Springfield police, fire chiefs want more staff

Springfield’s police and fire chiefs have asked for additional staffing in the new budget year.
http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20140101/NEWS02/701019902

Published January 1, 2014 in the Rutland Herald Springfield police, fire chiefs want more staff By SUSAN SMALLHEER Staff Writer SPRINGFIELD – Springfield’s police and fire chiefs have asked for additional staffing in the new budget year. During Monday night’s first town budget session, both Police Chief Douglas Johnston and Fire Chief Russell Thompson said they needed additional staffing, and that new full-time staff would take a big bite out of their overtime budget. Each chief asked for one additional officer. Both chiefs said that the additional staffing would do wonders for morale within their own departments, since many of the employees are forced to take overtime to cover shifts or emergencies. “People don’t want to spend every waking moment” at the fire station or in an ambulance, Thompson said. One new firefighter would cost about $62,000, including a $35,500 salary and the rest in benefits. Both Johnston and Thompson have made this pitch before: last year, both chiefs asked for two additional staffers for their respective departments. In the end in 2013, no additional staffing was added. And Monday night’s pitch also met with a myriad of questions. Full figures on this year’s proposed town budget won’t be released until Monday, according to Town Manager Robert Forguites. Everett Hammond, chairman of the Town Budget Committee, asked whether the town had thought of going the route of Windsor, which is running a large, regional ambulance, serving other area towns. Springfield Fire Department also doubles as the town’s ambulance service, and Thompson said that the number of calls continued to climb, including simultaneous calls. The police department continues to be very busy, the chief said. The staffing situation could be putting a strain on the fire mutual aid system, said Thompson, since Springfield is making requests to cover all those requests for service. Springfield has 12 full-time firefighter/EMTs. But he said the department no longer accepted ambulance non-emergency transfers, which can often bring additional funds into the department. Earlier in the meeting, Thompson said that the town staff had never been so successful collecting ambulance fees, which now brought in close to $460,000 in revenue. Hammond noted that Windsor collected almost double that – $865,000, and keeps eight ambulances busy. Thompson said he would want to research any such expansion before endorsing the idea. “It is worth looking into,” said Thompson. On the police side, Johnston said the department was chronically understaffed and that he expected the Vermont State Police to continue to hire away his officers. The town ends up paying for the training and employment of state police, Johnston said. Officers leave the department in part because of the amount of overtime. “People want to spend more time with their families,” said Johnston, whose observation was echoed by Thompson. Johnston also proposed eliminating the town’s part-time parking enforcement officer, a $9,000 savings. But Forguites has returned that cut to the budget. Johnston said the town’s new parking ordinance had sharply reduced the space that needs to be monitored by the enforcement officer, and the $9,000 would be used strictly for enforcement on Main Street. On a bright side, Thompson said for the first time in a number of years he had six people join the fire department, although he said it would take about a year and a half before they were fully trained and able to be “on a fire scene.”