Monday, May 13, 2013

Rescue Me

 Note front wheels off the ground

When the Genie lift he was using shifted slightly on uneven ground, a safety switch kicked in to shut off the machine and left the construction worker stranded 40 feet in the air.  Amherst Fire Department came to the rescue with aerial platform trucks otherwise known as ladder trucks.

Ladder 1 getting ready

UMass is overhauling the large water tank (the town owns the smaller one next to it) including new paint, to the tune of $1 million dollars.  Amherst sent out a notice to consumers just this morning informing them of the project and mentioning that they may experience some discoloration in their tap water.



Aerial platform gets up close and personal

And he's climbing the stairway ...

AFD Ladder 1 and Engine 2 (the quint) under angry skies

10 comments:

Dr. Ed said...

Gotta wonder if (a) there will be another scandal like there was the last time those towers got painted, and (b) if the media will drop the ball again.

What exactly was the reason why the UMass logo didn't get painted into that square as planned?

Larry Kelley said...

I don't know. Was it because of the "Redmen" controversy when they switched over to "Minutemen"?

Anonymous said...

Wow! You've got too much time on your hands. Have you considered work?

Larry Kelley said...

Dealing with CANs like you is work. A lot of it.

Dr. Ed said...

Larry, the "Redman" controversy was back in the '70s.

Three rumors floating around were versions of (a) UMass didn't actually own the water tank and/or Amherst didn't want people knowing they did (I always thought they owned both), (b) John Lederlie's wife thought the logo would look ugly painted there, and (c) there was a major violation of state contracting rules involved.

The Gazette did partially cover a major scandal involving the purchase of a lot of expensive tarps which I somehow suspect went to cover boats & woodpiles throughout the valley. And there was a lot left untold about the painting contract scandal.

Dig, Larry, Dig. That place is so corrupt that you can't possibly find something if you look most anywhere long enough...

Anonymous said...

The Chancellor at the time didn't like it. They fired the Director of the Physical Plant for doing it without approval.

Larry Kelley said...

The nice woman who seemed to be in charge of the project was not happy to see my camera.

She said under her breath, "We were hoping to keep this quiet."

Anonymous said...

She said under her breath, "We were hoping to keep this quiet."

Then I'm guessing UMass didn't file a report with OSHA about the incident...

You know, tires aren't supposed to come off the ground (that is why the safety shutdown tripped) and I somehow don't think that this particular piece of equipment is supposed to be used for this particular application....

Anonymous said...

The story of the last painting, as told to me by my dean at the time... Was they were putting the president's office "U" logo on it -- and the Chancellor had made the decision that the Amherst campus was gonna accept just being another UMass campus and was keeping the Metawampe seal (we were also told to ALWAYS use Amherst as part of our name) -- as noted, he wasn't consulted in the plans, and supposedly saw the logo going up and hit the roof...

Anonymous said...

Yes, John Lombardi, not Lederlie, my bad.

And I heard that he was fired for telling Jack Wilson to "go f*** himself." I wish I could tell the rest of that story...