Voters to decide fate of Connellsville’s paid fire department
By Mark Hofmann, The Daily Courier, Connellsville, Pa. | |
McClatchy-Tribune Information Services |
During a special meeting on Thursday, council unanimously voted to direct the city clerk to submit the referendum to the
Nobody from the public spoke for or against the referendum, but council had questions for
Layton was asked how response time for New Haven Hose would be affected by the elimination. The volunteer unit is on the city's west side, and the paid department is on the east side.
"We have plans and alarm assignments," Layton said, adding that those plans have been in place since the 1990s.
New Haven Hose is assisted by
Another question was how elimination of the department and the only paid city firefighter will affect the city's ISO rating -- a rating from the
Layton said there will be a hit in the ISO rating if the department is eliminated. But the overall rating shouldn't be affected, he explained, because New Haven Hose has improved in other areas, including equipment, training, better response time and an increase in the number of firefighters.
New Haven Hose has 35 firefighters with an average of 12 firefighters responding to every call, he said.
Lt.
"The council didn't ask how many firefighters respond during a daylight shift," Tedesco said. "It's an important question that nobody asked."
Tedesco said studies have stated a recommended model for communities is for a full-time firefighter on duty 24 hours a day, seven days a week along with a volunteer fire department. He said the
"I can respond to a fire in five minutes," Gates said, adding that in that amount of time, the volunteer firefighters are just getting out the door.
Tedesco said he is concerned that council never asked Gates what he does. Gates not only fights fires, but does code enforcement and fire prevention.
"Eighty percent of our jobs is fire prevention," Tedesco said.
Gates, who has been a firefighter with the city for 13 years, said he understands the decision will be up to the voters but wants them to consider what he does for the city before they cast their ballots on
Tedesco said there is no decision what action to take for the department to stay active and Gates employed. Officials will continue monitoring the situation.
An appeal is unlikely because the decision will be up to the voters, Tedesco said.
"This has been coming for a while," Gates said. "I didn't think it would come this fast."
The city expects to save up to
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