September 21, 1999

WRT firefighters plan switch to full-time staffing

       Big changes are afoot at the fire department that serves Johnson County’s largest and fastest-growing township. Down the road, the White River Township Fire Department plans to build a third fire station, to reach emergencies in its outlying areas more quickly.  In the immediate future, the department is making five of its part-time firefighters full-time. This will allow the department to keep a senior officer on duty nearly around the clock.  The fire department serves about 28,000 people in the rapidly developing area west of Green-wood and north of Stones Crossing Road in the county’s northwestern corner. Firefighters expect to respond to a record-breaking 1,300 emergency runs this year up from about 1,254 in 1998. And the growth of the township population — with its share of fires, illnesses and car accidents — shows no signs of slowing.  “We’re the second-fastest growing community in Indiana, and fire protection is falling behind,” Division Chief Eric Brown said.  “It’s hard to keep up with the growth.”  Until this year, all the township’s firefighters were either part-time called “paid-standby” in firefighter lingo — or were unpaid reserves. Most have other, full-time jobs, either at career fire departments or in other occupations.  “We share the same problem that many fire departments of our type have,” Brown said. “We found their part-time jobs are not as important as their full-time jobs.”  Simply put, the part-time firefighters often have scheduling conflicts with their full-time jobs. And even with 65 part-time firefighters and 20 reserves, it can be difficult to schedule the minimum seven positions necessary to operate both stations around the clock.  “The most consistent workforce is full-time,” Brown said.  So starting Oct. 1, five of the part-time firefighters will convert to full-time status, including two lieutenants, two battalion chiefs and a fire marshal.  All will be employed directly by the White River Fire Protection District — the government body that collects firefighting taxes in the township — rather than by the Volunteer Fire Department, which is contracted by the district to provide part-time firefighters there. The personnel change does not affect the district’s overall tax rate, said Fire Chief Mike Dutton.  “It kind of evens things out,” Dutton said. “We’re just shifting funds around.”  The fire department’s 1999 budget of approximately $1.05 million will increase to about $1.3 million in 2000.  The current tax rate of 36 cents per $100,000 of assessed valuation will be less than 40 cents in 2000, Dutton said. Increases are due to the purchase of a $675,000 ladder truck that will be paid off over six years.  Converting five positions to full- time is the start of eventually shifting to a force composed of more career firefighters, although the department will always be reliant on part-timers.  “Unless there are major changes in the tax structure, there will always be a need for part-time, on-call personnel,” the fire chief said. The preferred manpower level is to staff 13 firefighters around the clock to serve among three fire stations, although that’s still four to five years away, Dutton said.  For now, firefighters are based out of two fire houses: the headquarters building, Station 51, on Runyon Road, and Station 52 on Fairview Road behind the Meridian Parke shopping center. The fire district plans to build a third fire station at the southeast corner of State Road 37 and Smith Valley Road near Mullinix Road. Though bidding hasn’t started, tentative plans for Station 53 call for a 22,000-square-foot structure costing about $1.7 million.  Fire officials hope it could be constructed and completed by early 2001.  Similar to Station 52, the new station will be ADA-accessible and equipped with a Sheriff’s Department police substation. It will provide firefighters with more office space.  “We have three guys sharing an office now. That tends to get kind of cramped,” Brown said.  More importantly, a third station will reduce the fire department’s response time to the western part of the district, from six to seven minutes down to four Dutton said. And that can make a critical difference in a house fire life-threatening illness.  From a dollars-and-cents standpoint, Station 53 will also improve the fire insurance rating for homeowners west of Morgantown Road.  “It’s going to drop their insurance rates very significantly,” Dutton said – an average decrease of $251 per household, according to one estimate.  That will more than compensate for the property tax increase, he said.  The five new full-time firefighters will be sworn in during a luncheon ceremony at Jonathon Byrd’s Cafeteria on October 1.  They are battalion chiefs Michael Tibbetts and Scott Cassin; lieutenants Joel Thacker and Bruce Alexander; and fire marshal Eric Brown.  (Reprinted with permission from the Daily Journal)

 
 

---