BREWSTER – The Brewster Fire Department is seeking to add two additional firefighter/EMTs despite missing out on Federal Emergency Management Agency grant funding in the fall.
Fire Chief Robert Moran made his case before the select board recently that the town can afford the new staff.
Moran is proposing to use funding from the ambulance revenue account, which has a surplus of just over $1 million, to support the new positions.
“At this point in time, we do believe that there is sustainability moving forward for these two positions within the ambulance revenue account,” Moran said.
Four positions have been filled by the department the last few years using Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response, or SAFER, grants through FEMA. Those grants only cover two years of salary for communities.
The department was going to use funds from ambulance revenues to support two positions originally covered by SAFER grants, but an override was approved last spring to fund those positions and staff in other town departments.
About $900,000 is collected by the town annually in ambulance revenue, and about $700,000 to $750,000 is used to fund department operations, according to Moran.
Moran said funding for the positions may change when the board decides how to use the funds generated from marijuana and short-term rental taxes.
“[Those] are things that definitely will affect the fire department as far as responses go,” Moran said. “That’s a policy decision that the board has to make on how we are going to use that money so we think that might be a viable option down the road.”
Moran said the staff is needed.
“It’ll increase our career staff levels at the nighttime hours to four career staff members. Right now we have three career staff members on duty,” he said.
The hires would allow the department to have consistent staffing across all four department groups.
“We’ll have three paramedics and one EMT on each of those four groups,” Moran said.
It would also increase the career staff availability during the daytime hours for call backs.
“When we have multiple simultaneous calls, which occur often, we need those individuals to be call back,” Moran said.
“The less people that we have on the impact shift allows them to be off during the daytime hours and come back when we need them.”
The hires would also improve the department’s ability to meet NFPA staffing standards. The staffing standards require four individuals going out on a fire apparatus.
Moran said there is a concern that the staff is too small to accommodate the planned housing projects in town, including the Millstone Road affordable housing development, Brewster Woods, and the possible reopening of the Wingate nursing home and assisted living facility.
“We are concerned about those additional housing developments becoming another issue for us,” he said.
Moran said there is also an issue at night with more calls. Statistically in the past, most of the department’s runs occurred between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. Over the last 12 to 18 months, about 40 percent of runs are happening during the nighttime hours.
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