Ron J. Melancon

2008-01-13T23:37:00.001-08:00

Graduated High School 1983 Tri-Valley High School
Attended Sullivan County Community College

Married to Dawn Melancon
2 children Zachary Melancon and Megan Melancon

Employment
Employed by Macy's / Hechts since April 1995
Rich Plan Foods 2/95 to 4/95
Sales Executive / Marketing Specialist / Markel Rhulen 7/92 to 2/95
Unit Operator G.H. Bass and Company 6/90 to 7/95
Unit Operator Strang and Rudolph Restaurant Corp 12/85 to 6/90

Specialized Management Training
Wilson Learning - Counselor Sales and Signature Service
Teren Management and Leadership Training
INS 21, 22 and 23 (CPCU) Insurance Institute of America ( 1993 to 1995)
Virginia state P and C licenced (1/94)
Employee Motivation Techniques - Orange County Community College
Computer Programming - Sullivan County Community College

Community Involvement
Executive Member of the Monticello Action committee
New York State Licenced Emergency Medical Technician
Volunteer of the Monticello Volunteer Ambulance
(Involved with my team members (3) which successfully delivered a baby a first in the twenty year
history of the corps)
Over 300 ambulance calls of service numerous Motor vehicle accidents, DUI's and Drunk Driving Check
points.

Accomplishments

In 2001 after seeing the World Trade Center come down I wanted to change my license plate to reflect and to remind others of what happened. My current tag since September 12, 2001 has been NY-91101. At that time I also wanted a License plate with our Flag on it and discovered that we did not have one. So I started a petition to get one done and below are the examples that I designed with the help of Andy of Signs by Tommrow.

I was published in 2001 in the Style Weekly Magazine article below:
10/8/01 2:16:22 PM
Local Resident Pushes for Memorial License Plates

A Henrico County man is campaigning for a new Virginia license plate memorializing the Sept. 11 tragedy.

“What better way to show your pride and your patriotism than a license plate on your car?” Melancon says.

For Melancon, a 37-year-old New York native, the attacks hit home. His uncle lost 10 friends; his sister was 40 blocks away from the World Trade Center when the terrorists struck.

After Melancon came up with the idea for the plates, Signs by Tomorrow created a design prototype at no charge. Then Melancon started a petition drive. Recently he staked out a Ukrop’s parking lot for three hours, nabbing 140 signatures.

Melancon says he wants half the proceeds from each plate, $6, to go toward the American Red Cross relief fund. The rest would stay in Virginia, he says, to help families of military personnel who might fall victim to war.

But there may be some hurdles. The General Assembly must sign off on new designs. The soonest that could happen is January, Melancon’s delegate, John S. “Jack” Reid, R-Henrico, told him.

And before it can go on sale, the plate has to be a proven seller. The Department of Motor Vehicles commissioner and the plate’s supporters must collect 350 prepaid applications before DMV will make the plate available.

“There are a lot of specialty plates that never make it on the street,” says DMV spokesman Johnny Perez. “We have had a number of inquiries about getting a plate to commemorate the Sept. 11 tragedy, and I would not be surprised if we see at least one bill authorizing a plate.”

Still, it can take up to three years for a plate to hit the streets.

Melancon is undeterred. And even if his statewide plate isn’t approved, he has at least one car covered. His car’s new license plate — fresh from the press — now reads “NY-91101.”

“We have a tendency to forget these things,” he says, “but I can’t give up on it.” — Laura Bland

Below is the Final Approved Design

I learned a valuable lesson in how our government works. With the knowledge in hand and a lesson on civic duty I was able to get an idea started and completed.

With this knowledge I encounterd a women who lost her child to drunk driving. I was so moved by her ordeal
that I decided to try to make an impact in her life and others. (Note: I lost my best friend due to this pressing issue, in fact our high school suffered two deaths over this) I designed again with Andy from Signs By Tomorrow a license plate for the Mothers Against Drunk Driving. On a personal note I lost my best
friend I ever had to this situation. Once again below is the passed legislation of the license plate.

Below is the Approved Design

Once again I was able to get something done with the help of my Delegate. Then in the same year my delegate and I were able to get the reflector tape law passed which is why this Web Site
is in existence.

Below is the Article

A TRAILER, A TICKET, A LEGAL TRIUMPH ; REAR-END COLLISION LED TO MAN'S CAMPAIGN TO GET LAW CHANGED

Ron Melancon complained to a lot of people about the ticket he got for rear-ending an empty, steel-mesh trailer in May 2003.

The trailer was so low-slung and the mesh back of the empty trailer so transparent that he looked right through it and saw only the truck towing it, he told them.

Nobody wanted to hear him, Melancon said. "You hit him in the rear. Pay your fine and move on" was the message he consistently received.

Melancon took an online safe-driving course to avoid a conviction for causing an accident by following too closely.

But he didn't just move on.

Instead, he went to his representative in the General Assembly, Del. John S. Reid, R-Henrico, "who gave me an opportunity to vent," Melancon said.

Reid also agreed to sponsor a bill that would make the trailers, which are often used to haul landscape equipment, more visible.

"We decided that the way to do it was to outline the rear of the vehicle of the trailer with reflective tape or reflectors, so there'd be no depth perception problems," Reid said.

'Hopefully, this will help'

"Some of those vehicles [extend] as much as 2 feet from the little fender over the rear wheel, where in most cases there's a reflector mounted, and the end of the trailer itself.

"So someone who's fixated on the reflector and maybe has a depth perception problem or not really looking can be in the back of one of those things without realizing it," he said. "Hopefully, this will help."

The bill passed the General Assembly without a dissenting vote and awaits the signature of Gov. Mark R. Warner. It would take effect July 1. New trailers sold after then must have the reflectors, but the law does not provide a penalty for not having one on an older trailer.

The law requires two reflectors or 100 square inches of reflectorized tape on the rear of every trailer that weighs less than 3,000 pounds.

Sen. John C. Watkins, R-Powhatan, lent his support to the proposal and helped defeat a suggestion that would have required as much as two years for a study of its impact, Melancon said.

Used insurance payment

Melancon didn't just make the suggestion to Reid and depend on him to carry the bill. Instead, he used the $2,400 his insurance company paid him for repairs to his minivan to buy 19 ink-jet cartridges and print 5,000 pages promoting the bill.

Melancon, manager of the men's department at Hecht's Regency Square store, also led the successful effort to get a specialty license plate for Mothers Against Drunk Drivers.

Carter Hill, the organization's state chairman, said the group had considered such a plate for years, but winning approval for one "takes a lot of time and energy" and the group had so many other projects that it never made the plate a priority.

Melancon certainly doesn't lack for energy, Hill said. "He's very thorough; he's very tenacious. . . . We're glad we've got him."

The plate has the MADD acronym on it with the "no" symbol over a car key and a martini glass.

"Once we get those plates out, maybe it will remind people not to drink and drive, just by seeing that plate," Hill said.

The MADD plate was the second effort by Melancon to win approval for a specialty plate. He and Christopher Mingus, a Boy Scout from Virginia Beach, combined their ideas in 2002 for a "United We Stand" plate remembering Sept. 11.

Melancon has a "United We Stand" plate on his minivan. It was crumpled in the collision with the trailer.

Credit: Times-Dispatch Staff Writer

The Law Passed With 100% of the
House of Delegates and the Senate

You would think that would be the end but the company
called CARRY ON TRAILERS decided to fight the law

Below is a summary of what they tried to do

The Journal Press Inc. • P. O. Box 409 • King George • VA • 22485 • Phone: 540-775-2024 • Fax 540-775-4099 Serving King George County, Westmoreland County and the Town of Colonial Beach in Virginia
Pollard’s record on public safety becomes issue in campaign
Kat Ballentine 12.SEP.07

Pollard is also taking heat from transportation safety advocates who opposed his draft legislation to exempt mesh trailers under three thousand pounds from state inspection. Traditionally, Virginia legislation required that trailers weighing less than 3,000 pounds have either two or more reflectors of an approved type, or at least 100 square inches of reflective material, to outline the rear end of the trailer. In 2005, Pollard patroned legislation which would have redefined a utility trailer so as to exempt it entirely from the requirements of approved reflectors or reflectorized material to outline the trailer. Pollard’s bill (HB4290) defined a utility trailer as a device “whose body and tailgate consist largely or exclusively of mesh and whose end extends 18 inches or more beyond its tail lights.”

In 2005, the year of Pollard’s bill to reduce regulation of utility trailers, he received more than $3,200 in campaign money from Richmond and national lobbyists for transportation interests, including independent auto dealers and trucking interests, according to records maintained by the Virginia Public Access Project (VPAP.org). Public safety crusader Ron Melancon, who successfully lobbied to remove Pollard’s definition of a utility trailer from the final bill, accuses Pollard of acting at the behest of the trucking and transportation industry to the detriment of public safety.

In an interview this week, Melancon noted that under Pollard’s attempted legal change, anyone could build a trailer under 3,000 pounds without any inspection requirement or trailer-outlining reflection. Campaigning on behalf of public-safety interests in 2005, Melancon convinced senators that under Pollard’s bill, one could have a mile-long trailer with only a single set of tail lights positioned 18 inches from the bumper. Melancon keeps a registry of all of the accidents involving defective utility trailers at www.dangeroustrailers.org, and his registry now includes the recent Bay Bridge accident that claimed three lives this spring. In 2005, the State Senate’s focus on examples of the evident danger doomed Pollard’s attempt to relax safety standards.

What I am doing this year

Senator Elmon Gray called my home to comment on my Letter to the Editor which was published in the Richmond Times Dispatch. I was honored that he took the time to call and
told me who he was and what he accomplished in the Senate of Virginia.

He indicated that he helped with the opening of the "Bedford Memorial" The www.dday.org
foundation and they are always looking for help. I then told him that I have an idea why not
have a LICENCE PLATE FOR THEM. If Jimmy Buffet can have a plate why not the MEMORIAL? So below you see the proposed plate.

Senator Stosch has put the bill onto the General Assembly!!!! Please follow the Bill.
SENATE BILL SB750 http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?081+sum+SB750

Ron Melancon Bio

Ron J. Melancon