DISTRICT PROPOSAL Fire task force notes savings

The task force plans to meet Tuesday to refine its figures for a council meeting.
SALEM -- The city could save $600,000 by abolishing its fire department and joining Perry Township in a fire district, a task force considering the possible move reported Thursday.
But firefighters, calling it a union-busting move, said they were prepared to challenge the district in court, if it is approved by city council. The council is scheduled to take up the matter at 5 p.m. Wednesday in city hall.
"We can cut our $1.2 million annual fire budget in half and save $600,000 per year by forming the district," said Gregg Oesch, a councilman who heads the Fire District Task Force. "We need to save money because we are facing a shortfall and having trouble meeting our payroll."
Oesch said the savings would come from laying off the city's 16 full-time firefighters and replacing them with part-timers and volunteers.
Refining its figures
The task force will meet at 7 p.m. Tuesday in city hall to refine its figures in preparation for the council meeting, he added.
"Forming the district will involve union busting, discrimination and law breaking," objected Mike Burns, president of local 283 of the International Association of Firefighters, speaking for the firefighters who would lose their jobs.
Burns, among about a dozen firefighters and residents attending the meeting in city hall, pointed out city residents approved ordinances barring the formation of the fire district and the disbanding of the city fire department by a 62-percent margin in November's election.
However, Oesch said that under state law the council can overturn these ordinances and form the district.
If that is done, Burns vowed the union and the firefighters will take the council and the city to court to seek to preserve the fire department.
Oesch said the idea of forming the fire district has been discussed for more than five years, leading Burns to question whether council members had violated the state's freedom of information law by considering it privately over the years.
Burns also questioned how the task force was able to come up with a detailed budget for the proposed district for presentation Thursday without discussing it first in public.
Proposed district plan
Under the proposed district plan, the full-time firefighters would be replaced by part-time firefighters, earning $9 per hour, who would man the Salem and Perry firehouses, said Jack Reid, of Salem, a task force member.
Oesch said a firefighter would be on duty at each firehouse around the clock, but he added he was not certain how many part-timers would be needed to achieve that.
Volunteer firefighters would be paid $8 per hour to help the part-time professionals fight the fires, Reid said.
The district would also employ a fire chief, paid $50,000 per year, and a part-time assistant chief and fire inspector, paid $45,000 annually, according to the proposed budget.
Overall, the city would contribute about $600,000 and the township $42,000 annually to pay for the district.
"It looks like it will work, giving us a lot more access to a quick response to fires," Perry's task force representative, Cliff Mix, said, expressing approval of the district plan.