Firefighter staffing a hot topic in Star City
By Kathy McCarty
Staff Writer
PRESQUE ISLE — Staffing at the Presque Isle Fire Department continued to be a hot topic Monday night at City Hall, as councilors discussed whether to fill a vacancy by hiring a firefighter, use overtime to cover the position or look to volunteers to fill the void. All councilors were present for the meeting.
“Where the Council came up with a resolution a year ago during the budget process, and because hiring someone that might be laid off — it’s a pretty loaded discussion. There’s a lot of information here and a lot you don’t have,” said Bennett.
Bennett discussed various scenarios of how the budget would be affected, depending on hiring, overtime, whether a hired person already has health insurance or not, among other things.
“There are financial considerations before you. This doesn’t deal with the impact of if you go down to three people. Let me put together (more information) before your next meeting,” said Bennett, adding, “We weren’t anticipating (a vacancy). We thought we’d have time before budget discussions.”
Council Chair Emily Smith questioned if this would be an opportunity to try three on that shift, to see if coverage would be there with regard to volunteers. “To see if what we voted in can work,” said Smith.
“If there was some type of stipend for a volunteer to spend the nighttime, the chief during the day could be the fourth person,” said the Council chair.
Bennett questioned relying on volunteers, noting “the chief and I had a discussion earlier; you’d be hard-pressed. There are rarely times when a volunteer is on the fire grounds before full-timer arrives.”
“I’d rather get a comprehensive review over the next month and get to you — both the impact to finances and the community,” said the city manager.
Fire Chief Darrell White said city officials have to make a decision on staffing.
“Either the city has to stay with a viable full-time force or all-volunteer, not half on and half off. A live-in stipend may have contract issues. Give us (Bennett and White) a month to lay out the facts,” said White. “At that time, you can make a truly educated decision.”
Councilor Bruce Sargent said the resolution would drop the PIFD down to three people per crew in six months, so why wait.
Councilor Peter Hallowell said he didn’t necessarily agree with White that it was “all or nothing.”
“There are as many models as you want to dream up,” said Bennett.
“There have been recent articles — other communities not getting response or qualified personnel or people not wanting to commit to necessary training. With a full-time firefighter, they have more time to do additional training — more frequently trained than volunteers,” said Bennett.
“It boils down to what the community wants for a service level. The sticking point is we have the airport. The training for that is an intensive requirement for a career guy,” said White.
Bennett noted that with volunteers, junior members have the least amount of training.
“They do 40 hours — have to go to Boston for live fire training. Career guys spend eight hours a month just for airport training,” explained White.
Bennett said if there’s not a set crew, depending on all volunteers, “they would have to have a lot of training that’s not there.”
“The four-person piece is critical. Unless you have a potential rescue — unless there are four on scene, you’re in violation with OSHA and face considerable fines. It’s like the saying, ‘if you can’t get in, you can’t win.’ Four-person staffing is critical,” said Bennett.
Councilor Micah Desmond asked what the likelihood of getting someone to come on staff for a few months, not knowing the future of the position.
“How many of us would take on a job we won’t have in three months?” asked White in response. “Would we find someone we’d normally pick? It’s a pretty intensive application process.”
Desmond questioned looking for someone with prior experience with the department. White indicated that person would still most likely have to go through application process.
“If we might possibly go to three people in six months — that’s what the resolution was — the thought process should start now. I thought it started last fall,” said Sargent.
Bennett said the decision involved addressing staffing and the loss of service.
“I don’t want to diminish other employees. Making a decision from five plow people to four doesn’t have the same impact. Going from four to three (firefighters) is not just the loss of one,” said Bennett.
“There are some ramifications — loss of safety and service,” said Smith.
Sargent questioned the need for a full-time department, given statistics he’d read that only 18 fires occurred in the past six years.
“We had two last week that no one knows of. We have trained people. Damage is greatly reduced. Contained kitchen fires don’t make the news,” said White.
Sargent indicated the facts he had showed only six fires occurred last year. Bennett said he didn’t feel Council had adequate information at this point.
“If we rush into (a decision) right now, something could happen. Fire insurance goes up, any number of things that aren’t quantified. The resolution merely tells me what the previous Council wanted to do. You need five councilors to vote on the budget. Only four of you voted on the resolution,” said Bennett.
Councilor Jessica Chase-Smith said it was a balancing act.
“We want a good fire department. We don’t want to keep raising taxes or other expenses (insurance) either,” said Chase-Smith. “Perhaps we should put forth advertising to get potential candidates, then have information ready next month.”
“Obviously, from what Bruce is saying, the information we had last year isn’t the right information. It’s a little disconcerting having a resolution based on that — having truth vs. fear factor,” said Smith.
Sargent said a Massachusetts city with 200,000 people relies on a volunteer fire department, so why can’t Presque Isle.
“In each of those communities, based on information I have, they have around 200 volunteers; each has to commit to staying at the station for 24-hour shifts. So that station has the same as a full-time one here. It’s not the same comparing that volunteer department with one like Fort Fairfield’s,” noted Bennett.
Bennett said he wasn’t sure how insurance rates would be affected, should the department staff fall below its present level of four-person crews.
“I’ll give you the best objective information to make your evaluation, you then have to make a risk assessment of funding vs. service and safety,” said Bennett.
Bennett said fires vary, depending on response time.
“The difference between a structure fire and kitchen fire is five minutes’ response time. A structure fire is when we’ve lost. It’s how many fires we got in and saved (the structure), that’s what’s important,” said Bennett.
White said a good response time isn’t everything.
“Comparing response times is not an indicator of service level. It’s control time of a fire. The problem is a lot of smaller departments around us are recording response time, not control time,” said White.
“We’ll try to provide all the tangible data to you to make a reasonable decision for taxpayers,” said Bennett.
“I don’t think anyone up here wants to make a rash decision,” said Smith.
Council’s next regular meeting is scheduled for June 4 at 6 p.m. at City Hall. Meetings are open to the public and participation is encouraged. For more information, call 760-2785.
