Orange Fire Chief James Young is looking to FEMA for help. But not for recovery aid after a catastrophe has happened, but for support confronting and minimizing disaster as it strikes.
The chief wants to beef up the ranks of the department that provides the town fire protection and emergency medical coverage, but he wants to ease the town into that expansion in an economical way.
Young has received permission from the Selectboard to apply for a federal SAFER grant from FEMA to increase the number of full-time firefighters on staff by three. The Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response grants provides money to help increase or maintain the number of trained, “frontline” firefighters.
The grant, which would require a three-year commitment from Town Meeting, covers a percentage of the first three years of employment, beginning in April 2019. Then the town would be on the hook for the full cost — about $242,000 a year to maintain the new force levels.
Young laid his cards on the table for the Selectboard: “I don’t think there’s ever going to be a good time to come before you. This will increase the budget,” Young said.
In the first and second years, the grant would pay 75 percent of the costs and the town 25 percent. In the third year, the grant would pay 35 percent and the town 65 percent.
The town took advantage of a SAFER grant in 2008, boosting full-time staff from six to nine, allowing an increase in a shift from two to three. And it remains at that level today.
Young argues that the extra person per shift will provide on-duty station coverage during ambulance calls, many of which require all three current firefighters on a shift. Rules require two paramedics in the back of the ambulance administering to any patient deemed “critical” and one EMT or paramedic driving.
Adding three full-time firefighters will increase turn-out and response times to fires, reduce the number of requests for mutual aid to neighboring towns and, depending on the situation, allow operation of both ambulances without calling in off-duty firefighters and EMTs, Young argues.
In the case of fires, he notes that four firefighters are required on an engine, and the department currently relies on on-call personnel for the fourth person.
He said mutual aid requests have resulted in a loss of about $40,000 per year in revenue to the town. Having more full-time firefighters has the potential to recoup some of that money, he said.
On the other side of the ledger, the starting salary for an entry-level firefighter is roughly $55,000, working a 56-hour work week, including benefits health, dental and vision insurance, retirement, paid days off and holidays. After the grant expires, that’s roughly $242,000 a year.
Selectwoman Jane Peirce said the grant would be a good way to get additional staff.
But, it’s not up to the Selectboard, but rather the voters. Since seeking the grant doesn’t commit the town, the Young and the Selectboard are smart to seek the SAFER grant. It may be a commitment of Young’s time to seek the grant, but he is willing to invest, obviously seeing the benefit to the protection of the town’s people and property.
Having more firefighters makes perfect sense. We doubt anyone in town would dispute that. If Orange wins the grant, though, it will be up to the taxpaying voters to decide whether they want and can afford an eventual $242,000 a year for that extra measure of security.
But with the growth of the town’s commercial tax base in recent years, and projections of more to come, this might just be the time to invest.