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1/29/10 My local number
is now 158.The International president Vince Giblin
wanted us to combine as many of the upstate locals into one strong local
and still keep the individual districts of 106, 832 and 545
. I was present at the Union meeting in Syracuse on Tuesday, January
25th. It was good to see some of my friends from the dredging site, Patty
and Scott and Billy from Callanan. Dan Mcgraw is Business Manager and our office is the main
branch for Local 158. I will update with more info when I receive it from
the hall. I do know that you can be on any of the out of work lists but
only on one at one time. So if you happen to be closer to Binghamton, or  Syracuse you can put your name on their
district list instead of ours. I don't think alot
is going to chane but time will tell. Harrigan said our pension is in much better shape than
it was in 2008 and things work wise are looking up everywhere. I hope all
of you out there have a great work year! I'll get back with more when I
have it!
9/27/10 A special Union
meeting tonight! A Watch
presentation ceremony for 50 year members(or
more!) I saw my good friend and mentor, Gene Messerecola
and he was presented with a lifetime membership award and gold card for his
years of fine service and membership in our Local. I am please
to say he looked as great as always and got to take a picture with him! I
didn't dress for this occasion as I didn't know that it was going to be
such a special night. Members with 50 years of service or more were
presented with a beautiful gold watch from the union and Dan Mcgraw made the presentations. I am very glad I go to
these union events and meetings. It is alway
important to be a active
member .
9/24/10 Went to the Labor
day parade down in Albany tonight. There were fireworks after at nightfall,
and hot dogs and hamburgers. It was cool. I would have liked the quantity
of our members there to have been larger and matching shirts and our banner
would have been better. Bill Gray and his little daughter led us down State
Street and it ended at the Corning preserve park over the bridge. Nice
time. Lots of politicians.See pics
at my Labor
Day Parade Album
8/28/10 Just returned form the Annual Operating
Engineers picnic. We had a little rain but it was a great success and a
good time for all. Of course the food was terrific and Jeanne Picard was
running around making sure everyone was satisfied .
Shes a great lady. We love it there,and try not to miss it. Many awesome prizes were
given out. I have some pics from the day at My 2010 Picnic
page on Google.
7/27/10 At the Longevity
Awards ceremony at Michaels Banquet house in Latham. A great many Longevity
pins were given out and members from 25 thru 50 years with Local 106 were
in attendance. See my photos at Longevity
Awards
6/19/10 Bobby Jones
retirement dinner was held last night and it was a good time for all. Many
of his family members were present and a lovelyslide
show was played and many people spoke about Bobby and his relationship with
them and the benefit of his time as a member of Local 106. I took allot of
photos and they can be viewed at my Bobby
Retirement Album
4/09/10 Am currently up
at West Milton again and was on the night shift for about 6 months and
worked with fellow operator Michael Redmond and Brian Biche.
It was a long shutdown and is still underway and I am probably going to be
seeing night shift again, shortly. I really would like to stay here if
possible so I will take what I can get! I avoided a layoff and am very glad
to still be working during this hard economic time. We will be having a
good deal of operators retiring as of June of this year and there will be
some major changes down at the hall, except for Dan McGraw who is now our
new Business Manager now that Bobby Jones has officially stepped down. We
hope he enjoys his retirement! Can't wait myself!
2/4/10 The Tower crane is
back up at the Capitol building and John Kakely
and Kevin Socia are operating it It is taller than the one that I was on and it's boom
is longer with an extra jib on the end. It also has mechanical and
operational updates that were not present on the Liebherr
that was constructed on the North side of the Capitol. This crane is
erected on the east side and there are also higher security measures in
place to protect the Capitol building and the state workers and
politicians.
2/3/10 This is the first
time that I have been able to update this site. I really have not been
keeping up with anything on my computers as I have either been working(great) or trying to maintain my household, so
this web stuff was thrown to the side. I am pleased after working for Shaw
at the Hudson dredging site that I was able to return to the West Milton
site. I have been there since June and since October have been on the night
shift which was a little tough to adapt to. I am
away from my husbands great cooking at dinner
time so I have lost some weight! That's the best part. Also, working during
the months of the winter that I usually would be laid off for. I am hoping
to stay on permanently but one never knows.
7/25/09 Wednesday night I
had the pleasure of viewing the awards ceremony at Michaels Banquet house
and also took some photos. I wish I had been better prepared as I will
bring a tripod next time and have my camera set up in advance for larger
jpg photos. I hope anyone that would like to see them visits my photo
gallery with Picasa at AWARDS
DINNER! 
6/30/09 Have been very
busy...Today,on the way home,I took some shots near Rogers Island off the
bridge on the river near Route 197 in Fort Edward where I am working as of
May of this year. I am operating a filter press with a fine team of
operators including Scott Frost. Bert Veldman.
Dave Judaekis. Patty Egan. Eric Fox. Bob Prusinsky. and others.
"Tiny", Justin Morris, Chris Labombard,
Master Mechanic, "Larry the Lull", "Chip",and
others... Mark Langlois on excavator, Mark Lounsbury... We are all involved in this world renown project that hopefully will rid the Hudson of
PCBs dumped throughout the years by GE. I am sorry I will be leaving soon
to go back to my job at West Milton as we are having a great time working
together as a team and everyone here is giving it their all as working in
this heat with tyvek and all the other PPE can be
draining; it really helps to work with good people! If you would like to
see some photos click
here!
3/30/09 Took the Fork
Lift training offered every Monday at the Union Shop. Got a call from the
hall and will be starting on a job up in Fort Edward operating a filter
press, which I'm told is pushing buttons and working inside, out of the
weather, so that's great. I guess it could be a little boring but at 12
hour days and 6 days a week I'll be comatose before I'm bored! That is
until I see my gross pay for the week! You know me, I'll take most any job
the union sends me to, and I do appreciate getting out... just about now.
I'm going stir crazy being laid off. Hopefully they'll be pleased with me
and everything will go well, I might be allowed to read,
which will keep me aware and make the time go by quicker. The info site for
this project is at the Hudson
River Dredging Project.
I also wanted to touch on th TWIC card. This
is needed if you are planning to work at the Port of Albany. This site Transportation
Worker Identification Credential will give you the links for your
specific locality and you can fill in an application for an interview and
speed up the process by doing some basics online. I was able to go February
28th to fill in and pay the fee( 132.00)I am still
waiting to go pick it up although I've been approved and am waiting for the
call from the port to pick it up.
1/1/09 Happy New Year to
all. I am out and about now and hope to get a few shots of work sites around
the Capital region. Allot of my friends are working down in Rensselaer and
I got to work a few days for DA Collins under Kubricky
at the Locks in Waterford while a fellow operator took care of a flood at
home . The Lock 6 in Waterford is gettingg an overhaul
and the work started in December. A few shots of this site can be seen at
my web album site.
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