Risky Business

 “It has been reported to OMP that the union leadership at Public Works scored a victory when First Selectman Gormley informed P. Perrotti in writing that he (Perrotti) needs to stop taking work from town employees by mowing town lawns and plowing town-owned property.”

Taking work away from Town employees???  Hey, wait a minute.  Didn’t they close the Transfer Station on Wednesdays because there was too much grass to cut.  Have Town employees been laid off because the grass is being cut at Fire HQ?

“It is reported that Perrotti received a letter from Mr. Gormley informing him of the above. The union did a good job in protecting its members and saving the town from a potential lawsuit resulting from when and if an amateur crashed into a tree on a lawnmower.”

Thank goodness that was taken care of.  The union saved the day. They may just have averted a Town-wide walkout, if this behavior continued. It would have been a mess. Firefighters crossing the picket lines with their Lawn Boys and John Deeres to come to the rescue.  You would have really seen the grass clippings fly then. This is why they pay union dues.  It is protection you can count on.

The Fire Chief who operates fire apparatus costing millions of dollars, would be a total amateur on his own garden tractor. An accident just waiting to happen. Work such as this should really be left in the hands of teenaged, part-time, minimum waged-paid, non-union, summer help professionals.  They possess the skills to maneuver around the many waiting obstacles and dangers that lurk upon the lawns of Fire HQ. This type of work is fraught with danger for mere mortals, and much more dangerous than fighting fires.

This is just plain silly. The Fire Chief is doing the Town and Taxpayers a favor by cutting the grass at Fire HQ.  It frees the PW and B&G to work on other projects that would be deemed more important than cutting grass, such as re-opening the transfer station on Wednesdays.  The Fire Chief takes pride in taking care of Fire HQ.  The Town should be taking pride in its Fire Chief.