Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by anne potter on June 3, 2009 at 9:28am

I can feel that... Coming from from upper NNy Watertown area.. Small depts.. Crappy contract money, No support.. Very sad when People live in a box until their house burns down (god forgive),and what was right across from them was the shelled out building of what use to be their firedept... Now located 10 miles away...

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by anne potter on June 3, 2009 at 4:03pm

I agree to a certain part Damnthing,but if it was to happen like say to our dept.. To merge with the village dept.. You know I love my dept and will do anything for it,but not stupid if it happens then lets hope that a new location for a dept is made... To pull a location away then make it 10 miles away is not helping the village you just pulled it away from... So a new location needs to be found and the town and village would never do that.. Put it half way right 5 miles from both villages.. some one is going to lose.. The people are going to lose... Is that what we are not here for..... Life stinks and the rules are only for the rich..lol

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by paul michael komandt on June 3, 2009 at 5:07pm

Our department looked at merging and forming a fire district for the same reasons. We found out that the district would have to be voted on by the citizens, and that we would then have to vote in new fire protection and EMS levies, and start with no money. It does sound good but not something that can just be put together.

We took a different approach and we continued to provide and recieve auto dispatched mutual aid on all calls (fire and EMS) from 0600-1800 monday-friday for the manpower issues. Also, we continued the auto-aid dispatch on all reported fires 24/7. Both townships also implemented a blending process, meaning we purchase the same equipment and suppplies. We lend ,share,or give eachother certian items as well. Both townships have agreed to follow this even after the upper management moves on.

With both departments being strictly vollunteer we face the man power and budget problems.
We train together, have the same dispatch center(county 911), and Share members. We met with a consultant and found that 15 out of 18 areas that they would study were not an issue between the departments and were handled in the same manner with each department.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Cassie on June 4, 2009 at 1:47am

My volunteer dept. joined forces with another dept. a few years before I joined. They didn't fully merge--still have separate boards, separate funding, etc. However, in all appearances, we are one dept. We get paged together, we train together, we have one roster.

And I think we've all benefited from it. Combining forces allowed a new station with training buildings to be constructed (one dept. had the money, one had some land and a little bit of money). More people, and more engines/water tenders are available now to respond to an incident in either district. All in all, I think each dept. is far stronger because of joining forces.

• ▶ Reply

▶ Reply to Discussion