City Commissioner Mell Kuhn is in the ICU at the hospital in Arkansas City. He had sugery.
He is expected to make a full recovery.
In other breaking city news, the purchase of a new ambulance has been put on hold. Commissioner Dotty Smith said she wants to do some more research and see if the old one can be repaired.
More on both stories on the web site.
www.arkcityrevived.com
Are you freakin kidding me? Didn't they already vote to buy the new one? How can she change her mind after she voted for it and want something different now? What do they do in the work things before the meetings? Questions, I got lots of questions! What a circus!
ReplyDeleteThey voted to buy a new one way back during the budgetting process early last summer.
ReplyDeleteFire chief would have been coming to them in january anyways, saying, its time to buy that ambulance you agreed to buy.
So he comes a few weeks early, saying, if we buy it a month early, we can save $30-$40 grand.
So in in interest of saving money, they say no.
hummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
Well, lets hope dottie is not in need of an ambulance and it breaks down when transporting her to the hospital. Maybe then she'll get the picture.
ReplyDeleteInteresting that Kuhn is having surgery. Not a word in the local paper or their website.
ReplyDeleteThey must be waiting to find out how its his fault that he got sick.
Most cities are cutting spending and this city is not cutting we are still buying and buying.
ReplyDeleteI am glad that they are looking at repairs. They are asking us to spend money over the next 3 or 4 years for this ambulance. We don't know what budgets are going to look like in the coming years.
I hope no ambulance breaks down while anyone is being taken to the hospital. But I also don't want to spend money that I might get later.
No family today can honestly say that they have nothing to worry about in the job market and families are not free spending on credit. The city employees have to stop the gotta have it, cuz I gotta have it thing. We need leaders who can evalute and time to evalute the information that is passed to the commission.
Mayor Jay Warren tried to stop the ambulance vote by asking to hold off and it was Commission Snell that said let's just go.
How many of us have put a future budget item down and then had to scrap that until some other time maybe never but we figure out a way to get what we need done done. And if the chief can't figure out how to be an emergency response department without that new shinning ambulance than maybe it's not the ambulance that needs replaced.
I hope Mel gets better fast... Get well Mel...
ReplyDeleteAnd if the chief can't figure out how to be an emergency response department without that new shinning ambulance than maybe it's not the ambulance that needs replaced" That is the saddest statement I have ever heard! The chief has never said he could not provide protection. The commission approved the purchase last may, the very same commission that voted to approve it last meeting. Dotty was in on all the budget approvals. I am very confused by all of this they approved the budgets last may, approved for the chief to proceed with the purchase. The chief provides info that will save about $25,000 tax dollars, they approve that then she cancels the purchase. Sounds to me we are beating up the chief for trying to save money!
ReplyDeleteSounds to me like the chief did his job, provided the info they asked for and let them make the decision. I am sure the firemen will provide as best they can with whatever tools we give them!
this equipment does NOT last forever, but i do wonder about the cost of a transmission. someone said it cost more thean unit worth????????? must not be worth much or the tranny is VERY expensive! just wondering.d.
ReplyDeleteI agree seams like they want to shoot the messenger! If Dotty didn't want the new ambulance then she should have stood up and voted no. Seems she doesn't want to be the unpopular one, so she can dump it all on the fire chief. After the way they treat the city employees I can't imagine why the chief would even want to subject himself to all the crap for a "shinning new ambulance"
ReplyDeleteAfter the way they treat the city employees I can't imagine why the chief would even want to subject himself to all the crap for a "shinning new ambulance"
ReplyDeleteDecember 23, 2009 5:34 PM
I am guessing there are 80 thousand reasons at least - plus benies and perqs.
Well, maybe they are growing more concerned about the shortfalls that may come in 2010!
ReplyDeleteIn the Market Crash of 1929 it didn't really hit bottom until 1931!
To forget History is probably to repeat it!
Who knows what the State is going to be forced to do next year or the Feds and what impact that will have locally.
So far the area hasn't added that many new jobs and there is always the possibility of losing more!
Then just for kicks:
Go to pawneenation.org download the newsletter and read page 9.
I dont have the numbers right now, but it seems like a new transmission was several thousand dollars.
ReplyDeleteThere are also some electrical problems.
The value of the unit, what it can be sold for, is less than $10,000.
But im just going on memory there.
The Pawnee newsletter was interesting.
ReplyDeleteThis plan has been thrown around for a few years.
Sounds like quiet the development at Chilocco.
There must be a way that Arkansas City could get involved.
Where are the visionaries?
Well it wasn't exactly the type of developement that I was hoping the area would attract! If in fact it is still on track.
ReplyDeleteBut its on their land and in Oklahoma so who knows what that will add to Kansas. Maybe at the very least some jobs.
It may ,however, end up having a positive effect on future growth and development - only time will tell.
bad house fire at kansas and 9th last night. started in fireplace chimeny area. every one got out i think. check out pix on newscow.d.
ReplyDeleteWhy can't people just give Dottie credit for taking a stand now? It is much harder to speeak up and stop the presses once budget athority has been put out there than to just let it go. You comment about her being unwilling to be unpopular doesn't fit. We have a bunch of directors of departmetns that are kingdom builders. They will do what ever it takes to sustain thier feifdoms and arent concerned about whats going on with the economy. THey are like mini-lobbyists. It isn't theyr jobs to be worried about budgets. That's the commissions job. They just decide how to spend the money that they are given and their job is to get all they can by making a case for why the funds should be spent. Too bad the commission keeps getting such bad and misleading information from staff and too bad the commission doesn't have the cahones to require ARcher to do anything about it.
ReplyDeleteOn this very eve of the birth of christ you have chosen to bad mouth the city department heads. Seems to me the chief is trying to do what is best for our community and save money. God Bless you! and have a wonderful holiday.
ReplyDeleteSeems to me dottie has issues with making decisions. Well lets hope the ambulance doesnt break down in a life or death situation. It'll be on her shoulders as far as I'm concerned.
ReplyDeleteSeems to me Dottie has issues.
ReplyDelete@ December 24, 2009 10:01 PM
ReplyDeleteCurious that anonymous post finds some connection between Christmas eve and criticism of City department heads but does not think it also in poor taste to attack elected officials.
First off, I don't catch the connection. Are those well paid employees somehow responsible for Christmas? Secondly, why only defend a certain population. Why not be nice to everyone.
It would be interesting to see how many anonymous comments in defense of City department heads would yet show up on here if the City blocked employee access to this site through their system.
Their IT people can block access to certain web sites.
6:28 So it sounds to me like your in favor of controling free speech. You want to take the rights of one "class" of people and control their access to free speech. I wonder how many posts would be on here if we limited idiots!
ReplyDeleteNONE
ReplyDelete^
ReplyDelete~idiot~
6:28 sounds more like someone who thinks City employees ought to be doing their jobs instead of playing on the blogs while getting paid and criticizing the commissioners. Or at least they ought to be willing to own their criticisms.
ReplyDeleteCity employees should not be allowed to blog on city time, or internet shop while on the city clock. The city should block access to the sites or they should be required to log in and have a report presented to the city commission that shows the number of times they logged in and what they said and the amount of time they spent on the site.
ReplyDeleteI agree that Randy Leach is not the problem, every leader will have people who disagree with his leadership, but this is about, being responsible for the budget, so what it was voted on, we are looking at a very gloomy outlook for the state and the number of houses that are on the market or simply abandoned around here is climbing. Lets not spend money we don't have but hope to get, let's make do and then do what we can with what we have.
Everytime a department wants something they use the term for the safety of the public, I think that says a lot about the way they get things they want.
Lets stop attacking the city commission and start saying hey thank you for watching the dollars. Dollars aren't everything but they are everything when you don't have them. It doesn't matter of your a city, or a family, don't spend what you don't have.
@ December 29, 2009 11:44 AM
ReplyDeleteNow that made sense! That comment reflected some genuine thought and practical perspective. Maybe it becomes the foundation for more level headed and adult usage of the AC blog topics.
So does anyone know how much money we have to sink into old ambulances to bring them up to shape? How long will they last if we do? How many ambulances actually need to be replaced? Do we need to replace one now if we know we can afford it to save on more expensive later if it absolutely has to be replaced? What if we wait and 2 of them need to be replaced at once? Enquiring minds want to know!
ReplyDeleteJust a thought. Is the commission going to hold off on buying a new ambulance until it burns up and takes a few more out with it like the trucks they refused to replace? How much more will it cost then? There has to be a way to know when it's been fixed enough or too much and it's time to get a new one. Over 100,000 miles almost all INSIDE the city limits. That has to be rough! Something like 13 years old? How long are they expected to last? Please, if you are not worried about yours, for the sake of my family, get this one right!
ReplyDeleteAs I understand it the repair of the Ambulance, which has been in service for 13 yrs, will run $75,000. There is a second ambulance of same number of years in service and I imagine it's goign to need the same repairs eventually. The expected life expectance of these ambulances after repairs is an additional 2 - 4 more years. We budgeted for the ambulance to be replaced. If we wait until the current model is no longer available and are forced to by the new model we will spend an additional $40,000. I believe the current model is selling for just under $200,000. In 2 - 4 more years how much more are we going to have to spend so that we can keep the same broke down equipment we already have that is beyone it's service life to begin with. Personal, I would not want to trust my life to something so antiquated, we are building a new hospital because we need it, Dottie needs to quit playing politics with peoples lives and quit trying to make herself look all important.
ReplyDelete