R.I.P. Janet Travers

  Tuesday, June 30th 2009

It is with sadness that I have been notified of one of the Greenfield Fire District's greatest members passing away.

I recieved word that Firefighter Janet Traver passed away the evening of June 29th.

I'm fairly certain that Janet was a charter member.

Many people have many fond memories of Janet.

When I joined MAFD as a "young pup", it didn't take long to learn how special Janet was. Everyone in the county knew of Janet - her trademark "grandma" voice was the corner stone of the Maple Avenue Fire Company.

As a young and inexperienced firefighter, having Janet at the firehouse just seemed to make everything "easier," well, at least "safer." Even with the "bad calls", hearing her voice over the radio - "KYK three O eight to fire control", created this sort of "safety blanket". I just knew - hearing her voice, that no matter what it was, that everything would be okay in the end.

I remember vividly when one of our junior members had something in his teeth and decided to spit on the firehouse bay floor - in clear view of Janet (a mistake he soon regretted). I'll tell ya what, for a older lady, she was quick on her feet! Janet boxed his left ear in so hard it almost knocked his shoes off. He stumbled a few feet to his right and almost fell over.

My jaw nearly hit the floor.

As he stood there rubbing the left side of his face, he looked at Janet puzzled. And Janet raised her finger and got right in his face and said "you don't spit on your floor at home do you?"

His eyes swelling up with tears he replied, "no ma'am". She then said, "if I ever see you spitting again, you'll be even more sorry - now go in the bathroom and put some cold water on that." And I dont' think he ever spit again!

But that was the type of lady Janet was, standfast in her convinctions, passionate and strong. Perhaps the best way to describe Janet is "dedication" - arguably her most endearing quality, although its hard to pin-point just one - as Janet had so many. She made every fire call, every meeting, every fundraiser - and she served the community with distinction.

She will be missed by all who knew her.

posted by spackmann in News at 11:28 AM (254 day(s) old)  Permalink

Gear Delivery Schedule - UPDATED!

  Wednesday, September 10th 2008

The gear delivery schedule has been changed due to the rescheduling of the last fit test:

1. Tuesday, September 2nd: Greenfield Center firehouse 7 pm
2. Tuesday, September 16th: Porter Corners firehouse 7 pm
3. Tuesday, September 23rd: Middle Grove firehouse 7 pm
4. Tuesday, September 30th: Maple Avenue firehouse 7 pm

Remember that if you can't make your particular firehouse evening, simply contact myself or our purchasing agent and make arraignments to make one of the other delivery nights.

This update will be posted in each of the firehouse's district bulletin board and talked about tonight at our commissioner's meeting (at Porter Corners firehouse).

posted by spackmann in News at 3:47 PM (546 day(s) old)  Permalink

Acting Chairman Update

  Sunday, February 10th 2008

As usual, there are many initiatives and activities being worked on in the Greenfield Fire District. Here's an update, email me with any questions.

1. I am very pleased that Commissioner Bishop has offered to step up and head the investigation on new software to record calls, work details and calculate LOSAP points. Apparently he discovered the FireTracker software during a conference on Long Island.
   
   I have posted on this site many times about how strongly I feel about optimizing how we work as a district - and the reason for that is to alleviate the time requirements on our dedicated volunteers. Software can be a great tool to do just that!
   
   One of the key benefits of this software is that it is web-based, which is now a possibility now that we are getting internet installed in each location. This means that we don't need any special server installations to store the data - this company will take care of all this on our behalf.
   
   I am concerned however on the "backing up" of this data - and getting access to this data for our own copies. But I'm sure we can address this with further investigation...
   
   We set a tentative goal at our last Commissioner's meeting for Commissioner Bishop to report out on this software investigation in April.
2. Internet Technology Installation: the next location to have internet installed will be at the Middle Grove firehouse - tentatively scheduled for Wednesday the 27th of this month. Then we will install into the last location - Porter Corners firehouse. The Time Warner wait for installation is the overhead of this initiative, it can take anywhere from 2 weeks to over a month to get an installation time from Time Warner.
   
   After the internet installation, Tech-II will install and configure the network and then we'll connect the access system to the internet for remote administration. I was originally hoping to have all of this done by the end of 2007 - but with the Time Warner overhead, that obviously didn't happen. Still, I don't see any reason why these initiatives definately can't be accomplished this year. More to follow on this progress...
3. Emergency Generator Installation at the Middle Grove firehouse: the RFP will be received and opened at our February workshop on Thursday, February 28th at the Greenfield Center firehouse. See our website for additional information.
4. Work is proceeding on the installation of the digital overhead projector at the Porter Corners firehouse. I am very happy about this, these projectors are invaluable training tools - next year one will be installed at the Middle Grove firehouse. The Board of Fire Commissioners has also approved the work to upgrade the exhaust hood at the Porter Corners commercial kitchen - so that work will be proceeding shortly - special thanks to Commissioner Waite for taking care of this.

One final note, for those who have been attending the meetings and workshops, you will have noticed that they have been very lengthy and busy. Because of this I have to enforce the necessity to stick to the agenda - otherwise we won't be able to get the meetings concluded at an appropriate time - our last workshop lasted until 10:15pm. If you wish to discuss something with the Board, it is necessary that you contact me and ask to be placed on the agenda.

More to follow...in the meantime, email me with questions!

posted by spackmann in News at 8:34 AM (759 day(s) old)  Permalink

Acting Chairman from January to April

  Wednesday, January 2nd 2008

I will be filling in as acting chairman while Mr. Kugler is away on vacation. I will be acting in this capacity until the end of March.

I hope he has a relaxing and enjoyable vacation!

Any questions, just let me know!

posted by spackmann in News at 10:13 PM (798 day(s) old)  Permalink