I have friends in the Government Office Building and they told me temperatures reached over 100 degrees in their office yesterday afternoon. They are afraid of retaliation for sending to the media - but I am sending it in because I believe we are working with a very dangerous situation and the only way to improve things is to expose this via media. The Wicomico County Health Department, the Daily Times, and both TV stations have all visited the office and taken temperatures in the morning when temperatures are much lower. The situation has been frequently dismissed by many as under control, but it is far from the case.
It is now approaching two weeks with no A/C. Employees are not allowed to work from home and if they choose to go home, they must use vacation time. To me, this is beyond unreasonable and inhumane. There is no timeline for getting the unit fixed or replaced, and no one seems to care. The decision makers (executives) are upstairs enjoying full air conditioning since their A/C system is working properly. The outcome would likely be very different if they were suffering through the heat like their lower-rank employees.
Obviously, the city/county officials are so concerned with saving money by not fixing/replacing the A/C unit ..they are not thinking about lost productivity (who can focus on desk work in 100+ degree heat?) as well as cost of probable lawsuits if someone gets very sick or dies.
Thank you.
Name Withheld at Author’s Request
17 comments:
*Bump from an earlier post*
Ok, to all you Bennett Middle "my child is burning up too so screw the GOB" people:
Bennett Middle HAS WINDOWS THAT OPEN!!!! The GOB does NOT have windows that open! For this simple fact, Bennett Middle has NEVER reached the temperatures that the GOB reached this week. Moving air means everything when the heat is on. I actually went in the GOB to pick up a permit on Tuesday and it was easily 20 degrees COOLER outside! Also, students aren't in school in July when the nights are hotter and the building doesn't have the opportunity to cool down.
And to the genius that said, "buy a window unit." What do you expect employees to do? Perhaps throw a brick through a window in order to install said unit? Again, the windows in the GOB DO NOT OPEN!
The GOB is a cesspool for germs and disease. Poor ventilation, no open windows, broken A/C and HVAC filters that haven't been changed in years breed sickness! Next time you go in there take a look around and see how grimy the air returns are.
Everyone who voted for the revenue cap ought to be forced to go sit inside the GOB for 2 hours today.
Everyone who voted for the executive level for county politics should have to go sit in the gov. building
All the government workers have the privilege of sitting in the government office building 7.5 hours a day.
This is a shame. Let the execs move downstairs and the working people move upstairs to the cooler areas.
could some of the offices be consolidated upstairs?
That must be hotter than 2 old maids playing leap frog in an asparagus patch!
1223
And there my fellow Wicomico "Countians" we have the comment of the day!
The beatings will continue until the public makes an outcry that "OK OK, we have had enough, Rick Pollitt/BOE, please raise taxes so we can fix the Air conditoning and have garbage/leaf collection/high school football/magnate program/ whatever causes the most public pain
back.
Here is the dirty filthy secret that democrats/progressives at the County and Board of Education don't want the average voter to find out about.
Who decides what does and doesn't get fixed? Who decides that when belts have to be tightened, what programs get funded and what programs get cut?
That's right Wicomico County, liberal democrats aze going to play games with YOUR tax dollars until ALL of YOU cry uncle and say, PLEASE, PLEASE make the revenue cap go away. Ok, OK, raise my taxes!!!
Example One-
The county is suffering from greatly decreased revenues due to the economic downturn, so Rick, rather than cutting his staff which would require him to actually work, rather than make a cut that might require him having to talk to a reporter now and then, he instead makes the choice not to fix the AC so that those actually doing the work suffer. Rick wants to surround himself with underlings, while letting the BOE employees sweat like house slaves living on the democratic plantation.
Example Two
The BOE's budget in total, will be a few million dollars less, this year as opposed to last year.
One way of making up the difference could be something like perhaps some executive staff, those most able to afford it, might not get annual raises or cost of living increases, or perhaps a few fully pensioned retired teachers might get put off the dole of thier mentor jobs, whatever, but what does the BOE do?
They come up with a plan to ENSURE that poor families, those least able to afford it, will feel the max amount of pain in the form of meal cuts and increasing fees for those most in need.
Folks, the people doing this, that are making these choices are the ones in power at the board of Ed, they are democrats, and they are no friend of the poor, they are no friend of the needy, they serve themselves and their cronies first, and they use the poor and needy as tools to get what they want
.....for themselves.
but wait! pollitt has several new positions available to him! so there MUST BE MONEY! right?
Mmmmm , I think I know what's going on now.
Ireton has planned this so he can attack the city council , or is this a issue with the county , or both?
Anyway ,I guess it will get better shortly.You can't expect miracles with any kind of government. I ve been waiting over a year for my veterans compensation , aint there yet. Good ole government!
1:02 - The BOE will be a few million less? The County has cut education funding by FIFTEEN MILLION dollars the last 2 years, with another 10 million slated for next year. The county dollars for school funding will be down by almost 50% by the end of the next budget. It's already back down to levels the county had more than 10 years ago.
Great, fine and wonderful, you say. Less money for those greedy, good-for-nuthin' teachers. But 1997 dollars don't buy 2011 services at 2011 prices. And in case you haven't noticed, the county's population has grown by more than 10,000 people since 2000 as well. So, more students + a lot less money = the crisis we have.
And for the record, teachers already haven't had raises or cost of living adjustments for the past 3 years and didn't even negotiate for them this year. And what do you have against retired teachers actually collecting the pension for which they worked 30 years to earn?
1:37 you just don't get it! You never will. If you don't think the board of ed could cut back to save the Tax payers money then you are a liberal. So sad.
because the crying about teachers pay NEVER stops. what about cutting WORTHLESS field trips. especially to the ones who are behavior problems and get rewarded. the BEST way to meet a budget is cut OPERATIONS AND MAINTENANCE (O&M) and anyone who knows about business, that would be cutting current salaries and the future retirements of younger employees. the current path of Wico Employee retirement is unsustaintable. If Delmarva Power can do it to their employees, so can Wico County. We need a new executive, one who is not beholden to BOE
I wasn't complaining about teachers pay, thye should be paid for a job well done, but if all you libs are going to talk about means testing maybe we should means test a few retired teachers that are getting big bucks to be teachers aides, ahem excuse me, mentors.
Fruitland Generic BOE schill, you parse your words too carefully, you are somene connected I'll wager, the REALITY is that TOTAL OVERALL funding is down only three million, look it up schill girl!
THE BOE is ONLY looking at a TOTAL EXPECTED LOSS of ONLY three mill, that's a 2.8 to 3.2 percent total budget cut! Big DEAL! Try being an Allen foods employee ya' leech!
Of course the big question is will Freddie boy ask O'Malley to actually DEcrease that amount so that he can prove a point on the backs of Wicomico counties poor and disadvanted families!??
How about Freddy? FOIA ensures I can see all your correspondence with O'Govnuh! Besides, your boy in Annapolis wouldn't want an organized protest down here on the shore when we reveal the actual numvbers now would we?
I always said that place was a living hell. Very fitting for the tone.
If they call Marvin back on a contact basis, he will fix the chiller. In 29 years for the county, he kept PM maintenance
up in the spring.The chiller went went down three times in twenty nine years. carrier has most parts in stock they built that type unit. they have them all over the U.S.
The fact is that the BOE sucks more that half of everyone's tax dollars into their gut, leaving the change to fix roads, have law enforcement, run landfills with theft rings, and provide the multitude of entitlement programs (health & welfare) and every other county service.
I know they do a big job, but not more than half of all other county services combined.
7:15 Is right Marvin was the most dedicated employee maintenance had. He had all the buildings heating and air conditining run in tip top shape.
I blame the exec for not firing Dennis Handly a long time ago! He has no business being a supervisor of maintenance.
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