Residential Incentive Approved for TX Firefighters
By James Draper
Source Kilgore News Herald, Texas
For the past seven years, a steady stream of firefighters have been cutting their teeth at Kilgore Fire Department then moving on to new jobs elsewhere.
In an effort to entice them to stay, and to draw more KFD personnel within the city limits, Kilgore City Council members approved a new $150-per-month incentive last week for those employees who reside inside Kilgore.
According to Kilgore City Manager Josh Selleck, the city’s seen success in incentivizing police officers to put down roots in the city. The new measure, $1,800 per year for each firefighter who takes advantage of it, will have similar, wide-ranging benefits at an estimated annual cost of $9,000.
“We think that there’s a benefit to our citizens from a response time standpoint, a general public safety standpoint and a buy-in,” he said. “We’ve actually had a pretty incredible rate of turnover in the fire department. A big part of that is we have such an incredible chief and such an incredible system – a lot of folks will come here, get trained up” and then move on to higher-paying jobs or positions closer to home.
“Part of what we think has happened here, because of the schedules firefighters work, it’s not that inconvenient to live an hour or an hour-and-a-half away.”
About 66 percent of the firefighters on the roster seven years ago are no longer here, Kilgore Fire Chief Johnny Bellows said. In the past 2.5 years, 33 percent of personnel have taken other jobs.
“They go for usually more money. Some is just the glamour of going to a bigger department.”
It’s not a quick-fix solution, he added. It’s the product of several years of discussion. It could, though, improve the current ratio of firefighters who are residents: currently just four of 36 live within the city.
“Hopefully this will be an incentive for them to move into the community and then stay.”
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©2019 the Kilgore News Herald (Kilgore, Texas)
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