New firefighters to go to town meeting vote of approval

Concerns about the potential long-term impact of the staffing costs for the fire department led selectmen to put the matter into the hands of the voters at the Annual Town Meeting in May.

All three selectmen worried about the long-term impact of adding members to the Ashburnham Fire Department as part of the federal Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (S.A.F.E.R.) grant, which slowly adds three firefighters dividing it between the town and the federal government over the next four years.

"It will give us one person on 24-7, which will be a paramedic/firefighter," said Fire Chief Paul Zbikowski.

The 24 hour staffing is a goal the department has been trying to reach for a number of years.

"The person having a heart attack at 2 o'clock in the morning deserves the same level of care as the person having a heart attack at 2 o'clock in the afternoon and right now we can't guarantee that," he said.

The fire department received a $325,140 grant from the federal government to help the department hire three firefighters. The cost is divided with 90 percent of the cost covered by the federal government in the first year, with 70 percent, 50 percent and the 40 percent covered in the following years.

"We were able to accomplish this and have a level funded budget," Zbikowski said.

All of the full-time staff members said they would not take pay increases next year, decided not to take holiday pay and gave up their clothing allowance as part of the deal for the town agreeing to accept the grant.

Zbikowski will also give up his education stipend. "We also reduced overtime and call wages and made up the clothing allowances in the budget," Zbikowski said.

The department was supposed to be up to 24-7 staffing two years ago according to the terms of the Advance Life Support license for the ambulance issued by the state. Zbikowski said the licensing board is watching the staffing issues in Ashburnham carefully, and that last spring the department was able to add few more hours of coverage because of a change in the shift arrangements.

"They have been very lenient with us," Zbikowski said.

The additional staffing would also help out during the day shift when it will allow a four-member engine company respond to the scene, which would help to bring the department up to nationally recommended safety levels and increase the town's insurance rating.

The goal of SAFER is to enhance the local fire departments' abilities to comply with staffing, response and operational standards established by NFPA and OSHA, according to its Web site. As a result of the enhanced staffing, response times should be sufficiently reduced with an appropriate number of personnel assembled at the incident scene, according to the site.

The largest grant award this year was to a fire department in Georgia for them to hire 64 firefighters for about $6.9 million.

Zbikowski said the town has sought the grant over the last three years and received it for the first time this year.

"It's too big of a deal to throw away but it is too big a deal to make the decision here for 6,000 people," said Advisory Board member Leo Janssens II.

Selectman Jonathan Dennehy said he was worried about the penalties of not meeting the terms of the grant and the five-year commitment the town must make to get the grant.