How much do you give back to the community?

[brushmaster90]

The past few days ive really thought about this. I am torn between my morals and my wallet.

I personally believe that you should give back to the community as a bussniess. In example...I sent a operators and 2 skid steers to Joplin Missouri to help with tornado cleanup, During the Arkansaw ice storms I pulled all my equitment to go help them out, I bushog and maintain a military familys house while the husband is deployed oversees. And other stuff like that.

My point is this is costing big dollars. I have the machines, I just feel to help. But from a bussniess stand point I dont know if ime doing the right thing. I wana hear your thoughts on weather this is something thats profesional and a good way to operate a bussniess?

[Randy88]

If you have the time, money and equipment to spare think of it as any other hobby or gesture you'd do for others or what you want to do in your spare time, if your short on funds, lack the time and equipment maybe concentrate on making money, second ask yourself if you were in need of help would all those people come to your aid like you did theirs? I'm not sure where you do business but if your not doing business in those areas then maybe donate locally instead, you know support those that support you and your business kind of thing. I try to help out locally and support those that I do business with and give good will where its needed as I see fit, there are times everyone needs help but its not my nor your job to help everyone, just those that we can, when we can. If your wanting to do donation work there is a need for that kind of thing but those that do that kind of work generally rely on donations to keep going, I'm not seeing where you can do both and survive, donation type work and charging type work. Just my opinion though.

[Colorado Digger]

i help in my town. i have plowed snow, cut fire line, provided water trucks. this spring the dust was so damn bad in between storms from the sanders i couldn''t take it. so we swept all over town. through the cop shop, spent a good half day on it. when i asked the town manager if i could sweep beforehand he said " no problem, but we can't pay for it" so no worries we get it done. next thing you know a cop pulls me over for fully stopping a stop sign but not yielding to him. so this all goes down in front of my house, anyways no ticket. then the county comes down on me for my shop. there goes 20k in dealing with them. so now i am over it.

[mitch504]

I am going to try to explain my thoughts on this in 10,000 words or less:

To start with, I was an officer and paramedic in the Fire Dept. for 21 years. I left when the county decided to try to go from a volunteer fire service w/ a few paid people, to a 24hr paid service with some volunteers. For various reasons I no longer felt like I was doing anything worthwhile.

I basicly don't do anything for government for free, like parks, schools and etc., because I don't believe that that will result in a benefit to the taxpaying citizens, as government will just spend (waste) the money somewhere else. I really don't care about providing benefits to the leeching citizens. When we have tropical storms, and the occasional hurricane or tornado, I will send my equipment out immediately to clear the roads and driveways, and get trees off powerlines, but I don't haul the debris off for free. When we do disaster work, I don't figure in any more profit than in normal work.

If I can find someone who has made good life decisions, worked hard, and needs help; I am glad to help them. There are always people asking for help to keep them from having to work, or to tide them over so they can make another terrible decision. I am not interested in them.

As an example: A few years back, the Highway Dept took the land one of our volunteer f/fs lived on, and gave them 3 months to move their trailer. He started clearing a new lot by hand, and was getting it done. Then, his wife had a baby, and they didn't think it was going to survive. For over a month, he worked during the day, then drove 75 miles to the hospital to spend the night w/ his wife and baby. A few days after the baby came home, he went in the hospital for a week. He came to me to ask me to help him write a letter to the governor after the Hwy Dept refused his request for a 2 week extension. I took a machine over and cleared the lot. He worked hard as he could while I was doing it, and his wife drove me crazy, insisting on giving me sandwiches, cake or lemonade, every few minutes.

[dirty4fun]

I have tried to help my small town, when plowing snow I will catch a spot or two for them. The town is about broke mostly from very poor managment, and they have a couple good workers and a couple who work real hard to keep from working. As far as the rest of the community, I try to do more for less money for the ones that can't afford, to pay full price. Most appreciate it, and a thank you, still goes a long way with me.

[oriden]

helping people athough i feel the need to and desire ive been burned in the past so now im very selective and almost none any more. some people ruin it.

i did a quick pull of a drive way in the winter and plowed the little bit in front of the house on the boulavard of a 90 year old man that lives by him self. his stuck up starbuck drinking nabours with 3 able body kids decided if he got it they should, when the city called back with the complaint that was the last time. restsure their house next time around was skiped during the residential city plow.

[brushmaster90]

Intresting how we all have different views on weather or not to help.

[nextdoor]

Sometimes it just gets a bit complicated. I often take machines to bush fires and I dont charge if it is on private land however if it is on government land then I charge the full rate plus cartage. I never used to charge on government land until the goverment started charging a fire levy on land owners. Now I agree with a levy IF the government are supplying a fire service, but where I am that service is supplied by us farmers, so Im sure everyone will see my point.
I was going to take on the fire control officer job from my father on his retirement, but now the government has tied that job up with politics and copius amounts of paper work, not to mention litigation if something goes wrong, so I am not going to take the job and it appears that no one else is either.
Sure makes you wonder where the world will be at in 20 year time.

cheers.

[brushmaster90]

I feel sorry for those who feel they have been burned,mistreated,underapreaciated,and just plain fed up with the goverment and helping them out.

I guess I am many times fed up with the goverment but I do the work sometimes that the goverment would be in charge of the good of the people and not to help the goverment just to help the people.

[Greg]

I have started giving back to the local community the way they give to me. Lately they have not gotten much. Playing favorites and politics with someone does not serve the community well when my tax money goes to them and I get no opportunity to get some of it back.

[oldtanker]

The past few days ive really thought about this. I am torn between my morals and my wallet.

I personally believe that you should give back to the community as a bussniess. In example...I sent a operators and 2 skid steers to Joplin Missouri to help with tornado cleanup, During the Arkansaw ice storms I pulled all my equitment to go help them out, I bushog and maintain a military familys house while the husband is deployed oversees. And other stuff like that.

My point is this is costing big dollars. I have the machines, I just feel to help. But from a bussniess stand point I dont know if ime doing the right thing. I wana hear your thoughts on weather this is something thats profesional and a good way to operate a bussniess?

I use to think that if you did something good from your heart that you would have it come back to you. And in the good old days it would. A prime example was my dad. He would go out of his way to help people when he could. If they offered or insisted on paying never took very much. When he retired from farming and had an auction his stuff went very high for the time because the people he helped paid him back. Don't know it thats so true today. Seems that everyone is looking out for number one.

But having said that I still help some people out when needed without expecting pay or compensation. Now that I own a TLB if there is a disaster in my area I will volunteer my time and equipment just because it's good for the area and the people living here. Several of my kids live in the Fargo ND/Morehead MN area. They are not in the flood zones but they fill sand bags every time it's needed, just for the common good.

As far as your situation is concerned at least with a company name or logo on your equipment you are getting advertisementment out of it plus the write offs that you can take as long as you have documentation. I know that if I were looking to hire some work done I would be willing to pay a bit extra or at least give first shot to a contractor who was doing his civic duty in my mind. Kinda like changing a flat for an elderly couple in the rain or at -20 (done the -20 thing more than once).

Rick

[Mark Thompson]

I was a volunteer firefighter for years and lived in a very rural area of Virginia, I was closest to the box we called the department and would do whatever I could to give back in other ways. Where I lived and worked was 60 miles and quite often if I was moving equipment the owner of the company would let me take the truck and trailer home since more than three times a week I passed my home coming back to the shop, we ended up having a rather heavy snow and I had a bobcat on the lowboy, called the owner and he said we were not working and if I need the bobcat use it and do not worry about it.

3 feet of snow later I dig my way out and clear the truck with the bobcat, proceed to the house which was a mile up the mountain so I clear the road as I go, well all the people living on the road had clear road and to the house after clearing it. Well the next day I have a state road supervisor at my house with a State Trooper asking was it I who cleared the road, well I said yes and said it was for the best for some since we had elderly people living up on the mountain.

Trooper and the state road man shook my hand and thanked me, come to find out they were related and the aunt who lived below me had a heart attack the night before and the only way she lived was the ambulance could get to the house.

I will take my chances on doing what can be done.

[Greg]

Got once a good deed went unpunished.

[Taylortractornu]

I help when I can. Back last winter we haf 12 inches of snow second time in 23 years. I had an old plow I had on a junk truck and I put it on a QC plate. I put it on and plowed all my neighbors places the elderly couple down the road, and everyone out to the main road where th state took care of it. I went and did my vets lot and one lot at the hospital. I plowed 12 hours that day and had one complaint that I wouldnt take any money.

We run a private landfill for a plant and during tha April storms we opened on the weekends to take rubbish from the town and folks cleaning up to help out. We got screwed by one place they hauled in 3 cubic yards of house hold trash that they were hiding under brush. We also got turned in for some bogu crap with DEQ because we wouldnt take other house hold rubbish.


One outfit I dont help is the local law enforcement or DOT cops. I figure they like to Harrass the working man they can help theirselves. I was doing a job in town for a friend and the law gave us grief and I got a 150 dollar ticket littering as some trash blew out of my truck I was loading. They called wanting some work done at the local bal lfield I refused.

[RollOver Pete]

I could never give back as much as this community has already taken from me.
But.......
Thanks to the good natured, generous and kind folks that frequent this board,
I don't feel an iota of remorse for being honest when I admit to the way I feel about my community with all of its greedy politicians, crooked cops and other jerks ( Riv. Co D.A. Ray Ram-er-iz) who get paid to get in my business and tell me "No"....... unless I buy that special permit or license or end up paying their special use tax or fee.
Yeah....its a beautiful day in the neighborhood.




ps....
Ray....
you may have won the battle
but know this....
I'll win the ____ing war!