THE MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, CITY COUNCIL had a collective brain fart and decided that it would be a wise move to stop hiring contractors to board up houses that were either burned out or damaged from police raids. Starting today it will be the job of the firefighters stop what they are doing and spend an hour or so nailing plywood over the doors and windows. It doesn’t stop there, though. They will also be required to paint the plywood and trim out the patch with molding.
The president of the firefighters’ Local rightly points out that all these “savings” will be lost after the first carpentry-related injury occurs. KMSP-TV Ch. 9 ran this video report last night showing what kind of foolishness is going on in city hall:
The city has undergone layoffs and this year it is refusing to hire firefighters to fill the 36 vacancies arising from retirements. Along with running only 3 FF’s on each unit, they are having to run extra companies to bring enough manpower to an incident.
The clueless mayor is blaming the state government for the shorthanded situation because it is not giving money to the city for its fire protection.
Also on FireGeezer…
- Minneapolis Set To Whack Fire Department – July 28, 2011
- Minneapolis Decimates FD. Local’s Pres. Fires Back – August 22, 2011
- Minneapolis Fire Chief Alex Jackson to Retire – January 5, 2012
- Minneapolis steals one firefighter from front-line staffing for unprofitable board-up project – April 30, 2011
