WILKES-BARRE - City Council on Thursday unanimously approved a resolution taking the fire engine housed at Northeast Station out of service, leaving just one firefighter and a paramedic on staff at the station starting today or tomorrow.
The resolution is the administration's attempt to comply with an arbiter's ruling - increase the number of firefighters on each of the city's five engines from two to three - without boosting overtime.
It would cost about $3,000 a day in overtime to have three firefighters on all five engines for both the day and night shifts said Fire Chief Jake Lisman.
As of the end of April, $90,000 had been spent on overtime. The city has budgeted $165,000 in overtime for 2004.
"If this we're a perfect world, we'd have three firefighters on all five of our engines and we'd have $1 million to pay the overtime," said Lisman, who added the engine will be put back in service if staffing levels permit.
The lone firefighter and a paramedic would continue to man a medic unit at the station. Two firefighters will be relocated to a different station.
The change affects parts of East End and North End sections of the city.
The resolution was not discussed at Tuesday's work session or included on the original agenda for Thursday's meeting.
Virginia Falzone, who serves as president of the North End Citizens and Taxpayers Association called the resolution sneaky and she said it puts residents at risk. "This is unacceptable. I think the mayor and the council need to look at other ways to cut costs so they can staff the Fire Department properly, so it can protect the citizens of North End and East End."
A Fire Department captain and president of the International Association of Fire Fighters Local 104 said taking an engine out of service raises serious concerns for citizens and firefighters.
"For every added minute of response time, the fire grows immensely," said Tom Makar.
Makar said he believes the city is trying to save money on two fronts.
That is because the two most recent arbiter's rulings eliminated the minimum manning requirement of 88 firefighters for the department as a whole and established in its place the minimum manning requirement for each piece of apparatus.
"They're trying to cut costs by reducing the overall number of men in the department and by reducing overtime by taking a piece of apparatus out of service," Makar said.
The vice president of Local 104 said he is disappointed that after months of trying to work with the city to hammer out a contract that includes major concessions aimed at saving the city millions, the relationship between both sides appears to have taken a turn for the worse.
"We understand the city's financial situation and we thought we were helping," said Chris Buchanan. "So this is certainly frustrating."
Kasia Kopec, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 970-7436.
