Randal Brown, right, director of the Southwick Department of Public Works, discusses projects which are underway during last night’s Southwick Selectmen meeting. (Photo by Frederick Gore)
SOUTHWICK – At a meeting of the Southwick Board of Selectmen, Vice Chair Joe Deedy spoke of staffing issues being faced by the Southwick Fire Department.
Reliant almost entirely on volunteers, the town has seen numbers drop over the past few years, and a letter written to the board by Southwick Fire Chief Richard Anderson indicated that the department is experiencing staffing issues with it’s emergency medical services (EMS).
Read aloud by Chair Russell Fox, Anderson’s letter said that the issues are stemming from the hiring of two volunteer emergency medical technicians.
“Prior to their hiring, the two EMTs were doing four volunteer shifts each,” read Fox. “Now that they are fulltime employees, those shifts are open. We have probationary EMTs in training who will eventually be able to take up open shifts.”
Anderson, who was attending the wake of former Southwick firefighter Tim Bridges, was therefore unable to make it to the meeting but stated in the letter that the department is facing a “temporary situation” for two months that the department needs to support, and proposed covering these shifts with a pay of $12 an hour.
Deedy was apprehensive about the matter.
“I don’t understand what shifts we’ll be paying and not paying. It’s just not really spelled out,” he said, to which Fox responded that he had spoken with Anderson regarding that.
“I did have a conversation with him and I raised those same concerns, and what he said is that the volunteers wouldn’t necessarily have to be at the station,” Fox said.
Deedy played devil’s advocate in the discussion, and wondered aloud how the proposed measure would sit with those in the department.
“How offended are you going to be because you’ve been volunteering for 10 years and you’re covering your shifts, and now for $12 an hour, I’m going to step up? That’s not going to sit well,” he said. “I’m all for it, I understand we need coverage, but this doesn’t explain anything.”
Deedy made a motion to approve the measure only after he has a discussion with Anderson about the proposal.
“We’re going to offend a lot more people by paying some or not paying some. This doesn’t help morale and no pig roast is going to fix this,” he said.
Fox then appointed Deedy as an official Selectboard liaison to Chief Anderson on the proposal, and the motion to approve the plan contingent on the liaison’s discussion with Anderson passed unanimously.
After the meeting, Deedy spoke of challenges that may be awaiting the fire department.
“The town’s in a tough position. You’ve had a million years of a volunteer fire department,” he said. “I don’t know if $12 an hour is a huge thing. I don’t know the breakdown of the numbers. Is it coming out of the ambulance fund? The last thing I want to do is offend that volunteer guy that busts his ass and now all of a sudden we’re paying someone else, but he showed up and we never paid him.”
Deedy also asked a rhetorical question that has been on the minds of many in the town for some time now.
“Are we going to a full-time department? I don’t think we are, but I understand if we can’t get people to cover shifts,” he said.
The possibility of shifting the department from volunteer to full-time is driven by town demographics, according to Deedy.
“There’s a ton of elderly (people) in this town, and that ambulance is running left and right,” he said. “During the day, those calls are coming in – the American Inn, Rosewood – and they’re running.”
“So is that day coming? Sure it is. Do we have to find that million dollars to staff it? Yeah,” he added. “Can it wait 20 years till we pay off the new school? I’d love for that to happen, but it’s not.”
Another concern of Deedy’s is that of manpower.
“It’s great to have 100 guys, but lets face it, the day when we had a lot of industry in this town, and that alarm went off and Jimmy hopped off the tractor and onto the firetruck are gone.” he said. “Now, everyone works out of town. We have the volunteer support and enthusiasm, but they’re not in town anymore. You got great guys who will come on at midnight, but if we have a fire in this town, you’re lucky to get three guys in the truck to get there.”
Regarding the loss of volunteers year-to-year, Deedy said that they are accepting two or three new candidates every other week, and that Anderson has stated to him that he’s put 30 or 40 volunteers on the department in the last three years.
“We have a roster of 50 now is my understanding, but back in the day, there used to be a waiting list,” he said. “Now, anyone who walks in the door, if you can pass a physical, we need you.”
With many of the department’s veteran volunteers resigning or leaving on different terms with decades of experience, Deedy sees this as a highly unfortunate situation.
“I don’t know if they’re being asked to leave or leaving because a position is made and they don’t like what they see. Our lives do change,” he said. “We can all be volunteers at 18, get married, have kids, and then all of a sudden we don’t have the time for it. But in the same breath, you can be 48 years old, been doing it all your life, and they’re walking away, and that’s tough.”
“Look at our current department: the age group is very young, because the gentlemen with the depth of knowledge aren’t staying,” Deedy said. “I don’t the real deal, whether it’s just new blood coming in and it’s just a changing of the guard, I don’t know.”
