Bradford County Fire Rescue Lt. Edwards, Capt. Loomis and Chief Rodgers were invited to the Bradford County Senior Center where they taught seniors how to perform CPR, use an AED, and manage a choking patient. According to the American Heart Association, every minute CPR is delayed a victim’s chance of survival decreases by 10%. Bradford County Fire Rescue strongly encourage everyone to attend a CPR course to become trained; it could save a life. They host free training courses throughout the year. Visit them on Facebook @bradfordcountyfirerescue for updates.
BY MARK J. CRAWFORD
Telegraph Editor
STARKE — Bradford County Fire Rescue may have an opportunity to hire additional firefighters and reduce response times but doing so would depend on grant funding that county commissioners are hesitant to accept.
If the fire department applies for and receives a SAFER (Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response) grant from FEMA, the grant would cover 75% of the cost of hiring additional firefighters for two years and 25% of the cost in year three. Alternatively, the grant could also be used to prevent layoffs or rehire firefighters who have been laid off.
According to Fire Chief Ben Carter, the department could hire nine additional firefighters. That would allow them to staff each station with three firefighters per shift instead of two.
National Fire Protection Association standards call for a minimum of 16 firefighters to respond to a 2,000 square-foot home with no basement or endangered properties nearby. Even with all three Bradford stations responding as well as administrative staff, the most responding from Bradford now is nine. They understand getting to 16 is unrealistic but with the grant and additional county funding, they could get to 12 by adding another firefighter per shift at each station.
National standards also call for a four-minute response time. With stations spread out in Lawtey, Sampson City and Theressa, it can take much longer for stations to reach outlying parts of the county. Four minutes may also be unrealistic, Carter said, but it is something to strive for. Instead of the first engine on scene carrying two firefighters, it could be carrying three.
The money could also be used to meet Commissioner Diane Andrews goal of staffing a fire station in Brooker.
Based on the typical entry level pay of $12 an hour, the cost of nine new employees would total more than $625,000 a year. For two years the county’s portion of the cost would be around $156,000. In year three, the board would have to cover nearly $407,000 of the cost. A new grant could help retain those employees beyond three years, but without it, the commission would have to choose between fully funding or eliminating those nine positions.
The SAFER grant is not, as some of the public seem to believe, an easy or sure source of funding to pay for emergency responders, according to Will Sexton, county attorney. It would be a financial commitment for the county for at least three years and potentially prove to be a nonrecurring source of funds. It could also require the county to lay people off and cut services if a future grant application is unsuccessful.
“We want the public to know this isn’t just ‘free money,’ like a lot of grants. It’s not even just free money with a match of 10%,” Sexton said.
For that reason, commissioners were cautious, with Chairman Chris Dougherty pointing out they still haven’t identified an ongoing source of funding to continue supporting Bradford County Fire Rescue.
Discussion of the funding options has made no public progress since discussing the fire and EMS special assessments study last August. Electrical franchise fees have been discussed as a way of lowering the fire and EMS assessments for property owners.
Dougherty also said there are times firefighters are dispatched to respond to a medical call, only to be recalled when ambulance crew arrives on scene. In those cases, having a third person on the truck would seem excessive, although understandably helpful when fighting a fire.
“Until we, again, find a revenue source other than grants, trying to figure out how we can increase the tax base of this county, a lot of the things that we want are certainly on a wish list,” Dougherty said.
“I don’t think this is a solution for funding the fire department,” Carter agreed. “I think this is a Band-Aid.”
Carter said they were just looking for direction to apply for the grant or not, but the commission stopped short of saying don’t do it. Instead, there will be additional discussion as they wait for the application period to open.
The commission did approve applying for a separate FEMA grant for a new fire engine. If awarded, the county would have to supply a 10% match. That could be up to $50,000, depending on the cost to purchase and outfit the truck.
Cost postpones other projects
Sheriff Gordon Smith told county commissioners Monday that his office is placing plans for a new emergency operations center on hold because of future costs.
Bradford is one of the few counties without a hurricane proof EOC, so the sheriff received $200,000 to begin planning, engineering and site prep.
Smith said they intend to finish up the engineering plans but will not pursue a $2 million state appropriation to build the facility. He said in working with Chairman Dougherty, they realized there would be ongoing operations and maintenance costs the county would not be able to cover.
Now is just not the best time to proceed, Smith said.
“I think our county has some other interests that should probably be taken care of,” he said.
Dougherty agreed. He had also mentioned the need to rethink the renovation and expansion of the former Heilbronn Springs fire department, which is proving more costly than anticipated.
Rather than allocations for projects like these, Dougherty said he has been talking to legislators about funding infrastructure improvements, including water and sewer extensions that will support growth and expand the tax base, and which would in turn pay for improved services.
