What about declining budgets and low daytime staffing?

[cellblock]

How have you been affected by declining budgets and low daytime staffing?

[Cappy720]

On the Volunteer department I am on our budget has always been a sore spot. Our budget is actually lower than the Parks and Rec department!
We don't even have enough money to put any new people on this year.

As for daytime response it has always been hit and miss. Recently our problem has been hiring people for daytime calls only to have them leave six months later because their work hours changed from nights to day's. But my department isn't the only one in that situation. Some of the larger communities around us have gone to hiring full time day time help. But even those department are lacking for fires because the full time people are out doing medical runs. There have been times lately where 4-5 departments have been called for a structure fire, where as when I first started ( almost 20 yrs ) we had enough help, one department maybe two could handle the call.

[ndvfdjrff]

My dept is in the same boat as Cappys..Our budget is very very bad..If we keep going at the rate we are we'll be no more thats how bad it is..


As for daytime Fire/Medical calls...Our response isn't all that different from evenings..Our members respond from work or home same as they would in the evening....There may be a few less people but we always get on the road quickly and get the job done which is the main thing...

[Weruj1]

due to decling daytime availability we added 2 people from 8-4 originally 5 days/week then changed to 7. Our budget for operations have been ok but as far as big purchaes go .....mighty slim....

[Farley]

Budgets - tax revenue not declining, but is holding steady. We don't bill residents for EMS transports, but non residents, ie tourist get billed. We bumped the transport fee up, but it is still a lot lower than the neighboring departments. We are unpaid, except for something that basically would cover the fuel you use to drive to the station.

Daytime EMS help is slim.

[firenresq77]

Like Weruj, we staff 2 people, except ours is just Monday through Friday and they work from 0800-1700. Usually response isn't too bad at my station, but the other station has problems with lack of people. Just depends on the day, though

[WTFDChief730]

We are no different than most small volunteer departments, we have budget problems and daytime staffing is always hit or miss. We dont have the budget to be able to afford some paid daytime staffing like some of the departments in our area. To help offset this problem, we enhanced our mutual aid with our neighboring department who has the same problems we do, to an automatic mutual aid during the weekday daytime hours, not for all calls, but calls that would require multiple apparatus to respond such as MVA's and fire type responses. This has helped us greatly, staffing is really not an issue anymore since we started this, its truly been a win win situation for both communities.

[stcommodore]

budget ok
we role a truck in the morning standardly with 3 guys when we get out 90% of the time.
When it comes down to it we have it good.

[clintwood]

Budget, Dismal would be an improvement.

[middbenji82]

The Budget for the department is ok. We can still pay all members and we just purchased two new trucks. This money came mostley from fundraisers and donations. 2 years ago are chief asked the town to consider a full time position for a chief. He had about 5 hours a day doing fire department work and he ran a full time business.

For man power in the day our main station gets our main engine utility and ladder truck out with full crews every time plus 2-3 line officers in there personal veichles(about 16-18 people). Most of the members on these trucks attend school at the Middlebury College or work there or around that area. The second station usually gets about 2-3 guys during the day, unless it is a structure fire we will get about 5. They will roll with either are 2nd in engine or utility. This minimal response from the second station is not that big of a deal because 90% of the calls are in central station distrcit and if the call is near station 2 then we usually have station 1 on scene about 5 minutes after the tones are dropped.