over the winter. “Sometimes they get hit and people don’t know it, but they get broken off underground,” Sisson said. “Every year we find one or two of those.” Other hydrants need work because water froze inside over the winter, breaking the pipes. The city sends two part-time laborers out to do the job at a cost of $24,000, and also pays a senior maintenance worker to supervise. But that is dwarfed by the amount of money the city spends to keep the municipal buildings clean. The supplies cost the city $20,000 this year, along with $186,000 in salary for nine cleaners. And then there’s mailing out the tax bills. The city’s notices cost $8,000 in postage, while the paper and envelopes cost another $6,000. A few thousand dollars here and there adds up. These six examples total $2.5 million — roughly the equivalent of the so-called garbage tax, in which each property owner pays $131 for garbage pickup.
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MobileTerminal
April 19, 2008, 8:47am
Guest User
Why don't the firefighters (who are already on salary) go around and check hydrants when they're just sitting around? They're getting paid for a full time job - it's time they do it.
Good point mobil...but then how would the city justify the jobs of the ones that do check the hydrants now? It's a Democratic Dynasty for heaven's sake!! Most of these workers are friends, relatives or friends of relatives or relatives of friends that some politician knows.
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
Why don't the firefighters (who are already on salary) go around and check hydrants when they're just sitting around? They're getting paid for a full time job - it's time they do it.
What kind of comment is this......just sitting around..... they have the water department that checks the hydrants out...how can you even say a comment like this......they are on duty 24/7 risking there lives and you got the nerve saying this stupid comment
Come on bgage...lighten up here. First of all it isn't 24/7. It is 24/2. They work 2/24hr shifts per week. With three days off in between. And to make it really bias here, I have good friends that are Schenectady fireman. And although I agree, in part with your analogy, just think of the average person who walks or rides by the fire houses during the summer and see them sitting outside, which appears to them to be doing 'nothing'. And as they walk or ride by, they either smell or see smoke coming from the firehouse that is nothing more than a barbaque on site.
Now educated in the fire field as you and I, know that they have to eat...so no big whoop here. But to the people who honestly 'don't' know....to them it is just a cake job where they can sit around, work out and eat all they want. AND get paid a pretty good buck with great benefits....to do NOTHING most of the time.
It's all perception here!
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
Why don't the firefighters (who are already on salary) go around and check hydrants when they're just sitting around? They're getting paid for a full time job - it's time they do it.
Somehow I feel more comfortable having them standing by for a call then being in the middle of checking fire hydrants. Every minute in fact every second counts when it means saving a life.
Somehow I feel more comfortable having them standing by for a call then being in the middle of checking fire hydrants. Every minute in fact every second counts when it means saving a life.
Then maybe you should take them off the paramedic calls (where they are NOT needed) - let the fire professionals do the work they're trained for - and let the paramedics do what THEY'RE trained/paid for.
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
Come on bgage...lighten up here. First of all it isn't 24/7. It is 24/2. They work 2/24hr shifts per week. With three days off in between. And to make it really bias here, I have good friends that are Schenectady fireman. And although I agree, in part with your analogy, just think of the average person who walks or rides by the fire houses during the summer and see them sitting outside, which appears to them to be doing 'nothing'. And as they walk or ride by, they either smell or see smoke coming from the firehouse that is nothing more than a barbaque on site.
Now educated in the fire field as you and I, know that they have to eat...so no big whoop here. But to the people who honestly 'don't' know....to them it is just a cake job where they can sit around, work out and eat all they want. AND get paid a pretty good buck with great benefits....to do NOTHING most of the time.
It's all perception here!
Well bumble thanks for the schedule info.....I have family in the department so i know alot more about the job then you do......24/2 =48 hours (sounds like full time hours) .........bet your good friends in the department would love to know how you are putting down there job......great friend you are......you and mobile do not have a clue; just hide behind your keyboards and your fake sign on names. also i love how you put nothing in capital letters .....unreal
Then maybe you should take them off the paramedic calls (where they are NOT needed) - let the fire professionals do the work they're trained for - and let the paramedics do what THEY'RE trained/paid for.
Well bumble thanks for the schedule info.....I have family in the department so i know alot more about the job then you do......24/2 =48 hours (sounds like full time hours) .........bet your good friends in the department would love to know how you are putting down there job......great friend you are......you and mobile do not have a clue; just hide behind your keyboards and your fake sign on names. also i love how you put nothing in capital letters .....unreal
Geeezzzz bgage, how could you get this from my previous post? That proves my point about perception. First, I never said it was a part time job. I just clarified that each fire'person' works 24/2. That wasn't a put down, it was just stating a fact.
Second, it wasn't a put down nor was it 'my' perception. What I posted, and I thought it was clear, that this was how some other folks view the job.
Third, I wouldn't call it 'hiding behind a keyboard'. Some people seem to have the need to post with their real name to make a particular point or statement. And I respect that. But not everyone chooses to do that. And I respect that. And in some situations I think it is best. Cause obviously, a lot gets lost in translation through cyberspace.
This is what I mean about everyone's perception!
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
......24/2 =48 hours (sounds like full time hours) .........
Firefighters is a respected and necessary profession. Maybe the point mobil was trying to make is that on the 5 off days the firefighters have, offer them useful jobs around the city. Like checking hydrants. And compensate them for their service above their yearly salary. It may be cheaper than hiring new full time employees when it can get done with current city employees on an overtime basis. The city..... and county for that matter, need to find creative solutions to cut down on spending.
I know that many firefighters have part-time and sometimes full time jobs besides their 2/24 as a city firefighter.
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