Ogdensburg is smaller than Watertown but it does have a lot of flammable buildings and rescue opportunities, and minimum manning at the Fire Department is being debated...In the summer the number drops to four when men are on vacation. It's normally six...But these are management determined numbers not ones proscribed in a CBA.
The debate with City Council there is what they can afford....and avoiding overtime during absences.
Heard this before ? Since you don't know when fires will happen, not backfilling is considered dangerous by some but necessary by others.
10 comments:
This is the same piss poor argument the CoW uses, Fire apparatuses take a certain number of firefighters to operate plus supervisor. You also need the buddy system with backups and support to refill bottles. You can’t change the numbers until the technology changes.
“Hire more people so we can cut the overtime” Never happens
True. The broom takes two hands, the dust pan takes at least one hand and the garbage bag takes two if you want to make certain no taillight shards spill back onto the pavement at the fender bender scene.
Time to go all Volunteer!. There’s no reason we can’t provide excellent fire protection without the enormous cost of a fully paid department. Taxpayers deserve to see the numbers and have an honest discussion about whether the current model is sustainable. Public safety comes first—but so does fiscal responsibility. 70 full-time firefighters seems excessive for a community the size of Watertown. I think it’s time to seriously look at an all-volunteer model.
Never should. Cheaper to pay OT than hire.
Where do we sign you up?
City of Watertown csea continue to sit with their thumbs up their arse as city council talks more jobs cuts.
Technology has vastly improved. Apparatus is better, equipment is better, training is better, communication is better, building materials are better and codes and regulations have improved.
Yet here we are 40 years later with the same manning. This is about nothing but continuing the overtime pump of money.
8:14 is a fireman who lives outside the city.
Or let the tow truck drivers spread the kitty litter and bill the insurance company.
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