By Sandra E. Constantine, Staff
Chicopee/Holyoke Edition
The Republican (Springfield, Massachusetts)
Copyright 2007 The Republican
All Rights Reserved
SOUTH HADLEY, Mass. — After more than an hour of debate, residents of Fire District 2 agreed to double the number of full-time firefighters from two to four. The move is expected to allow the district to staff an ambulance 24 hours a day seven days week.
Fire District 1 currently provides ambulance service for Fire District 2, which is the northern section of town, after 10 p.m. weekdays and all weekend.
Proponents of the move on Monday argued it is time for Fire District 2 to expand its role with the ambulance, and there is an increasing need for a full-time Fire Department to handle calls in District 2.
Opponents argued the district should take a wait-and-see approach as the two districts and the town are in negotiations over how ambulance service, the bulk of which is provided by firefighters in Fire District 1, is provided. The two new firefighters would be Emergency Medical Technicians, according to officials.
“We’re a district. We don’t run the ambulance (service),” said Peter Jesionowski, of 12 East St., who identified himself as a call firefighter for Fire District 1, which provides services to the southern part of town. “We do not know where all these ambulance issues are going to end up.”
He offered an amendment to an article calling for $314,531 for salaries at the district’s annual meeting, cutting the approximately $101,000 included for the two new firefighting positions. The amendment failed, with 29 people voting against and 27 voting in favor.
Fire District 2 Fire Chief David A. Keefe told the gathering of about 60 residents that Fire District 2 needs to do its portion of providing staffing and “become a full partner with Fire District 1.”
“We did not take this decision lightly. . . . This has been a very difficult decision for us to make,” Keefe said of the proposal to add two new full-time firefighters to the staff. The department has a number of call firefighters to augment the full-time employees’ work.
“This isn’t just to throw people on the ambulance,” Fire District 2 Treasurer Sandra L. Selkirk said. “We are coming to the point in time where we are going to need a full-time fire department.”
The district took nearly three hours to approve a total of 38 warrant articles, authorizing $1.6 million in spending for fiscal 2008, which starts July 1, an increase of about $270,000 or 2 percent over fiscal 2007.
The new budget will increase the water rate from $3.10 per 100 cubic feet to $3.12 per 100 cubic feet and is expected to increase the district assessment from $1.43 per thousand dollars of valuation to $2.32 per thousand dollars of valuation.
i