By MARK TODD - Staff Writer - mtodd@starbeacon.com
CONNEAUT — City Council, which is talking of tinkering with the Conneaut Fire Department, isn’t giving last year’s overhaul of the department a chance, said the president of the local firefighters union.
“I’m totally amazed,” said Steve Sanford, president of Local 651 of the International Association of Fire Fighters. “It hasn’t been a whole year yet, but now there’s going to be more change?”
At issue is very-preliminary talk heard at a council committee meeting this week of examining ways to trim expenses within the department. Council will wait to see the outcome of firefighter contract negotiations, which contain cost-cutting measures sought by the city, before deciding on a course of action.
One rumor floating around town is council is keen on eliminating the full-time fire station in favor of part-time labor. That subject was not broached at Thursday’s council committee meeting.
In April 2009, City Manager Robert Schaumleffel Jr. launched a reorganization of the fire department to help contain a projected $811,000 budget deficit. The move closed Fire Station 4 and moved its equipment across town to Fire Station 3, where the city’s ambulance/ rescue service was based.
Also, an ambulance was sent to Fire Station 1, headquarters of the city’s full-time career firefighters, which has helped response time, officials have said. With Station 1 firefighters at the wheel of the first-out ambulance, the general fund is earning some of the money paid by patients’ insurance companies.
At Thursday’s meeting, committee chairman and Councilman-at-Large Robert Naylor said the emergency medical service has seen a 9 percent savings because of the reorganization. Admin-istrators have said the restructuring has resulted in nearly $140,000 in department savings and earned $59,000 for the city via the revamped emergency medical services setup.
“The union and the administration have been busting our butts to cut overtime,” Sanford said. “We’re proving revenue is being brought in while costs are being cut.”
For those reasons, Sanford said he was frustrated to hear council seems anxious to revisit fire-department expenses so soon.
“It appears some people didn’t have faith in the fire department. We proved them wrong, and now they turn around and want to pick at the fire department some more,” he said. “I feel there’s going to be a reconsolidated fire department every year.
“They need to give things time to work,” he said.
Public Safety Director Jon Arcaro was at Thursday’s meeting but sat in the back of the room with other spectators and was not a participant. He declined comment on the committee meeting when contacted Friday afternoon.
Sanford was also in the audience and said he was “amazed” at what he heard. The city’s firefighting experts, including Arcaro, haven’t been consulted on the need to re-examine the department, Sanford said.
“They didn’t go to the fire administration that is doing the job,” he said. “Those are the people who know the fire service.”
Sanford also said council’s public safety committee has not taken an active role in the proceedings. One council member wasn’t even aware an ambulance had been moved to Station 1 at City Hall, he said.
