Please join me in welcoming Joe Roetter as the new Safety Director. Joe was instrumental in making Buffalo a safer place long before he accepted this assignment.
Joe, a history teacher, retired from the Buffalo Public School district. In the mid seventies there were a number of house fires and deaths in the city of Buffalo. To respond to the number of tragedies that the school community was experiencing, he and another teacher from Woodlawn Junior High School created and taught fire survival classes to their students. This initiative was taken to the community when they obtained funding to create the Community Fire Survival Center to provide information, safety demonstrations and services to fire victims; to build a cadre of liaisons between the community and the fire department, and provide smoke and fire detection equipment to community residents.
In addition, Joe was able to obtain another grant that provided smoke detectors to senior citizens.
Joe’s most recent position was in the mail room, assisting with the automation effort.
His community activities include president of the Buffalo Dortmund Sister City Committee, director of the German American Heritage Festival, and he has represented the City of Buffalo in Kanazawa, Japan in the 50 Year Celebration of that Sister City Relationship. Joe is currently Commodore of the Buffalo Harbor Sailing Club. In addition, he has served in the Army as a Medical Corpsman.
Submitted by: Deborah J. Winslow-Schaber, director of human resources
