Uniontown Pa.

[MIKEYLIKESIT]

Thats a heart warming story. Thank God for those dedicated volunteers.

[MemphisE34a]

Mikey,

I am familiar with the story and was in on the emergency resolution in San Diego. I can sense the sarcasm in your post, but I think you meant to include a link to the story.......maybe??

Let me guess. A group of people stepped up to volunteer so the paid staff could be layed off sooner?

[MIKEYLIKESIT]

No link Loo. This story just irritates me to no end. I am not vollie-bashing but I am bashing THESE vollies. Smells like politics 101 to me. Where does it end?

[MIKEYLIKESIT]

Here it is in a nut shell

Uniontown plans to disband paid fire department
By Tribune-Review
Thursday, August 26, 2010




Uniontown has notified its entire paid fire department that all six members and the chief will be out of jobs by the end of the year, with volunteers to take their place.

In a letter sent Wednesday to the International Association of Firefighters Local 955, Councilman Gary Gearing notified firefighters the layoffs will be complete by Dec. 31, when the next contract expires.

City council voted Tuesday to notify the fire department of the intended layoffs. Mayor Ed Fike said the move is intended to save money.

Fike said although the fire department recently landed a $632,835 federal grant to bring the force back to its full complement of 11, council is uncertain it can legally accept the funds.

Fike said city officials have questions about how to replace those funds when the grant runs out.

Joshua Bloom, a Pittsburgh attorney who represents the firefighters, said today the union plans to fight the layoffs

[L-Webb]

How many people live there?

[MemphisE34a]

How many people live there?

12,422 in 2.5 sq. miles.

Mikey, looks like some of them are gonna do the right thing. The ire department even at full paid staffing was supplemented by volunteers. Looks like several of them are saying when the paid staff goes, they go as well.

Could be a joint career/volunteer movement before it's over with.

I wish them all as a department good luck. It's gonna get ugly way before it gets better.

[FireMedic049]

Smells like politics 101 to me.

And your nose would be correct.

[PNEFD23]

Looking at Uniontown Fire's website, they are running around 6000 calls a year, give or take.

I'm a proud volly, but there comes a point and time where it's no longer feasible to meet the call volume and response times on that alone.

At 6000 calls a year, if anything they need MORE career firefighters, if not a fully career Department, not this crap.

The people of Uniontown should be asking the Mayor and council what sacrifices they are willing to make, if they insist on cutting their Fire Service. Better yet, give the city a choice: If they want an all volunteer Dept., they get an all volunteer mayor and council, or GTFO!

[FFEMT2159]

Maybe I looked at the wrong website but they put their run volume at about 800 a year. It does not excuse the situation however.

[LaFireEducator]

So a community of 15,000 can't be served by volunteers?

The fact is economic problems need real answers. It's unfortunate that these firefighters will lose tier jobs, but a department with that population and that call volume (if it's 800) should have no problems being served by a volunteer department.

I think this crisis will make a lot of departments in communities of that size reexamine how they deliver fire protection. And in a lot of places it will mean getting back to volunteers, which is not a bad thing.

I have been on all-volunteer departments and seen all-volunteer departments with a much larger population operate quite effectively.

Again, it's not government's job to provide firefighting jobs. It's duty is to deliver service at the best cost.

Ya, I know, I'm no brother and a mutt, and all that other crap, but until the economy improves there often are few other answers. In some cases, the "short-term" answers may end up being an excellent change for the long-term.

I find it hard to beleive that a community of 15K runs 6,000 calls a year, even with EMS.

[auxman]

Why would anyone think this is unusual?

Everyone has seen stories about volunteer departments going to combination or paid as their town grows and run volume exceeds volunteer capabilities.

When a town shrinks due to economic collapse we should expect to see the opposite happen -- paid departments going to combination or volunteer. At that point it may be the best choice for the town at the time.

Sure it will have some repurcussions, but thats the modern world. I'm sure they're losing all sorts of other local services that they'd like to keep but can no longer afford.

[cozmosis]

When a town shrinks due to economic collapse we should expect to see the opposite happen -- paid departments going to combination or volunteer. At that point it may be the best choice for the town at the time.

Is Uniontown shrinking? Or are they just broke? And if it's the latter, why are they going broke? If I'm eating out every night and don't have cash for the light bill, guess what I'm going to do? I'm going to eat sandwiches and keep the lights on. Municipalities should do the same with essential & non-essential expenses.

So a community of 15,000 can't be served by volunteers? The fact is economic problems need real answers. It's unfortunate that these firefighters will lose tier jobs, but a department with that population and that call volume (if it's 800) should have no problems being served by a volunteer department.

It's possible for a much larger community to be served by volunteers. But at some point, volunteers were obviously not getting the job done and that's why they had a career staff. The question is... Will whatever required the hiring of career firefighters be a problem again? If so, this is not the answer.

[tree68]

According to the union's website, they've run 100 working structure fires so far this year.

Before the layoff last year, they were running two stations with 13 career staff. That's two people per station, 24/7, assuming no sick, vacation, or other impediments of the sort.

There's no way they could operate without their volunteer backup. The career people are/were not much more than drivers, to ensure that the rigs got out the door.

In order to get a full first alarm assignment, they need to not only hire everyone back that got laid off (or at least fill the positions), but they need to hire about 30 more.

I certainly don't see that happening.

[auxman]

Shrinking at least over the long term. In 1940 they had almost 22K and by 2000 were down to 12K.

[MemphisE34a]

Again, it's not government's job to provide firefighting jobs. It's duty is to deliver service at the best cost.

Governments most important job is public safety and I would argue that governments job is to provide the BEST service possible at a cost that is both fair to the taxpayers and the employees providing the service.

The bottomline is this, the City of Uniontown is not going broke soley because of the fire department. The Mayor told the 13 person local that he was going to have to lay off firefighters unless they could find a way to fund the salaries. The Local did that in the form of a no local matching SAFER grant and the Mayor got ****ed off.

Of coarse it will be a cost saving measure, but in this instance that was not the motive. The Mayor is mad at the Local so he refused to accept the SAFER funds and announced he was laying off all the firefighters and going all volunteer - politics, plain and simply at the expense of public safety. As was stated, if volunteers were fitting the bill, they never would have gone paid to begin with. Even the volunteer department will have standards that will be expected and in most areas, a volunteer force cannot be expected on weekdays between 6am and about 7 pm. Hours beyond that are hit and miss at best. Sure there are some areas where volunteer departments operate exceptionally. Chief Harve's department, Prince William, Prince George, and other counties in the Northeast. But these areas are pulling 200+ members from a community of 50,000 plus. Uniontown has 12,000 people and will most likely not hold a roster of over 15 active volunteers who will be scarcely available - a few hours a night and weekends at best.

I have seen more than a few posts on the internet form volunteers in Uniontown stating that they have enjoyed it, but when the paid staff goes, they go. They will not have the jobs of 13 people on their concious. I hope that's true and I hope that none of the citizens in Uniontown die before this Mayor and select council members get ousted.

How many office staff, policeman, and garbage men are the good Mayor laying off. There doesn't seem to be any mention of anything like that in their newspaper.