Bloomfield Fire Department reduces employee hours
During a city council meeting Monday, Fire Chief
This will help the fire department keep its station staffed 24 hours a day despite reducing hours for three of the paid firefighters, he said.
Mayor
"Coverage is vital in our community," Eckstein said.
These firefighters were paid using a federal grant, which expired last year. The city had a special election, in which residents voted to increase the gross receipts tax. The tax increase was marketed as a way of keeping paid firefighters, however city officials have not decided how the increased revenue will be distributed.
Mohler said he is hopeful the economy will improve raising the gross receipts tax revenue. If that happens, he said the city may be able to budget enough for the fire department to pay the firefighters.
While the department is shrinking, Mohler said there will be one paid firefighter and one volunteer firefighter at the station at least through June.
"The first truck will still get there fast," Mohler said.
The city received the federal SAFER grant in 2014, which allowed the fire department to increase the number of paid firefighters from three to 10. This allowed the department to decrease its average response time from more than seven minutes to less than five minutes. When it expired, the city had limited options for paying the firefighters. Currently, positions are being funded using money in the wild land fire fund. The department has earned the money by sending firefighters to fight wildfires in other areas.
Insurance rates in
"The ISO rating will go down if we don't have more staffing by the time we're evaluated again," Mohler said.
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