Crime & Safety
DeRosa Asks for Larger Fire Budget
Acting chief says reduced services likely; Administrator says borough can't afford 14th member, promotion.
Acting Fire Chief Lou DeRosa pleaded his case to fill a position, make a promotion, and keep overtime in the budget to the Borough Council during its third budget workshop session on Thursday night.
DeRosa read a prepared statement to the council on why he felt the department's proposed budget, which was prepared by former Chief Doug Atchison, should stand as opposed to the recommended budget given by Borough Administrator Ray Codey.
"The numbers are the numbers but the impact is dramatic on the service end of things, so I want to focus on that because they do have a direct correlation to the numbers," DeRosa said as he began.
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DeRosa said that a reduction in career personnel–the department is a combination volunteer and career force–would decrease its effectiveness. A major theme of DeRosa's comments was that because of state mandates, a reduced force could conceivably get to a fire and not be able to actively fight it right away. He said that during the day when most volunteers are at work, it would be hard to field the proper amount of firefighters necessary to begin unless mutual aid were to arrive.
DeRosa also said that, though there are 16 volunteers on the squad, only eight have the proper certification for interior fighting.
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Growing a larger volunteer base is a goal DeRosa said he hopes to accomplish, though it takes approximately two years for a someone to be trained to meet state mandates in order to fight a fire on all levels.
"Increasing the volunteer ranks does not mean that we can decrease our career ranks," DeRosa said. "The minimum staffing level we have at the career rank is just that: the minimum which allows us to provide a quality service. Both divisions need to be, and must be, adequately staffed for our system of response as a combination department to work."
When Atchison retired from the department, DeRosa was promoted to acting chief from captain without a replacement firefighter for the position. There was also no one promoted to fill void at captain. The department in prior years has had two, but has one as of now.
DeRosa asked that the budget include room for him to hire a person to fill the vacancy, which would be the 14th member of the career division, and promote someone to captain. He also asked that overtime be included in the budget, stating that the department is currently working with the Madison Volunteer Ambulance Corps on Code 4 medical responses.
Codey said that after hearing DeRosa's comments he was leaning a lot more toward saying that it's a good thing to consider the overtime recommendation because of the work the department is doing with the ambulance squad (members are getting their EMT training on their own time, requiring no overtime payment by the borough in that regard).
Codey said he could not support the staffing proposed given the $1 million budget gap the borough is looking to close to meet the state's allowable tax levy.
"A department of 14 people costs $2,098,765. We can't afford more people," Codey said. "I think Lou's point is we can't afford to lose people in the fire department."
Codey was complimentary to DeRosa and his staff, which cleans its own facility and removes its own snow.
"This is not a reflection on the police or fire in terms of staffing," Codey said. "It's just a recognition of our economic reality. The policemen, we talked about during their hearing. Firemen are the same way. A fireman costs us approximately $150,000 after six years ... So we have firemen making more than two department heads in the front row who have been here for 35 years. The question is, can we sustain a business model and afford that type of service?"
The council also heard from department heads and various representatives from engineering, Planning Board, Zoning Board, construction code, water field, electric field, water utility administration, and electric utility administration.
The next budget workshop session will be held next Thursday, March 11 at 6:30 p.m. in the Madison Public Library's Chase Room due to a conflict with the Zoning Board.
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