YOUR COMMENTS

My Company has decided a few weeks ago that our plant was not in the budget and is consolidating operations elsewhere. More employees were affected by this than our city layoffs. Some employees have put thier blood sweat and tears into the plant for more than 25 years!!!

In addition, the automakers will be announing the elimination of 1000 plus jobs state wide by May 11th.

In closing, I hope you all get a grip, quit your bitching, because we can't afford to pay our taxes to pay for our services, and send a letter to OBAMA pleading for "stimulus!"

Welcome to the Socialist Generation which I will take the honor of coining "Generation S"!!
- Thomas, Manchester

Cindy:

It's interesting that you "know" what goes on in the fire stations. As a firefighter's wife, I see the things that complaining taxpayers do not see. These men clean and maintain the station, test equipment, and perform many more tasks around the station. They also spend needed time doing much needed training to better protect people like YOU, and they also spend time educating the community and doing countless volunteer duties (on their free time) that may go unseen.

I hope that you never need some "lazy" firefighter to get off his "duff" and help you when you are in a car accident, or to assist your elderly mother when she has a medical emergency. I hope that you never need to see how hard these men work to put out a fire at your home.

It is amazing to me how partisanship can turn people against one another and how ungrateful some people can be for those who look after our safety and welfare. Perhaps if you admire a firefighter's schedule and downtime, you should qualify for the job yourself and see how you like it? Call me the first time you have to pick up some unfortunate soul who has died in a horrible accident and tell me how you feel.
- Pam, Manchester

Good. Firefighters sit in the firehouse all day playing video games, watching tv, lifting weights, etc, doing nothing productive for the city. During down times make them clean the city, create a workshop at the firehouse, etc, any ideas? They are WAY WAY overstaffed. If the union doesn't want layoffs wage concessions should take place. I agree with the volenteer department, I would take time off from work to do the nessasary training. Not that much skill involved. NO NEW TAXES - During tough times taxes should be cut
- Steve, Manchester

Lets get a volunteer fire department on the books?
- Amy, Manchester

People please remember.....firefighters respond to everything within the city!!! They are all certified EMTs/Medics so when someone has a heart attack or breaks a leg...... they respond. If a trench collapses, someone is drowning, flood, hazardous materials release, vehicle accidents, gas leak, poisoning, building structure collapse, search & rescue, confined space.....the list goes on and on.....they respond. They also perform fire prevention, education and inspections. We take for granted all that they do and with the city only growing, we need to keep at least the minimal compliment of professional firefighters. We are properly staffed for a city of this size and the department has not grown in some time. The economy is tough right now but we cannot compromise public safety, the fire department is "public safety."
- Matt, Manchester, NH

I left Manchester 23 years ago and was a firefighter there. Is John Krats nuts ? A volunteer Fire Dept. let's get that response time to 20 minutes. What has happened to Manchester?
- Ray, Las Vegas

24 hours on 72 hours off. That's the deal. Consider you sleep at leaset 8 hours it is a ridiculous schedule. What stooge agreed to this in collective bargaining. These people don't get how over compensated they are and to refer to them all as heroes is to diminish the value of the term. Let's call them another word starting with "H". That word would be HACK. Their actions speak louder than their endless rhetoric.
- Tom, Manchetser

These fireman work two 24 hour shift and do absolutely nothing in between calls. In addition, once they do their two 24 hour shift, they go home and work another job. It's shameful to waste the taxpayers money. During the winter of 2007-08, someone in Manchester, I want to say Guinta, asked that people go out and clear out the fire hydrants to the fireman can find them in case of an emergency. Why don't the firemen get off their duff and do that, give them something to do.
- Cindy, Manchester, NH

http://www.stocktongov.com/fire/index.cfm

Auxiliary Firefighters
Since World War II, the department has maintained a staff of twenty-five Auxiliary Firefighters who respond to all second and greater alarm fires and assist the career firefighters. These volunteer members do not participate in interior attack. Additionally, the auxiliaries assist with various civic functions such as the Asparagus Festival in April and the July 4th Waterfest Celebration.
- JR, Manchester

John Krats, you are a liar. Stockton has 276 full-time firefighters. A Class 1 Dept

http://www.stocktongov.com/fire/index.cfm

Torrance, CA is also a class 1 Dept...no way they can be that with a volunteer dept.

Vancouver, WA has a career Dept that goes to more than 20,000 calls a year.

http://www.cityofvancouver.us/fire.asp?fireID=20445&fireSub=20473&itemid=21174

I decided to stop fact checking when you were 0-3.
- Brian, Claremont

Cities with Auxiliary Firefighters and their population:

Stockton, California, 290141
Torrance, California, 138000
Somerville, Massachusetts, 77478
Dale City, Virginia, 75000
Vancouver, Washington, 162400
- John Krats, Manchester, New Hampshire

John of Manchester, check it out: Stockton, California has a population of 290, 141 citizens. That's almost half again larger than Manchester.

They have an auxiliary firefighter with forty professional firefighters. They are on call 365 days a year twenty four hours a day.

Here is their website: http://www.stocktongov.com/Fire/pages/auxiliary.cfm

You are either part of the problem or part of the solution.
- John Krats, Manchester, New Hampshire

I hate to inform you, Mr Krats, but there are no cities the size of Manchester with a volunteer department. The reason that it would not work in Manchester is the number of calls that are responded to in this city. I believe the downtown station responds to thousands of calls on its own....how would volunteers respond quickly and efficiently to such a volume??

Gary...the FFs union, alderman and department heads had come up with a plan for early retirements that would have saved the city money, avoided layoffs and given the taxpayers some relief. Guinta didn't want to discuss it and wanted to make the idea seem like his own.....his stalling has cost all of us money. He may have "talked" to the department heads, but he certainly didn't give them the information they needed to make an informed decision.

Rich in Manchester....no city employee gets 16 weeks of vacation a year. Stop with the lies. Someone may accumulate 16 weeks if the choose not to take all their weeks every year, but there is no over the top number of vacation weeks given per year.

Frank...why can't we cut necessary city services? Because they are necessary. If you cut them now, it ends up costing the taxpayers more in the future when the city has dig itself out of a mess....much like the current state of the city's vehicles.
- John, Manchester

Everyone needs to remember that this is the time that people rely on these services the most. They take the bus cause they can't afford their car, they call for an ambulance cause they can't afford their doctor. People will be needing these services the most in the upcoming budget year, to cut those services when they will be need the most is irresponsible. We elected these people to make that kind of tough decision, For the mayor to propose an irresponsible budget year after year, just for the sake of looking good for the next election is a joke. Kudos to the responsible alderman.
- Mike, manchester, mj

i was a firefighter in cheshire country + i agree with chief burkush that cutting firefighters jobs isn't wise on the mayors part.most citys in nh have what are call companys which these firefighters have pages that call them in when a station needs to be coverd or there's a 2nd alarm fire etc.they get paid per call or per hour.this works and it would save money and lifes.
- mark, manchester

People wake up. We have over 9000 residents in manchester unemployed. Tell these folks that are looking for jobs that we are raising their taxes so we can give our public servants 16 weeks+ vacation time. YES 16+ weeks of vacation. I think they would take 1 week just to have a job to pay their bills. The mayor has few options.
- Rich, Manchester

I guess ward 4 isn't as important as the sacred firemen. I haven't heard a peep out of fireball Roy about all the jobs that have been lost in the ward, but talk about cutting a fireman? Oh... its about safety .. sure Roy... ya.. sure...
- tom, manchester, nh

Hey Max- read the article. He did talk to the department heads.

As always, he is the only one to try to come up with alternatives- typical union rhetoric- nothing creative to try to save jobs and money.

Talk to your alderman and see if they can come up with one original idea to try to work through this--if not, say good-bye to alot of city jobs.
- Gary, Manchester

No city job comes with a guarantee of lifetime employment nor should it.

Why does Manchester need 234 full time firefighters in any case? There is a simple solution that seems to have escaped everyone here.

Establish a volunteer firefighter auxiliary program in Manchester similar to those found in the majority of towns and not a few cities nationwide. What makes Manchester so special?
- John Krats, Manchester, New Hampshire

Chief Burkush: Just remember, Guinta is a short term-er and won't have to live with the repercussions...so stand up for what you believe is right. Also, good thing you got those fire trucks purchased before he could take them away. It's a shame that you have to beg to get equipment that should be available as part of a planned obsolecense program == something that most progressive cities have in place. Ditto for the highway department.
- Norm G, Manchester

Will someone PLEASE explain to me why, in times of declining tax revenue and economic distress - city services are a sacred cow that MUST NOT BE TOUCHED? It's no different than my personal budget - you make less, you adjust your spending accordingly. If these piggy politicians hadn't grabbed and committed every dollar they could get their hands on when the economy was good we wouldn't be in this mess.
- Frank, Manchester

Funny how Guinta plays ball isn't it? He spends all of his time dictating to the media what his plans are, but does not talk to his department heads or the city workers. But, when election time comes around he will be courting those very people for endorsements. Good luck to him. Just look at the contrast between Guinta and Lynch as the deal with these difficult times - Lynch is cleaning Guinta's clock and is proving he is a much better manager and leader that old Frank. Pehaps that is why Guinta shied away from running against him.

Chief Burkish - good luck to you and your fine men having to deal with such ineptness!
- Max Grey, Manchester

Ald. Roy needs to stop protecting the firefighters. He is a representative of Ward 4, not the entire Manchester Fire Department. All this garbage of how Mayor Guinta is anti safety is ridiculous. Right now there are tough decisions to be made. Cities and towns are coping with layoffs all over the country. This is a fact of the recession we are in. Nobody wants to see layoffs but if there is no money what is the city supposed to do?

the aldermen will cave to the unions and not lilsten to the majority on this one. They will then be arrogant and basically tell the taxpayers we don't know what we are talking about. This is the same song and dance every single year. Time to clean house and get aldermen who will work for the constituents and not protect all the unions. Enough already.
- Jeff, Manchester

I would have expected the mayor to have a little more respect for his department heads. The city's department heads are smart competent people who have been around for years. We now have a mayor who lies to his department heads when presenting his budgets. Do we really want someone leading our city who doesn't have the common courtesy of explaining in full detail what the actual budgetary numbers are with his department heads. Say want you want about our unions, but at least they have been honest and upfront with nothing to hide. Maybe the mayor could take a page out of their book. Just be honest please.
- Dave, Manchester

Mayor Guinta how does cutting 13 positions from the fire dept. not affect public safety? I watched you budget presentation and thought I heard you say the fire dept would be funded with a 3% increase. Did I hear you wrong? A true politician, tells the citizens safety will not be compromised and then cuts jobs.
- Dave, Manchester

So, now the truth comes our and Mayor G's plan would have meant layoffs even with the furloughs. It's funny how he never made a public statement about this fact. How moronic does he think the public is? To say that he wanted to do away with 13 positions in the Fire Department and had no idea that safety would be compromised is either a sign that he is grossly incompetant or a bold faced liar....either one is is a disgrace. Fully fund our necessary services with adequate staffing....manage the city....don't put the public or the city's safety personnel at risk. A dollar wisely spent is not a dollar wasted. I do not envy the city's next mayor who will be forced to deal with the neglect and irresponsibility of New jersey's favorite son.....
- John, Manchester

Raise your hand if you like the new and improved Mark Roy? He says last week the Mayor should have cut spending more and now he says he cut spending too much. Well, Alderman, which is it?

Sounds like he is running for something. Well at least if he does run, it might get him some badly needed exercise.
- Seth Connors, Manchester, NH

Just remember Alderman Jim Roy, you were elected to represent the voters of Ward 4, not the Firefighters. If you can't represent the taxpayers then please step down and we'll get someone who can.
- Ed, Manchester