NY Town Eyes Cutting Paid Apparatus Drivers

July 02 -- POTSDAM, NY -- The village will temporarily cut back on its paid firetruck drivers for part of June and August, but a report by the New York State Financial Restructuring Board for Local Governments recommends cutting all of its paid firetruck drivers and using only volunteers.

The village owns the fire house, three firetrucks and pays four truck drivers. The Potsdam Fire Department, however, is a group of 45 volunteer firefighters who attend to fires in the town and the village, according to the report.

The paid drivers drive to fires in the village. For those outside the village, the paid drivers drive the truck just outside the fire house, but not to the site of the fire. Volunteers do the driving in those instances, according to the report.

Such a move would save money — the village spent $250,000 on its paid firetruck drivers in 2016, according to the report — but it would add to its emergency response time. The National Fire Protection Association sets the standard response time to be between nine and 10 minutes. The village’s response time is lower, although the report does not specify how much lower.

The report used the village of Canton and its fire department as an example. Canton uses a group of 42 volunteer firefighters and has a response time below what’s recommended, 8.45 minutes, according to the report.

The village voted in June to temporarily lower the number of paid drivers to three. The decision was met with dissatisfaction from the Fire Department.

“We’re hoping that this is temporary and we’re hoping that the trustees see that we’re here to help them,” Potsdam Fire Chief Danielle M. Rose said.

But some in the village government hope the attempt may prove this avenue to be a permanent solution.

The reason for the recent shift of fire-driving personnel stemmed from one driver retiring.

Village Mayor Reinhold J. Tischler hopes to no longer hire new drivers as each of the current drivers retires, but would only do so if the trial run this summer works out.

“We wouldn’t do it all at once, because we don’t want to do that to them,” Mr. Tischler said.

The village is discussing alternative methods with the fire department to save money while bringing back a fourth paid driver, according to Ms. Rose.

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