Fire Fighter Layoffs

It appears that the Middletown firefighters were not willing to renegotiate their salary/benefits to save any of the below fire positions.  If I am wrong about this, please someone, tel me.

Can someone also explain to me how Kettering which is smaller than Middletown, i believe.  But does have a larger population by about 5000-6000(if memory is correct) has about 52 full-time firefighters and 102 volunteer firefighters and we are going to get by with only 70+? It just does not make any sense.

Since the firefighters do not appear to be interested in saving postions.  I will vote no on the upcoming public safety levy in Novemeber 2012


Pacman


MIDDLETOWN — In roughly one week, the changes to the Middletown Division of Fire as outlined in the 2012 budget will go into effect.

But — for at least the first quarter — the fire department will operate as it is now.

In mid-November staffing levels were reduced to compensate for inflated overtime costs. An ambulance and a two-person crew was moved from Station 81 on Clinton Street to Station 84 on Tytus Avenue. That station’s three-person crew and a fire apparatus were taken out of service. Minimum staffing levels were reduced from 19 to 16 in the process.

The city of Middletown’s 2012 budget included $3.7 million in cuts and the reduction of nine firefighter positions — establishing a permanent minimum staffing level of 16.

Originally, six firefighters were to be laid off. Recently, however, an added retirement has saved one job. Five will now be laid off, effective Jan. 1.

Entering 2012, the fire department is in wait-and-see mode. Operationally, what unfolds in the second, third and fourth quarters of the year, according to fire Chief Steve Botts, is still to be decided.

“We didn’t lay anyone off (in 2011) — we were saving on overtime in the last quarter,” Botts said. “But when the positions are reduced in January, (then) going forward we’ll be saving salaries and wages for those positions as well as all the costs tied to them ... and that includes overtime. That’s what we need to be inside our budget in ’12.”

The department is now looking at making changes to response districts, shifting them in accordance with where personnel has been moved.

So while the medic crew moved from Station 81 to 84 is now able to respond quicker to emergency calls in the northeastern part of town, the bulk of its calls are still in the Clinton Street area, Botts said.

“What we can do is change the response districts — we can take the area furthest south and add that to (the area) covered by the headquarters’ medic crew,” he said of the fire house at 2300 Roosevelt Blvd. “When you do that, you want to give Medic 81 some northern territory. Again, our objective is to keep them balanced.”

Initially, Botts recommended closing Station 84 as part of 2012 budget cuts, saying research has suggested departments that fluctuate their use of fire stations confuse their communities as to whether neighborhood stations are open or not. Additionally, Station 84 is one of the older buildings used by the department — making capital expenses higher. Further, an analysis conducted by an outside agency concluded that of the fire stations, Station 84 — while in an ideal location 50 years ago — is now not serving as great of a need on Tytus Avenue.

The station’s closure is not off the table.

The fact only underlines the department’s ongoing challenges, Botts said.

“I just see us in a historic situation as a department providing service to a community,” he said. “People will look back 50 years from now and say, ‘How did they do it?’