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How has the current economy affected your Department?
So far my department has cut us back on non-essential travel,(food runs,etc.), unless we are already out, and self train in the station instead of multi- company, and the dreaded hiring freeze. We also have two ladder trucks needing repairs at this time taking even more money from the budget. The Chief asked everyone to cut off lights when not needed and turn off the TV if no one is watching it, the normal stuff. He asked for suggestions from the boys also. Other departments have had to go as far as to lay off or cut back in other ways. Where do your Departments stand in these tuff times?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Jenny Holderby on
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In my Vol Dept we have just done some tightening of the belts. Last summer I started trying to get the guys to start saving energy by leaving the AC @ 75 in the meeting room & offices when we aren't IN the station. Turning it OFF makes the system work too hard to cool it off when you do need it. We have a natural gas heating system. Our heating bills last winter were outrageous. We are working on upgrading the heating equipment in the bay area. And will leave the thermostats on 55 deg. Unless we are training or having a function in the bay. The station is block with glass pane tripple bay doors in the front & a single bay door in the back. We have also installed energy efficient light bulbs & turn the lights out when we aren't there. Turn the TV off in the meeting room during training. Somebody always forgets to turn it off. We installed a new energy efficient hot water heater which needed replaced after 20 yrs anyway. Our utility bills are way more than is necessary. Both electricity & natural gas have increased dramatically in the last couple of years yet our budget hasn't.
We cut down on the phone bill by removing all long distance access. Most of us have cell phones & use them to make any LD calls we need to make. We are looking @ combining the phone & internet to get a cheaper rate on both. It isn't going to make a HUGE difference but it is a starting point.
No unnecessary spending! Our dept just applied for & recieved FLEET fuel cards through Marathon (I think) that reduces the taxes on our fuel AND since you have to enter other information to use the card, it will eliminate anyone using the fuel card for their own purpose. We don't believe that was really happening but this is another safety against that. We don't take apparatus we don't need to the scene. Instead of bringing our second engine in, we wait to find out if we will actually need it. We are doing more fund raisers. We have gone back to utilizing our own people to do maintenance on the trucks like oil changes, replacing brackets & fixing leaks in the plumbing on the engine instead of taking them to a garage. (I don't know why we did that anyway) A major repair of the engine or pump is one thing but simple repairs are another when we have a couple of certified mechanics among our members.
The career dept in the city I work in has just had a big issue with insurance & and with staffing cutting out overtime and cutting down staffing on the apparatus. I thought they were already @ the minimum. How they can cut more I don't know. I think they are trying to encourage some people to retire who are eligable. Our equipment is newer & we have more people on scene usually than they do. Of course the city council doesn't see a problem because they know they can call out the volunteers to fill in stations when they pull crews from houses all over the city. And volunteers do respond when they are needed but the city should fully staff their department. I live in another state. It is only a short trip across the river to reach the city and we frequently supply tankers to them in areas where the water pressure isn't the best & if they use too much water folks can't take baths & flush toilets. They are working on bringing in grants to supplement equipment purchases.
EVERYBODY is doing more inhouse training & less travel & expenditures on outside training resources and tightening the budget anyway they can. That happens if you are a municiple paid dept or volunteer. Economics knows no difference.
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Permalink Reply by lutan1 on
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One of my biggets clients (Industrial ERT) has cut back all non-essential training.
If the business doesn't need to train in that topic to keep their various licenses to operate, then it's considered to be non-essential.
In terms of a $ figure, I don't know how much, but it would be very significant. This multi-national company is now also asking staff to take annual leave when there is no production happening....
Interesting times.
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Permalink Reply by FETC on
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Two biggest costs in a paid fire department's budget is personnel (everything that goes with them) and heating and cooling. Now vehicles and other big ticket equipment are funded by the CIP which is not part of our operating budget. We are held by negotiated contracts for raises and benefits, so cutting costs in that area is locked but everyone can start conserving in the energy useage area. Making the stations more efficient with new boiler, windows, shutting off lights, and as well as lowering the thermostats, keeping the bay doors closed when the heat is on, (you know that time of the year, heat on at night and as soon as the sun starts warming up... the guys have the bay doors open, with the heaters blowing)
Schooling, well the Fire Chief feels that all of our education is important, he has remained positive that he will cover us to go to school and so far has not mentioned reduction in funding and/or time off. He has been quoted to the council, that our education has a direct connection to the foundation's building blocks for a good emergency response readiness capability.
Our multi-company training is upheld by our contract verbage and the city can't cut back on the OT or costs associated with performing 4 full days of full department wide training per year.
We as a department have not been effected by the economy that much, NH is listed as on of the few states still holding strong and my city is in the top 3 of our state for local economic strength. We just hired and added (4) new firefighters to the shift operations division on October 1st and additionally we re-organized how we spend our 500K overtime budget to hire in guys for full OT shifts instead of doing group shift recalls (when we used to get busy) This has increased our staffing by another firefighter per shift bringing us now to 10 per shift starting November 1st.
So life isn't all that bad... at least here.
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