SHREWSBURY - The town's Fire Department has one of the lowest staffing levels per capita in the state - a level virtually unchanged in more than 30 years - putting firefighters and the public at risk, Fire Chief James M. Vuona says in an appeal to town officials for more firefighters.
While the town has grown exponentially since 1987, the Fire Department has not, Chief Vuona said in a written executive overview of his department. The department has 38 full-time firefighters, the same level authorized by the 1987 town meeting, except for the addition of the deputy chief position in 2016. In 1987, Shrewsbury firefighters responded to 789 calls for service from a population of 22,547. Today, the population is nearing 40,000. The Fire Department responded to 4,055 incidents in 2018.
Chief Vuona is requesting an additional eight firefighters: four for fiscal 2020, which begins July 1, and four the following fiscal year. The Board of Selectmen will address that request at its meeting Tuesday night.
The plan is to apply for a Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response grant. SAFER grants cover 75 percent of the cost to employ a firefighter the first two years, and 35 percent in the third year. In the fourth year, the municipality assumes full financial responsibility. The application period for the grants this year was delayed by the federal government shutdown, but it reopened Feb. 15 and ends March 22.
The Fire Department, however, has been unsuccessful the past three years in applying for SAFER grants to fund four firefighters. Chief Vuona said he believes the grants were denied because the town did not ask for enough personnel to reach the nationally recognized National Fire Protection Association 1710 standard that guides the award process. The chance of success would have increased, he said, if the town had applied for funding for eight positions.
He noted that Westboro recently was awarded a SAFER grant to fund eight positions because that fire department demonstrated ability to achieve the NFPA standard. The additions bring Westboro's staffing to 40 firefighter positions, which is more than Shrewsbury's even though Westboro's population is approximately half of Shrewsbury's.
Town Manager Kevin Mizikar said assuming 100 percent of the cost for eight firefighters in one year - $80,000 for each, or a total of $640,000 - would be significant.
"That is roughly 20 percent of all new revenue for FY20 and would be an 18 percent increase over the proposed FY20 budget for the (fire) department," Mr. Mizikar told selectmen in a memo in February. The preliminary proposed fiscal 2020 budget for the fire department is $3,625,371, which is $71,087, or 2 percent, more than the current budget.
The chief wrote in his overview that the current levels hurt or could hurt the town in several areas: insurance rates, increased injuries to firefighters, overtime expenditures, delayed or ineffective responses, and health care and legal costs.
According to a 2015 NFPA survey, the national average of firefighters per 1,000 people is 1.54. Fire department staffing in the state, as of the end of November 2018, was 1.58 firefighters per 1,000 people, according to the Professional Firefighters of Massachusetts. Shrewsbury's rate, Chief Vuona said, "is a dangerously low" 0.86, compared to similar communities, which have about 1.83 firefighters per 1,000. In Fire District 14, made up of 23 municipalities including Shrewsbury, Northboro, Southboro, Westboro, Hudson, Hopedale and Milford, the average rate is 1.63.
The chief said that over the years, town officials have agreed that the department needs more staffing and funding. He said the former town manager said more funds would become available after the completion of the Lakeway Commons project, which is now completed. And additional funding should be available from a reduction in funding of retirement benefits known as OPEB or other post-employment benefits, he said.
If town could consider operating an EMS-based ambulance service, which could further defray the Fire Department's operating costs, the chief said. Over $3.5 million in annual billing generated from medical emergencies within Shrewsbury goes to private ambulance providers, the chief noted.
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