By Suzanne Laurent
slaurent@derrynews.com
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LONDONDERRY — After nearly three hours of discussion and public comment Thursday, the Town Council voted to allow fire Chief Kevin MacCaffrie to apply for a federal Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response grant.
It was a compromise. MacCaffrie wanted to hire eight new firefighter/paramedics, but that wish was cut in half.
Many residents argued no new staffers were needed, but other residents backed the chief's request. In the end, the council voted to allow four on the grant application.
"There's no guarantee that we'll get the grant," MacCaffrie told the council. "We would have a better chance if we requested eight personnel."
Approximately 20 Fire Department personnel attended the meeting to back the chief's request.
SAFER grants provide direct funding to fire departments and volunteer firefighter interest organizations to help increase the number of trained, "frontline" firefighters in communities.
Traditionally, each of the town's three fire stations is staffed with 10 firefighters per shift, MacCaffrie said. But due to increasing overtime costs, the number is down to eight or nine firefighters per shift.
SAFER grants are fully funded for the first two years, but the town must pay expenses for the third year. Even with the grant, the town could face nearly $700,000 in overall costs if the Fire Department hired eight new firefighter/paramedics.
The cost to a taxpayer would be $58 a year for eight firefighters and $73 for firefighter/paramedics. The cost for four firefighters would be $29 and $36 for firefighter/paramedics. The additional cost would not go into effect until the grant's third year.
"My concern is that there be eight," resident Carole Connolly said. "I'm not wealthy. However, for that amount of money a year, it seems a no-brainer to me to get them all in."
The Fire Department has a six-minute response time, the national standard, which is met 90 percent of the time, MacCaffrie said. If mutual aid is called in, an average of 10 minutes is added.
Resident Tom Freda said he was concerned about the number of ambulance calls to Elliot Medical Center's urgent care facility on Buttrick Road.
"If the Elliot didn't exist, we'd have 200 less calls," he said.
MacCaffrie said many people just "show up" at the Elliot facility, people who should have called 911 in the first place.
Rep. Al Baldasaro, R-Londonderry, said the "dispatcher needs to weed out calls."
"A firetruck goes out every time an ambulance goes out," he said. "Comes a time when you got to say no (to increased spending.)"
Former Town Councilor Kathy Wagner pointed out that Elliot pays taxes and generates revenue.
But Sherry Radzelovage, a Litchfield Road resident, said the town doesn't have "unlimited dollars."
"At the end of two years, we have to continue paying eight salaries," she said. "Look at if we're existing OK with what we have."
Councilor Mike Brown said he would like the council to direct the town manager to investigate outsourcing ambulance service.
"We also need some reduction or elimination of service, like Town Hall not being open five days a week," he said. "A future council will be faced with finding $350,000 in 2012 to offset the revenue. If we approve, let's give direction to the town manager to implement some of the things we talked about to cut costs."
Councilors voted, 5-0, to allow MacCaffrie to apply for the grant to add four new staff members.
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