REPUBLICAN-AMERICAN
NAUGATUCK — The Board of Finance has suggested bring ing in volunteer firemen to cut back on firefighter overtime costs.
However, plans to bring back volunteers, who haven’t had a presence in borough firefight ing since the 1980s, have failed several times for many reasons, not the least of which is volunteers just aren’t coming for ward, according to borough officials and firefighters.
“The days when the whistle blows and 50 people leave the rubber shop to go fight a fire are gone in this community,” Deputy Fire Chief Kenneth Hanks said. “We’re not anti-vol unteer; it’s just not going to work.”
The latest push to bring back volunteers was in 2006, when former Mayor Ronald S. San Angelo and firefighters tried to recruit volunteers to help, but not replace, the borough’s 38 paid firefighters.
Officials advertised the plans in local newspapers, spread the word throughout the community for several weeks and only a couple volunteers showed up to meetings, San Angelo said. The volunteers who originally showed interest never followed through, and San Angelo even tually scrapped the idea.
While bringing back volun teers seems like it could help Naugatuck cut back on fire fighter overtime — which cost the borough $746,313 last year — it likely would not, Hanks said. He said the borough must have eight paid firefighters on duty at all times. If someone calls in sick, a volunteer cannot fill that person’s shift. To change that, the borough must negotiate the terms in a con tract with the local firefighter’s union, Hanks said.
Paid Naugatuck firefighters also won an arbitration hearing several years ago when the state’s Department of Labor ruled that volunteer firefighters could not be used in place of ca reer firefighters unless the career firemen are called first and fail to respond to a call.
Firefighters say that over the years, several volunteers have received training that the borough paid for, and then left to become career firefighters in other communities.
Today’s volunteer firefight ers need many hours of train ing. Basic training required by state law, plus equipment, costs between $2,000 and $2,500 per firefighter. Hanks noted those are one-time costs, but said they add up because there is so much turnover in volunteer de partments.
He said other local communi ties are able to make their all volunteer departments work because they have a long histo ry of volunteer firefighting. “Their fathers, brothers, grand fathers, cousins all volunteered,” he said. “That type of tradition hasn’t existed in Naugatuck in 20 years.”
Still, Hanks was excited about bringing back a volunteer base in 2006, until the volunteers never showed up.
Fire Chief Charles Doback Jr. said it was easy to get volunteers when Uniroyal Chemical and Risdon manufacturing were major employers in town.
“Once those companies faced difficult times, it became an economic hardship on businesses to let employees out,” he said.
The total budget for the MVFD is $214,000.00. Naugatuck paid $746,313.00 last year in just overtime costs alone.
73% of all firefighters in the United States are volunteer, a tradition that dates back to 1736 when Ben Franklin organized the Union Fire Company in Philadelphia.
It is increasingly difficult today to attract and retain volunteer firefighters. Every community in the United States that host volunteer departments has the same problem. People just do not have time to make such a commitment.
Since 9-1-1 many aspects of the fire service have changed. Volunteer firefighters now face Fire Fighter I courses that are approaching 200 classroom hours, up from 160 hours a year ago. There is NIMS training, OSHA training, EMS training, HazMat training and drills firefighters must complete.
In 1983 the International Fire Service Training Association (IFSTA) published their second edition of Essentials of Fire Fighting. This text is widely considered the “bible” of fire service education. IFSTA’s second edition was 410 pages. Essentials 3rd edition was published in November of 1992, and the text grew to 590 pages. The 4th edition was published in 1998 and grew again to 712 pages. The current version of Essentials was published in January of 2008. This current version, in a post 9-1-1 world, is now an astounding 1407 pages long.
Volunteer fire fighting is no longer just showing up and jumping on the engines. The training is demanding, yet the MVFD is fortunate that there are still men and women in Town that are dedicated to their community and step forward to undertake this incredible challenge.
Softening this massive training blow, is Chief Perrotti who is certified as an instructor (among holding numerous other certifications), who teaches a variety of fire fighter courses in-house. This saves the Town thousands of dollars that they would have had to spend sending prospective firefighter candidates to area fire schools.
The MVFD is one of Middlebury’s most precious assets. The volunteers save the taxpayers millions of dollars. Paid departments such as Naugatuck are looking for ways to cut their costs. Volunteers may be an option.
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12 comments:
But we can't afford to buy new trucks every few years.
plus we have about 6500 residents, we don't need a dozen or so trucks that cost money to maintain.
The problem is that the town has not kept up with replacement of apparatus. The FD has been requesting replacement since 2002 with no results. Now you have an old fleet that unfortunately, needs replacement, and the problem will not get better. The costs keeps rising.
Engine 3 20 years old
Engine 4 21 years old
Engine 2 27 years old
Rescue 1 30 years old
Engine 1 will be 20 years old in 3 years.
You don't have a dozen trucks. In addition to what is shown above, you have Engine 6, and Truck 1. That's it.
In a fire you need all of them, and that has been proven time in and time out.
As for the cost of maintaining the apparatus, that cost will keep rising as the apparatus ages.
I'd like to suggest that we hold a fundraiser to reward Pat Deangelis and every other naysayer who is pushing to destroy the MVFD.
The proceeds will be used to buy a large granite monument. That monument will be chiseled with the words "In appreciation to those who brought about the PAID Middlebury Fire Department"
The first name would be Pat Deangelis in large letters. Following that name would be the chiseled name of every loudmouth naysayer who is distorting the NET overall cost of the MVFD and ignoring all the good work that the MVFD does for volunteering and grooming of our younger citizens.
Let's place that monument in one of the bays of the Tucker Hill fire station so that anyone can see what the future holds in store.
So WHAT if a fire truck is 20 yrs old. It sits idle most of the time.
There is maybe 5 calls a week in the newspaper, thats 0.8 per day. So it will be 20 yrs old ! Our cars get used every day.
We sell them to Maine and they use them for many more years.
Our town does not have the money now.
Here's the difference between a 20 year old car and a 20 year old fire truck. If your car breaks down on the way to work, oh well I guess the fries at Micky D's don't get made. If a fire truck breaks down on the way to work, oh well I guess a house burns down. Let's hope it's not your house with you in it. When your car breaks down, you call AAA and pick your nose waiting for the tow truck. When a fire truck breaks down, they call for mutual-aid from another town and bite thier nails wating for help.
I know for a fact that you don't drive an old car, because you would know this; Even the best maintained vehicles will show signs of age. Wiring gets old and brittle. Gaskets, seals and tire dry rot with age. Computer boards become fried and everything goes hay wire. Fire trucks don't get used every day, but when they do go out, they are used very hard, usually for hours at a time. When was the last time you rev'd your car at 2000 rpms for three or four hours?
I've been to Maine. I did'nt notice a lot of 20 year old cars with faded MRA stickers on them. I bet they see more time on a lift than they do on the road.
One last thing to consider. The town's ISO rating. They look at things like the age of your fire appartus when determining how much you pay for insurance. I'd rather pay a little more in taxes for new fire trucks than paying more for insurance because of an aging fleet.
Amen!! Way to go. That is the truth!
But guys ??? Hate to tell you most folks in Middlebury aren't working at McD's ......look at your demographics.
Most calls in Middlebury are "false alarm smoke alarm, car acciident, no injuries, kitchen smoke detector, etc.etc, "
so we use 100 ft ladder truck to get a kitten from a tree ? or march in a parade.
yep.
So do the math.
Let's assume that Deangelis and the anonymous naysayers finally kill off the MVFD and replace it with a PAID fire department.
What is our current department costing us - including all those extra unnecessary fire trucks?
Now - what would a PAID fire department cost us? How many trucks could we sell? How many trucks would we need in future years? Are the current facilities adequate for a staffed paid fire department?
Now - after a few years have gone by with a PAID fire department - what would you estimate to be the continuing cost of salaries and capital equipment replacement budgeting?
Go ahead - make your case!
Sounds like a good deal to me. Union contracts, over-time, workman's comp and, ka-ching, pensions!!!$$$$
One thing to Add about our 20 year old fire Engines! The Cabs of Eng 3 and Eng 4 are the not even crash tested. They are the same vintage American LaFrance that crashed in Waterbury a few years back. We take those on the Interstate all the time. But what do the nasayers care......They don't unless we have to come save their property and thats whats wrong with this town. Since people in this town are starting to work at Mcdonalds (this is evident because of the increase in population of low class scum in this town) I think everyone should move to Southbury, Woodbury or Roxbury. Those towns remind me of what Middlebury used to Be. MIDDLEBURY IS THE NEW TOWN PLOT SO DEAL WITH IT.
Here's a brainstorm for you.
Let's simply ELIMINATE the MVFD. Let's eliminate the police department too.
If something bad happens then we put the "call" out to competitive bids with all the surrounding towns. Lowest bid gets to respond to the call.
Let Cheshire take the call. We can't afford to take 911 calls here either.
That should save lots of money.
Let's not stop there. Eliminate the library too. There are great liberrys in Naugatuck, Southbury and Woodbury. Why do we need one too? The future McDonalds workers of Middlebury don't need to read in order to push the correct icon on their cash register.
Savings, savings, savings!!!
See Pat, we can think outside the box!
Keli and Mike McCormack - why not take these suggestions to the Finance board tonight. Why stop at restructuring when you can decimate?
Cut Park & Rec too. What a waste of money. Park & Rec should be run by volunteers. And we don't need all those parks. Sell the land to developers and zone it for 2 acres. We don't want any more Brooksides. And start charging for events at Shepardsons. The Apple Harvest Festival should give a cut of the profits to Middlebury. And the churches pay no taxes! More non-profit nonsense!!! Middlebury should get a cut of the collection plate profits.
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