By Mark Scheer
The old saying goes: Where's a cop when you need one?
Well, Angela Richmond isn’t a cop, but she is an emergency dispatcher with the Niagara Falls Police Department.
And on Feb. 13, Richmond was the right person in the right place at the right time.
While off duty at a car wash on Niagara Falls Boulevard, Richmond came to the aid of a man who was suffering from cardiac arrest. She gave him cardiopulmonary resuscitation until paramedics from Rural Metro arrived on the scene.
For her efforts, the four-year veteran of the city’s police department earned citations from both the City Council and Mayor Paul Dyster.
She also got a pat on the back from her boss.
“Angela should be commended for using her training of CPR to save someone’s life,” said Police Superintendent John Chella, who joined city officials in honoring Richmond during a brief ceremony before last week’s council meeting.
Out of the running?
Economic Development Director Peter Kay told city lawmakers last week that it appears as though Niagara Falls isn’t exactly tops on the list of places being considered for the U.S. Border Patrol’s new Niagara County headquarters building.
The search for new local confines for the border patrol is being coordinated by the U.S. General Services Administration. Kay said the agency’s guidelines for suitable properties were rather specific as the border patrol needs at least 7 to 10 acres of property and enough space for a 32,000-square-foot office building, a helipad, dog kennels and parking. Kay said the city submitted five potential locations that it felt might meet the agency’s needs. He admitted that it appears as though the border patrol is leaning toward locations outside Niagara Falls, possibly in the Town of Lewiston or at the Niagara Falls International Airport.
Shoe vomiting
I thought about going with head in the oven, but shoe vomiting seemed to fit better.
The Empire Center for New York State Policy, an Albany-based think tank that runs a government transparency Web site, last week released the findings of their latest New York state payroll examination.
The nonprofit group concluded that 900 state employees earned more than Gov. David Paterson’s $179,000 salary in 2009.
The top earner, the chairman of the neurosurgery department at SUNY’s downstate medical campus in Albany, took home $958,047 last year.
That’s right, nearly $1 million for one person.
From what the good folks at the Brennen Center tell me, this individual’s payment represents work for two jobs at the medical campus — one as professor and the other as doctor.
His pay doesn’t include costs for any related pensions, medical or other benefits.
The next highest person on the list took home $734,353. The list goes on to show quite a few state staffers pulling down in excess of a half a million dollars last year.
Is this the same state where parks have to be closed because there’s no money?
For the complete list and information on the 2009 salaries for 298,247 state employees, visit www.nypublicpayrollwatch.com.
Be prepared for a good shoe cleaning.
