Boardman fire station closes
The South Avenue station has been closed many days since nine firefighters were laid off last month.
BOARDMAN — The fire station at Lockwood Boulevard and Shields Road was closed Saturday after the township discontinued a contract provision calling for minimum manning.
Harry Wolfe, president of the firefighters union, said seven firefighters were on duty Saturday, all working out of the main station on U.S. Route 224.
Earlier last week, the township decided to exercise a portion of the firefighters’ contract allowing them to discontinue minimum manning if it had been used more than five times in a calendar year.
Minimum manning had required nine people on shift at a time. If fewer than nine people were working because of vacations or sick days, the township called in firefighters on overtime to meet the minimum.
That had occurred seven times this year.
Jason Loree, township administrator, has said the decision was made to reduce costs.
Last month, trustees laid off nine full-time firefighters among 30 full-time and 12 part-time township employees because of shrinking revenue. That took the fire department to 30 full-time firefighters and no part-timers.
Since then, the fire station on South Avenue has been closed many days because the department didn’t have enough people working to staff it. Before the layoffs, each shift had 12 to 13 firefighters working.
Wolfe says the department doesn’t have a problem with firefighters abusing sick time. The station closures, and the need to call out firefighters, is because of the layoffs, he added.