I'm glad after reviewing all the facts that the Judge Gallo was in favor of the City. Hopefully, the City has started to see some savings. I cannot believe that Chris Oakland still says after a judges ruling, that the Chief and Mayor puts public safety in jeopardy. With comments like that, it's not about public safety with him, IT'S ALL ABOUT THE MONEY...

I don't think dwelling on this issue any longer will help anybody. What is is.

Thats what they thought in Washington DC until last Friday.
http://www.firehouse.com/news/top-headlines/union-delay-factored-dc-fire-injured-5

One person in critical condition due to ladders out of service. While fire fighters injuries may not mean much to some people, they do mean a lot to me and my coworkers. With or without this truck, every person on the fire department is dedicated to whatever job needs to be done, and even with the personal attacks on any of us, we will not change our dedication to the tax payers life safety as well as our own. This includes you Jerry and anyone else that wants to attack us through blogs or on the radio.

This article has nothing to do with money, it has to do with fire fighters injured and one in critical condition as a direct result of ladder truck being delayed. Chris Oakland's concern is with the safety of the tax payers and the fire fighters and I for one am grateful someone is looking out for all of our safety.

How much is a human life worth? Will any of us be happy we saved $250,000 over a six month period if even one human life is lost because a ladder truck was taken out of service? I hope our city officials can live with themselves if this should happen. This city has an awful lot of old 3 deckers and some even larger buildings. I hope this was taken into consideration and thought out carefully. The safety of our citizens should never compromised!!

Well "Ms.Jodi". It seems to me that you have been the one attacking people, both the Mayor and the taxpayers in your rants on the radio and at the council meeting so much so that you had to write in and apologize. You and glenremy and the other anonymous firemen seem to have been the most vicious in these attacks not anyone else. Well now an objective judge has listened to all the facts and has ruled no risk to safety for firefighters or the public... And that woonsocket is one of the 2 highest staffed fire departments in the whole state. Seems clear that its about the money !

well when I first came on patch it look like the firemen in disguise complaining,moaning, groaning,

Ummm, the mayor has made the right decision. I ALWAYS trusted his opinion.

Personal attacks like Jojo's are usually made when those without legitimate points of view are backed into a corner. Please be sure to enjoy your complainig while Yvette goes out to clean River Street.

As elected officials, the mayor and city council should have the freedom to restructure any city department in any way they choose in order to save money. As a taxpayer, I believe these officials would never act in a selfish or manipulative way. The mayor and city council president have never done anything nefarious in their political lives. Quite frankly, I don't care about legal contracts and bargaining agreements. If the mayor wants to save money, he should get to do whatever he wants. A system of checks and balances is archaic and ineffective in these dire times. We need the mayor and city council to take control, only inform the public when they deem necessary, and hire as many lawyers as needed. I'm with Yvette. NEVER question your officials.

In the end the only people who will lose here are the residents. The taxes won't go down and we have given up another valuable asset. We continue to lose services left and right with no tax savings. If you have followed this story from the beginning, the contract was violated and the firefighters will get the money saved through an arbitrator anyway.

Seymour, I respect your opinion and would support the firefighters as long as they have their own ideas to reduce the total outlay to fit the City's ability to pay, however, if this action violated the contract, why did the judge not rule in favor of the Union?

Reformer, WE are the ones who put those elected officials in those positions. WE should have the freedom to question their every move! I believe it would be "archaic and ineffective" if WE did not impose a system of checks and balances on THEM! "Never question your officials"? Thank Heavens we don't live in YOUR "real world"! Good luck with that. Hope it works for you.

It was safety not the contract he ruled on. Arbitration will be about the contract.

Reformer, that kind of sounds like communism.

Oh, hey everyone! Did someone mention my name? Sorry I've been away. I've been volunteering in Darfur. You think River St. looks bad? Holy spicy guacamole! But, Yvette's onto something here. Before we think globally, we must first think locally. Peace and blessings:)

I can't wait till I get my home insurance bill....it is going up. How do I know this, I spoke with someone at the company and they told me that the insurance raters are now rating Woonsocket as a higher risk and all our premiums will increase.....Thanks Mayor Leo for saving the city money but not the tax payers

The City on the Move......I say all the taxpayers move out. then what would Leo do? The scumbag freeloaders won't be payin. And we won't need to have any fire trucks.

Seymour and woon tax payer, thanks for the info, I'm trying to stay informed and appreciate having this venue as one source of information.

Well all the members of the peanut gallery are present and accounted for, except for John Ward.

I have never seen such a collection of ignorance all is one place. Do people just try to post the most rediculous comment they can come up with just to get a rise from people? Wow, I feel as though I am now less intelligant for having read these comments. Spell checks working time to check for "stupid check". Good luck and god bless the citizens and firefighters of this city and we can only hope that the powers that be have made the right decisions and no one ends up being hurt or worse.

Yvonne, who you calling lazy? Let me tell you about myself. After leaving the Army, I eventually moved to Chicago, Illinois at the age of 20 where I met the woman who later became my wife. After we got married in early 1956, we had our first child James Evans Jr. Our second child was a girl, Thelma. At this time, we were living in a cold water flat where the only bathroom was in the hallway. When Florida became pregnant with our third child Michael Evans, we moved to an apartment in a housing project in a poor, African American neighborhood in inner-city Chicago, Illinois. We lived in the projects, with the odds of getting out stacked against us. But I am a hard-working father who kept the Evans family together. I worked at minimum wage jobs such as a carwash attendant and a dish washer to support my family. I also worked in construction, and was made assistant foreman on at least one building project. Well, long story made short, we now find ourselves in Woonsocket, RI. And, we still have not found our piece of the pie.

Amen, Ron! Temporary lay offs. Easy credit rip offs. Scratching and surviving. Hanging in a chow line. Good times.

Mike Leary,

That kind of commentary has no business on here. This site should be used as a tool to get the facts out. Often times it's used as a weapon. I urge all fellow firefighters to make points that are productive and stay away from personal feelings and emotional rage. Take the high road and people might actually pay attention to some of our messages.

Communism! No, I do not advocate for communism. I support drastic measures during these difficult times. Like Yvette implied,, many of you need to learn to relax and trust the Mayor. He needs more power. A man/woman with genuine power can act swiftly and decisively to save us significant sums for us taxpayers.

The loss of ladder 1 was not the only issue. The Union also filed for abritation on the breaking
of the contract on min-man per shift. If the city loses, all firefighters who lost income will
have to be paid. Yes it is about money, so the case if not over till the abritaitor sings.

John R Dionne

The city should have open try outs for the fire department to give us taxpayers a chance to work where we live.
I bet nearly all of us who post could perform the essential functions of the job. Let's see, all we need:
1. Physical fitness (these guys probably have to carry 2oo-400 pounds of equipment/sick or injured people
2. EMT Basic
3. EMT Cardiac
4. Good overall health (I understand that these guys/ladies are often exposed to many hazards and diseases that could adversely impact someone without good overallvhealth)
5. understanding family (I don't care about missing holidays with my family, but I think some of you would mind)
6. extensive knowledge of fire science, physical structures, and local geography
7. Some bravery. A few of us posters might feel uncomfortable with the thought of running into a burning building, being first on scene to a two-car accident involving children, and/or seeing one of your coworkers injured seriously
8. Discipline. Firefighters seem like they need to have discipline to operate effectively in perilous situations
9. Compassion and selflessness. I don't think this would be a problem for any of us. I infer that most of us place the good of others before our own welfare.

With that stated, I think it's about time for us to get out there and demonstrate that we could do the job.

Reformer, "(I don't care about legal contracts and bargaining agreements. If the mayor wants to save money, he should get to do whatever he wants. We need the mayor and city council to take control, only inform the public when they deem necessary, and hire as many lawyers as needed. NEVER question your officials.)" Hmm.And its hard to trust someone who tries to strong arm someone before negotiations.

Taxes will still go up anyways! Wake up, you lemmings!

I don't understand how us taxpayers can be happy with any of this? This ladder truck being down is a temporary fix anyway and will be back in full service on July 1. Big deal the judge sided with the city. Taxpayers paid enormous lawyer fees (still don't know how much), and this is now going into arbitration. We stand to lose much more when we have to pay out for lost wages and we'll keep paying when their pensions increase due to the restructure in the long run. What the hell is going on?

Congratulations Don for realizing there is more here than meets the eye. I'll admit that I don't fully understand all of it. But I'm starting to think there is a bigger agenda here and this doesn't seem to be about saving money at all.

I agree with Scott wholeheartedly but let's not forget what former Indiana prosecutor Carlos F Lam said to Wisconsin governor Scott Walker that caused him to resign;

“If you could employ an associate who pretends to be sympathetic to the unions’ cause to physically attack you (or even use a firearm against you), you could discredit the unions,” Lam said in his email.
Certainly, there are no physical attacks occurring but this type of "false flag" operation could easily be undertaken on an anonymous message board.

Let us not forget that in this country it is not only permissible to question our leaders it's our responsibility!  People want leadership, and in the absence of genuine leadership, they'll listen to anyone who steps up to the microphone.

Questioning our administration during these arduous times, severely cripples their ability to save taxpayer money. These men and women were elected to their positions. The constituents trusted the officials during election time, why second-guess or limit them now?

I understand Reformer's position. These times are unprecedented. Our administration, like average citizen, taxed2death, and Yvette, know the steps we need to take to achieve fiscal sustainability. I am appalled at the notion that some of you Patch-lovers would insinuate or state directly that our ELECTED leaders would do anything but the absolute best thing for our city.

A blogger out of DC picked up this story: http://statter911.com/2011/04/13/who-to-believe-judge-in-rhode-island-professor-in-georgia-come-to-different-conclusions-about-a-connection-between-safety-firefighter-staffing/

Just to clarify: this is not to say I agree with or endorse this or any opinion. I will happily repost any pieces I see done about the city, especially when our news, and this website, make headlines across the nation.

I wonder how many articles from the Call are referenced in other publications or on other websites across the nation? Probably not many, eh? Nice job, Patch reporters!

I am a Union Firefighter. I am tired of people blaming the current financial situation on the unions. The truth is the major financial institutions took money from the states and our pensions and invested them in the same mortgage bundles that collapsed the housing market. Now the republican lie machine is blaming the union's for being too expensive. So lets follow the $$. Republican's know that democrats rely on the unions for there campaign contributions so kill the union and cripple there opponent's. Furthermore 400 people in this country have more money than 50% of the population and pay less in taxes. GE earned 14 BILLON profit, and received over 3 billion in refunds, no taxes paid....none, and they STILL sent jobs out of the country. Cutting costs and programs is not only one way to fix debt, the other way is to make more money. We need to tax the rich. I don't mean excessively, just stop giving them breaks and cuts hoping they will have a grinch like moment and give some back, they haven't, they wont. Get more taxes and pay the debt!!!

With all due respect to you Lorrie, clearly you do not understand the union process. You make it seem like unions get everything handed to them and because you work in private industry you do not. Employees in private industry have the ability to negotiate their pay and benefits just as unions employees due. If you have not done so for yourself, you have no one but yourself to blame. For the record I am NOT a union employee.

With all due respect Bonnie, I'm going with Lorrie on that one...if you are not a union employee, then you understand that in non union employment, you are negotiating for yourself ONLY. If you make even half the demands unions make, unless your are critical to the business at the moment, you will be told to take the DOOR! Unions on the other hand, negotiate for the entire group....more of a hostage situation. I don't know how you can compare the two, especially being a NON UNION employee.

The town I work for as a Firefighter has us paying 20% of our health care costs, which I think is fair. When blue cross raised there rates 50% in one year our costs went up 50% too. The interesting thing is those who make the laws about benefits have them for free for life just for being in for just one term. And the insurance companies make sure there campaign contributions keep us paying more and more.

Look everyone, we can go on and on forever about the whole "union, non-union" debate. As a taxpayer in this city, my major concern right now is, how much did we pay or how much do we continue paying the city's lawyers? How much will we pay out if an arbitrator rules that the city owes the firefighters lost wages? How much will their pay increase as a result of a restructure? How much will their pensions increase as a result also? Wake up people! Please get on board and pressure this administration to give us this information! This is complete nonsense to keep this hidden from us. There has to be some sort of hidden agenda for their withholding details from us?

Does anybody own a scanner? Listen to how often trucks from other towns are coming into the city. How is this fair to the taxpayers of those towns? They manage to keep their towns staffed to answer their calls most of the time without assistance. Woonsocket has out of town trucks EVERY day!

If you listen to the scanner, you will find that the police dept get a lot more calls than the Fire dept. What are you talking about Don L? The city has always used lawyers. Why don't you ask the Fire dept why they aren't giving up concessions like ALL THE OTHER UNIONS DID. Are they exempt from doing their part? I don't think so. Maybe the city would save lawyer's fees if the fire union didn't feel so "entitled".

Uh, Jerry, do you think that the issue with the fd is the only thing we are paying our tax money to lawyers for? Are you really that foolish? Drink up all that Kool aid and don't leave a drop. We are being soaked for much more than just the ladder 1 thing. Do you not care about that though? Is your only concern in life that the ff's give up more? Do you think the police need to give up more also? What will make Jerry happy here? When will Jerry stand up at the council meeting and pressure the mayor and Ward to give is details of all the legal matters this city is involved in and how much we're paying for it? Stand up Jerry. Stand up or go back to bed. You, and your way of thinking, are part of the problem and not providing any valid information or meaningful solutions here. Just, "the firefighters have to give more" blah blah blah.

@Jerry, what exactly does the fact that the police do more calls than the Fire Dept. have to do with the price of tea in China? Try to make some sense here. Plus, do you listen to local talk radio much? The Fire Dept. is currently in talks with the city trying to work something out. Sounds like both sides are making progress too.

Hey axe, fire didn't give any concessions last year...if you call deferring a raise a concession, then go back to school. Is it fair that all the other unions gave concessions and fire should be exempt? Yes, there are bigger problems, let's go after welfare bennies and fraud. Then Don, we could all drink the koolaid.

Jerry, notice how you seem to be the only one coming back here to stir up more nonsense? It's about time you let go of all your resentment for failing the fire test. Let it go, bro. Move on to the bigger things you speak of, like "welfare bennies and fraud." Those are the things not only bringing this community down, but are affecting this whole country! It was on Larry's show this week that the city and fire seem to be in talks so let it go and see what comes of it. This stuff is gonna eat you alive. Seek help!

My real name is gene