July 3, 2008
City Retiree Worries About Cost of Benefit Increases; Criticizes Previous Administration for Underfunding Special Accounts
By Tony Rutherford
Huntingtonnews.net Reporter
Huntington, WV (HNN) – A firefighter who gave the City of Huntington 23 years of service before retiring in 1995 worries that he and his peers will not be able to cover the large increases in health premiums and deductables after the expiration of the Cabell County Circuit Court’s injunction.
“What are we going to do after four months,” asked Curt Hinkle?
Hinkle originally worked at BASF, but took a pay cut to work as a member of the Huntington Fire Department. Then a volunteer firefighter, he became a professional firefighter for the city. Why? The former Phoenix Award and Firefighters of the Year Award winner called it “ a feeling you get from saving lives and doing something good for the people,” he said.
“When I took that job, it was good benefits and a good pension. I retired under a contract [when Jean Dean was the Mayor] and that’s what I should still be under now,” Hinkle said, explaining that “we have had two or three” insurance and prescription drug increases but the cost of living pension increase(s) has not offset the health expenditures. “If they had just left me alone, I’d be all right [but] they give you $10 or $15 and add $50 to the premium of your insurance. You get a pension of $25,000 and by the time they get through you’re lucky to have something to live on.”
At Tuesday night’s union meeting, he told young active firefighters to paraphrase his words, not break your back for a city that will let you down once you grow old.
“Think twice before you do some of that stuff that us dummies did when we were young and did not know any better. The city’s not wanting to take care of you when you get old and need the insurance. They want to take everything away from you,” he said, quickly adding that the city still has “a fine bunch of good firefighters.”
Hinkle considers himself in “better shape” than most retirees as he has rental property income. “I pay my wife’s Medicare and Blue Cross/Blue Shield for both of us.” A friend told him about a retired police officer “scared to death that she will probably lose her home. Any of us that’s retired, even, if we have a little money [put back], it is not going to take much time to get rid of it” under the increases discussed.
According to Hinkle, deductible amounts would increase from $250 per year to $1,700 per person and premiums would rise “another $125 per month.” That’s another $3,400 for my wife and I before insurance kicks in.
“When I retired I had three aneurisms on my aorta because I strained myself dragging hose, falling through floors, and having ceilings fall in on you. This is hour you get paid; they keep dwindling your check away. I’ve had a heart attack, seven stints put in , rotary cuff repairs on both shoulders , three new bones in my neck, plus I’m a diabetic. It’s all because I pulled my guts out dragging hose for the city. Everything was get your machinery back on the truck so if you have another fire it’s ready to go.”
The retired firefighter had harsh words for both the Jean Dean and Felinton administrations.
He criticized “Jean Dean as one of the worst” at “cutting money from special accounts. They underfunded them and didn’t put the money in they were supposed to.”
He warned Southside residents that with viaducts subject to severe flooding during heavy rains, the closing of the #7 Station (on Eighth Avenue) left a long response time should a fire occur with viaducts flooded. “Do you realize where the closest fire trucks are to them now? Westmoreland has to go down, cross over and come up the old James River Road and #10 has to come out of Saltwell Road . We tried to tell the people, don’t close this station, you are cutting your own throat [if there’s a fire].”
Hinkle criticized the current administration for “not trying to save money,” citing the discontinuation of a former tractor trailer size trash compactor at the city garage which was used for the Dietz Hollow fill , but it now would prevent every garbage truck from making daily trips to the Kentucky landfill.
“How many hours [with three men on the truck], how much diesel fuel, and how much rubber,” Hinkle speculated.
Confronted with the reality of less population equaling less revenue potential, he reminded, “The people may not be there, but the buildings are. And, it still takes the same amount of men to put out a fire. “
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City Retiree Worries About Cost of Benefit Increases; Criticizes Previous Administration for Underfunding Special Accounts
By Tony Rutherford
Huntingtonnews.net Reporter
Huntington, WV (HNN) – A firefighter who gave the City of Huntington 23 years of service before retiring in 1995 worries that he and his peers will not be able to cover the large increases in health premiums and deductables after the expiration of the Cabell County Circuit Court’s injunction.
“What are we going to do after four months,” asked Curt Hinkle?
Hinkle originally worked at BASF, but took a pay cut to work as a member of the Huntington Fire Department. Then a volunteer firefighter, he became a professional firefighter for the city. Why? The former Phoenix Award and Firefighters of the Year Award winner called it “ a feeling you get from saving lives and doing something good for the people,” he said.
“When I took that job, it was good benefits and a good pension. I retired under a contract [when Jean Dean was the Mayor] and that’s what I should still be under now,” Hinkle said, explaining that “we have had two or three” insurance and prescription drug increases but the cost of living pension increase(s) has not offset the health expenditures. “If they had just left me alone, I’d be all right [but] they give you $10 or $15 and add $50 to the premium of your insurance. You get a pension of $25,000 and by the time they get through you’re lucky to have something to live on.”
At Tuesday night’s union meeting, he told young active firefighters to paraphrase his words, not break your back for a city that will let you down once you grow old.
“Think twice before you do some of that stuff that us dummies did when we were young and did not know any better. The city’s not wanting to take care of you when you get old and need the insurance. They want to take everything away from you,” he said, quickly adding that the city still has “a fine bunch of good firefighters.”
Hinkle considers himself in “better shape” than most retirees as he has rental property income. “I pay my wife’s Medicare and Blue Cross/Blue Shield for both of us.” A friend told him about a retired police officer “scared to death that she will probably lose her home. Any of us that’s retired, even, if we have a little money [put back], it is not going to take much time to get rid of it” under the increases discussed.
According to Hinkle, deductible amounts would increase from $250 per year to $1,700 per person and premiums would rise “another $125 per month.” That’s another $3,400 for my wife and I before insurance kicks in.
“When I retired I had three aneurisms on my aorta because I strained myself dragging hose, falling through floors, and having ceilings fall in on you. This is hour you get paid; they keep dwindling your check away. I’ve had a heart attack, seven stints put in , rotary cuff repairs on both shoulders , three new bones in my neck, plus I’m a diabetic. It’s all because I pulled my guts out dragging hose for the city. Everything was get your machinery back on the truck so if you have another fire it’s ready to go.”
The retired firefighter had harsh words for both the Jean Dean and Felinton administrations.
He criticized “Jean Dean as one of the worst” at “cutting money from special accounts. They underfunded them and didn’t put the money in they were supposed to.”
He warned Southside residents that with viaducts subject to severe flooding during heavy rains, the closing of the #7 Station (on Eighth Avenue) left a long response time should a fire occur with viaducts flooded. “Do you realize where the closest fire trucks are to them now? Westmoreland has to go down, cross over and come up the old James River Road and #10 has to come out of Saltwell Road . We tried to tell the people, don’t close this station, you are cutting your own throat [if there’s a fire].”
Hinkle criticized the current administration for “not trying to save money,” citing the discontinuation of a former tractor trailer size trash compactor at the city garage which was used for the Dietz Hollow fill , but it now would prevent every garbage truck from making daily trips to the Kentucky landfill.
“How many hours [with three men on the truck], how much diesel fuel, and how much rubber,” Hinkle speculated.
Confronted with the reality of less population equaling less revenue potential, he reminded, “The people may not be there, but the buildings are. And, it still takes the same amount of men to put out a fire. “
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