Who Will Pay? WE WILL of Course !!!!

Fall River Fire Department
swears in 48 new members

By Kevin O'Connor
Herald News Staff Reporter
Posted Oct 12, 2010 @ 10:47 AM
Last update Oct 13, 2010 @ 12:20 AM


FALL RIVER — The fire department is experiencing a major growth spurt.


Department brass is confident they are ready to avoid undue growing pains.

A class of 48 new firefighters was sworn in on Tuesday. Class members will go through a 10-week training program before their assignment to the trucks.

It is the largest recruit class in the department’s history. It will increase the department ranks by almost one third.
The new hires replace firefighters laid off two years ago. Their salaries will be paid for the next two years through a $10 million federal grant.

“This will allow us to have 48 fresh firefighters on duty.” Mayor Will Flanagan said. “It will help us cut down on overtime costs.

“Plus, this should boost morale. The department went through a devastating layoff.

 

Gear for the new firefighters. A helmet, a rope to practice knots and text books.

With the new influx of recruits coming in, you know, when you go into a burning mill or a three-decker, you have backup behind you.”


Fire Chief Paul Ford told the recruits they will learn more in the training program than how to fight fires.


“Fire service is steeped in tradition,” Ford said. “We have a tradition of honor, number one.


“We have to be honorable to ourselves, our families and our fellow firefighters. Don’t ever forget that.”


Ford and Flanagan addressed the new class Tuesday at the fire headquarters. The 48 new firefighters, all men, faced them. Each new firefighter had a new yellow helmet, a thick textbook and an 8-foot length of 3/8-inch braided rope on the table before him.

“That is for them to practice their knots,” said fire Capt. Kenneth Lima. “They have to keep that rope with them at all times.


“They have a lot of knots to learn.”


In fact, they have a lot to learn about everything, said District Chief William Pappas, head of training for the department.


Pappas and Lima will coordinate the training along with Lt. Peter Raposa and Lt. Paul Machado. They are all state certified fire instructors, as are 15 more members of the department.


The recruits will be working from textbooks for the first few days, but fire instructors will quickly get them out into the training field behind the fire headquarters to connect hoses to hydrants and trucks and learn to rappel from rooftops or crawl through confined spaces.

“We have a tower and we have a burn room, so we can do training with real fire,” Pappas said. “In fact, we will do several live burns.”


By the time the new firefighters climb onto a truck for the first time, they will have ripped cars apart with the Jaws of Life and learned the basics of handling hazardous materials spills and dousing the flames from flammable liquids. They will also know enough life-saving technique to qualify as first responder medical personnel.


The recruits will spend several days at the state fire academy in Stowe, facing flames from burning tanker trucks, boilers and barrels of unknown substances.


Department trainers began planning for the recruit class as soon as the city learned it would get the $10 million federal grant.


The grant restores the fire department to its roster of 232 members, the number in the department before the city began making cuts and layoffs because of budget problems.


Pappas and his staff worked up a curriculum that involves the entire training staff plus the 15 city firefighters who are certified as instructors by the state.


“It will be a lot of work, but we are pretty excited about it,” Pappas said. “We have a dedicated staff.


“There is no question once they are on duty we will be able to serve the city better.”
E-mail Kevin P. O’Connor at koconnor@heraldnews.com

Let me say at the outset that I fully agree with the idea of fully staffing our compliment of public safety officers in Fall River. What I have grave concerns about is the manner in which we fund those positions.

In an ad on the front page of the herald News' website was a listing, by community, of how much likely funding in local aid would be lost if the proposed cut in sales tax takes place as a result of Question 3 passing this fall. Fall River's hit would be in the neighborhood of $15 million, give or take a few grand here or there. At such a loss, it would matter little how a paltry few thousand dollars went over looked. Such passage of Question 3 would literally bankrupt the City's finances. There would be absolutely no additional or extraordinary state assistance to make that loss of revenue whole again, since this would reflect an across the board reduction to EVERY state budget category, including local aid and aid to education.

So when  we plan to hire these needed 43 firefighters on the basis of a non-renewable two year federal grant, I start to worry about the lack of fiscal planning taking place on the 6th floor of City Hall. I have absolutely no faith in the mayor to adequately prepare for life after the grant's end. No where is there evidence of planning for the potential cost of possible unemployment  for these new hires if the grants run out and no extraordinary funding source replaces the current two year grant, nor retirement funding, nor health insurance coverage for both retirement and COBRA provisions for laid-off municipal employees. The City would be completely unprotected from such costs with the possible lay-offs as a result of no new grant funding. has anything like this happened in the past few years?

Yes. A few years back a federal program to put more police on the street was devised. The requirements of the grant were that the municipality had to commit to gradually take over the full direct and overhead costs (health insurance, unemployment insurance) for theses new positions, with cost's for the municipalities increasing each year until the full cost was borne by the municipality. In many instances communities throughout the state refused to participate in the grant program, or limited greatly their participation, because Prop 2 1/2 was in effect and the financial commitment to take on even these relatively few needed positions were far too risky given the unpredictable financial outlook during a time of extreme local and state fiscal stress. The prudent thing to do was to look out into the future as concretely as possible and make decisions accordingly. Well run communities, especially those dependant on local aid increases to fund current budgets, were cautious to make future financial commitments to the grant program.

So looking at Fall River's current situation, a community entirely dependent on state aid for all of it's daily operations, and knowing that the MINIMUM estimate of state budget reduction for FY11 from FY10 even if question 3 does not pass, is 18% according to MMA,  how then can Fall River agree to a full compliment of new hires without considering the outcome if financial Armageddon occurs and the City is faced with responsibility for unemployment , health insurance, retirement  and increased liability insurance premiums, not to mention increased demands on the fire department's everyday operations budget with an increase in manpower by one third (ie, food, uniforms, air packs, other equipment)? I have no earthly idea!

We all know why this decision was made - for political expediency. Sylvanagan & Co. are scrounging for any, and every, bit of happy news to lay on the public's table going into the reelection campaign. They will do so without any thought about the future consequences to you or I or the City as a whole. It's all about making  happy news statements and getting his picture on the front page of the Herald News doing something  other than looking like a dullard faced vengeful school girl shredding a law suit against him.

 Since day one in office all this man and his minions have been about is gaining reelection and saying and doing those things required to LOOK good as opposed to taking the time and the thought to DO good for the City of Fall River. Even his acquiescence to broadcast more committee meetings on "Sylvanagan TV" is merely an attempt to bow to the popular perception that he's all about propaganda, not proper management of City affairs. I find it ironic that both the broadcast of more meetings and this fire department grant decision encapsulate the entirety of what Fall River has gotten from or fearless leader Sylvanagan - anything to look good for his own sake and no thought regarding the actual future impact of his own decisions on others, especially those he has sworn to serve and protect.

I am not against hiring these firemen. I only wish the powers that be truly knew what their own game plan is to handle the possible array of future outcomes if financing goes out the window. Based on the Sylvanagan administration's demonstrated history to this point, I think it's a safe bet that little or no serious consideration has been given to these matters, only to how it will look to the Fall River voting populace. That's the price we all pay for electing leaders who only react to situations and manage completely in an "ad hoc" manner. It's how we came to the place we are at in our city with entrenched unemployment, ineffective and criminally negligent education, rampant gang life among our youth and soaring drug addiction throughout the city.

But hey.....it's what the voters want. After all, he's only giving them what they want. Right?