Breaking News....

Palmer told us there is no definite timetable for when a decision will be made.

...the clock keeps on ticking.

Define " Future"

When asked how long it will take for a decision, Palmer said, "Hopefully within the near future."


The three firefighters, all men, will be paid more than $50,000 combined while on administrative leave before the investigation is finished.

Good Job RH on keeping us informed.

Tale of Two Cities

Hannibal gets a $50 Million Dollar expansion of a hometown industry.







Quincy gets a Buffalo Wild Wings.

Stone Age Wing Ding

Was toying with the idea of entering the Hannibal Wing Ding, but after reading the rules, I have to say WTF?

First of all the rules weren't posted on their web site until about 2 weeks ago. Nothing like waiting until the last minute to let them out.

Second, NO ELECTRIC ? What the Hell is with this? What is this some kind of science experiment? How is someone gonna keep 40 lbs of wings at the required temperature of 165 degrees?

Hoping Rob at the OLCC can scrape up the dirt from the rodeo and come up with some kind of modern version of this. (with electric)

Makes You Wonder...

What kind of a POS would intentionally pump 29 BB's into a poor defenseless animal is beyond me.

My only wish for this person would to be caught, jailed and the same treatment used on them.

If you have any information, you're asked to call the Quincy Regional Crimestoppers Hotline at 228-4474.

There is a reward available.

Handy Piece of Equipment

We have one of these at work. If there's every a problem, just load up the spreader and drive around the building. This way everyone get a little blame.

Truck and plow also come in handy during snow storms.

L is for.............

Loser.

Hummmmm......

From Mondays City Council Meeting:


Awarded an $8,225 contract to Richards Electric Motor Co. to repair the internal gears at Quincy's water treatment plant.


How much would it cost to repair the internal gears at Quincy's City Hall ?

January Tornado Warning ???

WTF is this?

Tookie, stop pissing off GREDF !


In other non-threatening news, I have added two new links in addition to removing the ones that have been idle for some time.

If I missed someone, let me know.

Thanks for the links.

Cleaning House

I will be updating links this week sooooo......

If you are linked here and haven't been blogging for a while, I may delete the link. If I delete you in error, let me know.

Just take a moment here and thank my fellow Bloggers for the links and thank everyone who stops by to read or post.

In the new year if you start up a blog, add a link to Quincy Fire and I will return the favor!


Thanks again.

Fire.

New Year's Resolutions...

Have a Safe and Happy New Year.

List some of your New Years Resolutions...

Holiday !

Merry Christmas !






( damn! Someone lit my tree)

Wild Fire ( Holiday Edition )

Pick your topic.......

...and Happy Holidays !!!

Just To Let You Know...

Fire doesn't Bitch about everything.

Kudos to Central Services for getting thru this ice storm. Quincy streets are looking mighty fine.

Good Job !

$25,000 and counting....

The firefighters have been paid a total of about $25,000 since they were placed on administrative leave in mid-October while city officials investigated alleged violations of policies and misuse of equipment.

Charlie Doan told WGEM News last week that commissioners hoped to arrive at a decision by Christmas.



This Year ?

Do I look Busy?

If it ain’t enough to have 3 public employees on paid retreat pending a post-holiday investigation, now we have a front page story on three more employees tooting their horns acting like they did something..

First, let me define a few words for everyone:

Loophole, in Law, is a weakness or exception that allows the law to be circumvented or otherwise legally avoided by some means. Loopholes are searched for and used in a variety of circumstances, including taxes, politics, and criminal justice.

Law is a system of rules usually enforced through a set of institutions. Law affects everyday life and society in a variety of ways.

Local ordinance is a law usually found in a municipal code. In the United States, these laws are enforced locally in addition to state law and Federal law.

Now on to my point.

For those of you playing at home, the Smoke Free Illinois Code starts on page 222. This was released Oct. 7, 2007.

Where the hell is this “loophole”? It CLEARLY states in there that:

A proprietor may designate an area as an outdoor patio where smoking is

Permitted…..

“"Outdoor patio" means an area that is either: enclosed by a roof or other overhead covering and walls or side coverings on not more than two sides; or has no roof or other overhead coverings regardless of the number of walls, fence or other side coverings. This includes, but is not limited to, beer gardens or other outdoor seating.”

How can something that is undoubtedly spelled out be a “loophole”?

It also states as far as drafting a “local ordinance”:

NOTICE OF PROPOSED RULES

a) Any home rule unit of local government, any non-home rule municipality, or any

non-home rule county within the unincorporated territory of the county may

regulate smoking in public places, but that regulation must be no less restrictive

than the Act and this Part.

Which means: You can add to it and make it stricter but not take away anything defined in the act.

So pretty much what your saying is that your gonna cut & paste from the Smoke Free act, like I have, and make it a local ordinance? In addition, the “new” ordinance would require bar owners to obtain a special "Class H" license to have a beer garden. What make-a-buck-Chuck and his panel failed to disclose is this license will cost each and every beer garden owner $50 a year.

Meanwhile at Baldwin Field sits a 40,000 sq. ft. empty building with a $398,280.14 defaulted loan on it. If you go out to look at it, be careful driving down Broadway and reading the Electronic Message Boards. You might get into a wreck.

Some Insight on Comcast...

Ran across this article while reading about Da' Bears.

Seems like we may not be taking a step up.....

6 Seconds on Broadway

The Quincy Department of Planning and Development believes flashing electronic message boards clustered along city streets could pose a safety risk for motorists.

Really?

"It's simply a matter of addressing what I see as a potential problem down the road," City Planner Chuck Bevelheimer said. "I don't want to wait until it becomes a problem."

With all the future vision this city has for Planning and Development, this makes the front page as your biggest concern?

Apparently no one from the P&D was out on “Black Friday” to see the “smooth” flow of traffic on Broadway. I made the mistake of taking Broadway back from I-72 Friday and was stuck in traffic from approx. from 40^th to 30^th. It took over eight minutes to make it this distance. If they are concerned about flashing message boards here, I could have read War and Peace while waiting for the lights to change. OK, maybe just the ads for Friday.

I guess this must not be a problem.

If I were to dish out $40K for a EMB, the last thing I want to see is the city police stopping by and telling me that my message lasted 6.32 seconds and write me a ticket.

Personally, I don’t think the Plan commission should waste their time with this one. Let the businesses decide what they put on their signs. If the message is too long, I generally don’t read them.

Most of my time on Broadway is watching the cars around me with the people driving, yacking on the cell phone and weaving in the lanes like they are doing a tire cornering test for Goodyear.

Focus on the current problems please.

Day 21...and counting !

Word out of City Hall is.........

Hump Day...

Few thoughts for today:

• Three city employees (all women) released form the city.

• Three Fire dept employees (all men) sitting on the fence pending committees verdict.

Hope the Mayor is correct in saying they have a strong case. If not, the city could be looking at some high $$ court cases.

More thoughts:

• There are 4 legal eagles on the payroll for the city.

• We fly in a hired gun to take care of this personal issue.

Kinda like having 4 snow blowers sitting in your garage and when it snows, pay the neighbor kid to shovel your drive…….

Final Thoughts:

• Employers can be liable for employees' misuse of company e-mail

• Sexual, racial, and other forms of harassment can be done by e-mail

• Too much time wasted surfing the World Wide Web

Monitoring employees' use of company computers, e-mail, and the Internet involve the same basic issues as come into play with general searches at work, telephone monitoring, and video surveillance. Those basic issues revolve around letting employees know that as far as work is concerned, they have no expectation of privacy in their use of company premises, facilities, or resources, and they are subject to monitoring at all times. Naturally, reason and common sense supply some understandable limitations, such as no video cameras in employee restrooms, and no forced searches of someone's clothing or body, but beyond that, almost anything is possible in the areas of searches and monitoring. They have the right to inspect an employee's computer, HD, floppy disks, and other media at any time.

Scary Huh ??