Fire Chief: Hire 2 part-time firefighters, pay off ambulance

New Fire Chief John DeSilva told the Board of Selectmen this week that he wants to hire two part-time firefigher/EMTs in fiscal year 2008-09 to provide the town with better coverage during weekends.

He said he also wants to complete the purchase of the department’s ambulance as a way of saving money.

And DeSilva even mentioned the idea of buying another ambulance for backup.

Buying out the lease-to-own agreement on “Ambulance One” just makes good financial sense at this time, DeSilva told the Selectboard at his budget review meeting in the town office building Wednesday. He said at the current rate of lease payments on the vehicle, when the annual Town Meeting convenes in May there will be a balance of $80,400 due. “We’re earning about 4-percent (in the ambulance run capital reserve fund) and we’re paying out 4.8-percent interest (on the loan)… So we’re losing a little bit of money.”

Because the reserve fund, which consists of money accumulated from ambulance run charges, will have more than $200,000 in it by Town Meeting time, it only makes sense for Sanbornton to pay off the ambulance lease and own the vehicle, DeSilva suggested.

The three-member board liked the plan and the members indicated they would support it when they passed the department’s budget on to the Budget Committee for review. If that group approves the idea the new ambulance lease purchase would appear as a warrant article at the Town Meeting in May.

But not all of the selectmen were in favor of the “second ambulance” idea DeSilva floated.

He started out by saying that even if the first ambulance is paid off in May there could still be enough money in the capital reserve fund to purchase a second ambulance during the upcoming 2008-09 fiscal year. “We could pay off Ambulance One and be pretty close to doing (buying) a second ambulance,” he said.

Town Administrator Bruce Kneuer confirmed that at the current rate of ambulance collections there would be more than the $200,000 needed for a second ambulance in the capital reserve fund.

“I was skeptical myself (of the idea), but when you look at the figures coming out it makes you scratch your head a little bit,” the chief explained. He noted the average expected life span of an ambulance is five years and the town’s current “back-up” is somewhat older than that.

“Ambulance Two has roughly brought in about $4,000 a year in revenue. It’s gone out about two times a month on medial calls. But one factor to consider is that the staffing situation has been so great (an issue in the past). So when we sent out Ambulance One, we may not have had the staff for the second ambulance to go.”

Last year the town voted to both retain a full-time fire chief and add a full-time firefighter/EMT. So if call firefighters were able to show up in response to an emergency call now, they’d probably see that the first ambulance was already out. “So it (the second crew) can now take out the second ambulance. That’s a consideration when you’re looking at the big picture — maybe you could have gotten more (use and revenue) out of it.”

DeSilva said he was in the process of checking with neighboring communities to see how often they’d sent out ambulances to assist Sanbornton when Ambulance One was already engaged.

Both paying off the Ambulance One lease and the cost of purchasing a new second ambulance would come from ambulance run revenues, not taxes, DeSilva noted.

“If we were going to do it off the backs of the taxpayers I’d say no,” selectman Steve Ober said, referring to the second ambulance proposal.

Chairman Andrew Livernois said his “knee-jerk” reaction to the second ambulance purchase was not to recommend it for the 2008-09 fiscal year. “We’re increasing (fire department) staffing over the next year so we’re going to see a pretty big jump (in you budget),” he told DeSilva.

Livernois said he’d rather see the capital reserve ambulance run fund build up for another year before moving ahead with the second ambulance purchase idea.

He also noted that he’d gotten indications the Budget Committee would be unlikely to support any additional expenditures for the department.

“But what if this one goes out of service for a month or two?” selectman Dave Nickerson asked.

DeSilva pointed out that while insurance on fire engines is for “replacement” value, ambulance insurance only covers the vehicles “market value.” “If it (Ambulance One) was totaled or out of service for some other reason, the town might have to hold a special Town Meeting” to approve the purchase of a replacement, he said. And that could take some time, the chief noted.

The selectmen asked DeSilva to bring them some more figures backing up his second-ambulance proposal.

The other major issue DeSilva brought to the meeting was a proposal to hire two “per-diem” firefighters/EMTs to provide coverage from the central station on Saturdays and Sundays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. The chief said his research showed the chances of getting two paid-call firefighters out for a daytime emergency during the weekend is no different than it is for weekdays — which is why the town agreed to the full-time chief and firefighter/EMT positions at the last Town Meeting. The “per-diem” employees would be current members of the department’s paid-call staff and would costs about $28,000 annually.

Yesterday DeSilva said he has still not been able to hire anyone to fill the Monday-to-Friday firefighter/EMT position.

“Our goal is to hire a firefighter/EMT at the advanced life support or paramedic level, which is the highest level. People demand that these days,” he said. “When we listed it we only received four application and only two of those met the minimum requirements. I want to hold off for a little bit due to the numbers and find out ways to attract more people. We have to figure out how to make the position more attractive.

“I personally feel there’s two things (in the way),” he said, adding he’s spoken to the selectmen about the issue. “Most people entering the fire service want to work a rotating schedule like they do in Franklin or Laconia. A Monday-to-Friday position, that has to be for someone who wants to be home at night and we just don’t have that at this time. And the other item is that most people looking to get into emergency service want to on a department that’s doing a thousand calls per year.”

Sanbornton’s emergency call volume is not close to that.

DeSilva suggested the best course for the town right now is to just remain patient. Until the right person comes along he said he’ll continue filling the position with paid-call firefighters on a per-diem basis.