BY MARK J. CRAWFORD
Telegraph Editor
STARKE— Bradford County Fire Rescue is filling a position that to support agency administration.
When Alan Parrish retired and Ben Carter was promoted to BCFR chief, that left a vacancy in Carter’s former position as division chief over the fire department.
There was no plan to fill the vacancy left by his promotion, but Carter concluded it is necessary.
Carter’s vacation absence was a burden on Dylan Rodgers, who was the only administrator left to oversee both arms of the agency — medical and fire — in his absence.
Carter said the plan to leave the position vacant predated the decision to cut a response unit in order to save funds. The cut meant administrators need to respond to more calls, and now there are fewer administrators to do that.
“When we cut that fifth response unit out of our fleet, that placed a huge burden on the administrative personnel to be able to pick up some of those extra calls,” he said.
Carter said there is enough money in the fire rescue budget to fill his former position with another administrator. There is a savings from Parrish’s retirement because Carter is at a lower salary, and the person who replaced Carter would also be making less, he said. The commission would still save around $50,000.
Commissioner Diane Andrews, hearing about administrators picking up extra calls, asked if it was time to add a fifth response unit back to the fleet.
The current call volume is manageable with a hybrid fire and EMS crew stationed at Sampson City, Carter said. The crew can respond with an ambulance if needed. If the ambulance is in service, however, the fire truck won’t be.
Even so, he was not asking for more than $400,000 in salary savings to be added back to the budget to fully fund an ambulance. Carter asked that he be able to use a portion of the savings from Parrish’s departure to appoint Rodgers, who has been division chief over emergency medical services, to division chief over administration. Then, instead of a division chief, the other new appointee would serve as chief of operations.
Per the collective bargaining agreement between the union and Bradford County, each promotion would come with a 6% pay increase, and that would apply to any other promotions resulting from these. Carter said he hopes to hire from within.
Attorney Will Sexton said it was unreasonable to have someone who is managing 80 employees and a multimillion budget to also respond to calls 24/7.
Carter said he doesn’t intend to ask for a full-time fifth unit without “very extenuating” circumstances such as another pandemic, during which service calls spiked.
“We’re getting by right now with managing those four units,” he said.
“It’s a lifestyle for us. It’s not just a career. We’re the type of people that will just get it done regardless,” Carter said.
