This morning I received a call from a business owner asking if I could find the time to sit down with him and discuss a situation he's currently experiencing. I agreed to meet with him right away and here's how it went.
A couple months ago his fire alarm went off. The SFD showed up and ruled it a false alarm, (in which it was) The owner came to the business, turned the alarm off but it went off again later.
The next morning he called the alarm company and they immediately came to his business to fix the problem. He installed new smoke detectors, wiring and the whole nine yards. They contacted the SFD and told them they would be on test mode. While working on the system the alarm company triggered the system and the SFD, (even though they had been told they were in test mode) showed up AGAIN. They immediately realized the alarm company was working on the system and the SFD even documented this on their paperwork.
Just when they were wrapping up the repairs the system was triggered again and as you might guess, the SFD came to the scene as if there might be a fire.
NOW, each time it was documented on their internal paperwork the system was being worked on, yet the City sent this business owner TWO bills. The first was for $300.00 and the second was for $600.00.
The business owner tried numerous times to contact Mayor Ireton, (since EVERYTHING has to go through the Mayor now) and the Mayor refused to call him back. His secretary did finally call back after numerous attempts and stated the Mayor had reviewed his complaint and felt the business owner owned the money, period.
The property owner then tried to contact Rick Hoppes, who also refused to return his calls. Until today, the SFD has refused to work with this gentleman.
Well, AFTER my meeting with the business owner today, he went to the SFD and told them that he had been in to see Joe Albero and all of a sudden they told him they would be willing to meet with him tomorrow. Funny how this exact legislation is going up for SECOND reading tonight on false alarm fees, hence my publishing this information now rather then later.
Mayor Jim Ireton is driving businesses OUT of Town and couldn't care less. Jim Ireton has let the position of Mayor go right to his head. He has no respect or understanding of how business works. This owner could easily pack up his business and move to Delmar, DE., (like so many others have already done) and we'd have that much less taxes being collected because the Fire Department is scamming business owners out of money.
The more these businesses leave, the higher your taxes go up. Someone has to make up that loss and clearly Jim Ireton doesn't care.
"This is not Joe Albero's election to lose, it's the citizens' election to lose".
TELL US YOUR STORY... Have you been billed by the Fire Department for false alarms you feel were not justified? Send To: alberobutzo@wmconnect.com
DelMarVa's Premier Source for News, Opinion, Analysis, and Human Interest Contact Publisher Joe Albero at alberobutzo@wmconnect.com or 410-430-5349
33 comments:
Ireton is ANTI Business when are people and voters going to WAKE UP, all ireton wants is LOW INCOME HOUSING downtown.
As if we're not taxed enough here in Salisbury. If you don't get elected Joe I'm leaving. I've had just about enough of this crap.
Sounds like Mayor jim-bob better get a job that allows him to work 80 hrs a week at his school so he can help pay for the LOSS of jobs in this city.what a joke.
1:40 PM, what are you talking about!? He doesn't work when he is there NOW! He is just as much of a tax burden as those on Government Assistance!
Tar and feathers?
Seems to me the fire department screwed up and Jimmy is bullying another business out of money.
Jim doesn't want low income housing- he wants the grant money that comes with low income housing. If the housing was going to be quality apartments that low income people could use, that would be one thing. But they will just be slums to Jimbo and the libs can kill two birds with one stone, bring the the fed money and assuage their liberal guilt.
Look how Ireton wanted to raise taxes last year but Campbell found $16 million in surplus money.
Salisbury better wake up and make sure Debbie Campbell gets re-elected are we will be paying higher taxes to appease a mayor who thinks the citizens can be taxed into prosperity.
The tax payers should send the SFD a bill for responding to this place of business after they had been informed the alarm was being worked on and to expect it to sound.
First, the alarm citations is a city ordinance. It has to be written per se. Now the bigger little known crime the SFD commits is as follows..
get a fire alarm call. They respond and with in 30 seconds of responding. Central advises "the alarm has called back. The home owner has given proper pass code and eveything is ok". Does the SFD cancel their response? Nope they continue in for "paper work" that paper work is the alarm citation.
I left Slumsbury a couple of years ago and moved to Delmar and couldnt be more thankful! Thise guys have it together.
Ireton doesn't have the cajones to tell the business person his stance on the issue, thus his getting a minion to talk to the person.
A professional would have answered their question regardless of the stance and the outcome. It's obvious Ireton still needs to grow up.
The FD has no choice but to respond, That is their job. The CITY is the one here collecting money, not the FD. The FD reduces its response rate when the 911 Center advises of a possible faulty alarm but still responds to ensure that is the case. Nussaince alarms cost taxpayers money. The fees imposed by the city are to help ensure alarms are kept in good working condition to keep from wasting taxpayer time and money. The fees are set by the city and collected by the city and none of it goes to the FD directly so be sure the entire story is relayed. If the FD didnt show up, the business owner would be mad about that and would be calling Ireton about that. Hoppes couldnt return the phone call probably because of what you stated about no one being able to speak to anyone until it goes through the mayor's office as listed in the DT article yesterday. If the FD gets dispatched by 911, they have to go. It should be the actual alarm company that takes heat for this as they should be contacting the business to find out what's wrong in the first place before sending out an actual alarm. And, if the system is being worked on, it should be taken out of service so no alarms can get through to the 911 system. The business owner should have done that and none of this would be being discussed. These are not opinions, these are truths. The business owner takes no ownership for his failure to take the system out of service to have it worked on, yet wants to blame everyone else. He should share the entire story with you.
Businesses in any community should have legal insurance.Issues such as this would be covered when representation was needed.
My business was once billed a false alarm fee because a customers car alarm went off on my lot due to high winds. This was not local by the way.
"surplus" money that was a combination of bilking public works out of even modest merit based raises and over taxing the public!
what does the alarm ordinance sate
I've been billed by SPD for a false alarm when windows in my building were completely busted out. The Police Dept paperwork said that the building was completely secured. Imagine the fight that caused with my insurance company.
The biggest problem in this whole article is as Joe mentioned. Rick Hoppes. When will the mayor wake up and get rid of this problem. April can't get here soon enough.
I know of a business that got a $15,000 fine.
I see the old Jimmy's Grill is abandoned again. All of the signs are being removed and the building is abandoned again.
Anonymous said...
I see the old Jimmy's Grill is abandoned again. All of the signs are being removed and the building is abandoned again.
February 11, 2013 at 5:18 PM
I rode by there this afternoon and there was a sign that said "Coming soon NY Fried Chicken."
That will be a failure because Maryland is known for having some of the best fried chicken. I travel a lot and had no idea chicken was a specialty in NY? Does anyone even raise chickens in NY or do they get them from Perdue in Maryland? Nothing has been a success at that location, but I would rather take a chance at putting a NY pizzeria there.
The mayor should have returned the business owner's phone call and it should have been returned within a couple of hours if for nothing else than to let the business owner know he was aware of his concerns. NO excuse-NONE esp since the mayor apparently has time to lollygag on his website intented only to bully and intimidate Joe.
It is the responsibility of the alarm company to notify the central monitoring station that the system is on test PRIOR to doing any work. If the fire department was contacted by central station for an alarm while the technician was doing work it is the technictions fault and that of the alarm company.
5:49 NY fried chicken = Low income fast food for those on the dole...kinda like the area on most Chinese carryout restaurant menus that have wings and fries. Their customer base will not be those of means, but those that live just north of there.
Greasy, amazing fried foods - including burgers and other non fried items. Just the thing you need sometimes when you have that craving for fried chicken, or mini sweet potato pies, onion rings or their AMAZING CORN BITES!! A definite recommendation!
Anonymous said...
First, the alarm citations is a city ordinance. It has to be written per se. Now the bigger little known crime the SFD commits is as follows..
get a fire alarm call. They respond and with in 30 seconds of responding. Central advises "the alarm has called back. The home owner has given proper pass code and eveything is ok". Does the SFD cancel their response? Nope they continue in for "paper work" that paper work is the alarm citation.
February 11, 2013 at 2:46 PM
In defense of the SFD and I am no fan of theirs. If the 911 center gets the false alarm signal then gets the all is ok call then why do the continue to dispatch the fire department when they know in fact it was a false alarm.
The Salisbury Fire Department wants to be dispatched for these false alarms for the same reason they chase ambulance calls with a fire truck. It increase call numbers thus increasing job security. They tell you they had 10,000 fire calls a year making you think there was that many "fires" when in fact they were only ambulance calls and false alarms. There may be a handful of small fires so actually the paid firemen really get paid to do nothing. The mayor and council has no clue how many fires there really are because they are not given the true facts.
I see these guys all the time driving in their big gas guzzling firetrucks all over the city and all they're doing is wasting taxpayer money to go get lunch; I've never seen such abuse of money in any other city I've ever been in.
11:43 is right. If you ever see an engine and you have the time...follow it.
Neither of you have any idea what you're talking about. You'd be pretty tired at the end of any of their shifts. I ride with them as a vol and you have no idea. And their statistics are broken down into specific categories so any one, mayor, council, or civilian can see exactly what they're doing and even when their doing it. Unless you've ridden and know, you don't know . So quit hating and get off your lazy butt and go educate yourself instead of throwing out complete falsehoods.
Yes the numbers are broken down into categories. But numbers can be made to show anything the author wants. that being said there is definitely a need for career firefighters. The "real numbers" are as follows approximately 8,500-9,000 EMS (ambulance ) calls and approximately 1,000 engine calls. Note that I did not say "fire calls". Actual fire call are less than 200. The majority of engine responses are to assist EMS.This is not unique to SFD it is the same wherever you go. Although in the larger cities the fire calls are higher. The career firefighters are just an insurance policy. Something that we pay for but hope we never use.
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