Monday, March 3, 2008
Layoffs have caused
firefighter shortages in
Boardman.
By JEANNE STARMACK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
BOARDMAN — The township fire chief temporarily closed another fire station Sunday because he did not have enough manpower.
“We had gotten ourselves down to seven people,” Chief James Dorman said. A shift must include at least nine firefighters, he said.
Station 73 at 1200 Shields Road closed at 8 a.m. Sunday and was to reopen at 8 a.m. this morning. Station 74 at 6169 South Ave. closed after the township laid off nine firefighters Wednesday.
Trustees announced those and layoffs in other departments as the first step in balancing a budget in which expenses have exceeded revenue since 2003. A 4.1-mill general operating levy failed in November.
The layoffs contributed to the shortage for two of the department’s three shifts, said Dorman and Jim McCreary, spokesman for Boardman Professional Firefighters Local No. 1176.
One firefighter was on vacation and another had the flu. The department called for overtime but got no responses, Dorman said. He said the Shields Road station closed so the shifts could staff the main station, Station 71 on U.S. 224, where five to six firefighters at a minimum are needed to protect the center of the township.
With summer coming up, the situation will get worse, said McCreary and Dorman.
The department is “pretty much guaranteed” two men on vacation on the three shifts in June, July and August, Dorman said.
Dorman said South Avenue’s Station 74 will remain closed until he can staff all shifts with 10 people. Right now, one shift has 10 and the others have nine, he said. The department would need to call back two firefighters, he said.
“But then, you have people going back on vacation and sick days,” he said.
The department had 13 firefighters per shift before the layoffs, he said.
Dorman said the department is actually down 11 firefighters, because the township did not replace two who retired.
McCreary said that with only the main station on Route 224 open, response times will be slower.
He said it will take an additional four minutes for response to calls in the South Avenue station’s area, and an additional seven minutes for calls in the Shields Road station’s area.
Normal response times are three to four minutes, he said.
“It’s not a good situation for the safety of citizens or firefighters,” he said.
Dorman agreed that response times will be affected. “We can’t manufacture a good response time if there’s no people in the department,” he said.
Trustees have asked the unions in all township departments to come up with potential givebacks to help save money. They have 90 days to do so.
“Trustees guaranteed any givebacks would stay within departments,” Dorman said, adding that the fire department would definitely use givebacks to call back firefighters.
The layoffs included nine of the 39 full-time firefighters and all nine part-time firefighters.
Also laid off were the fire chief’s secretary, 12 of 27 road department workers, the recycling coordinator, seven police civilian employees and three part-time employees from other departments.
The layoffs mean about $1.96 million in savings this year, township administrator Jason Loree has said.