Sam Gurwitt Photo
Gery Merwede
As Hamden Fire Chief Gary Merwede’s presented his budget request to the Hamden Legislative Council, the radio at his hip cut in and out constantly. It was alerting him to the ever increasing calls his department responds to without increasing its force.
That helped prove his point: In order to meet the explosion of calls, he has asked for more money in training, supplies, and maintenance.
Merwede made the presentation this past Wednesday night, one of a series of department presentations before the council over two evenings.
In 2018, the Hamden Fire Department responded to 11,715 calls, a 1,266-call increase over the previous year. Yet, as Merwede told the council in his presentation, the department has the same manpower it did in 1992.
The department has been able to respond to those calls, but not without significant effort. According to Merwede, in 2018, the department had to deal with concurrent calls in 53 percent of cases. He said that 22 firefighters will be honored in May for their efforts amid that pressure.
Keeping up with all of those calls, said Merwede, requires resources, and that was why he had come before the council to justify his budget and ask for more money than the mayor had allotted in a few places.
Most of the fire department’s budget — approximately 90 percent — is committed to personnel costs (including benefits) as covered by the collective bargaining agreement between the union and the town. That leaves only about 10 percent of the budget for Merwede to administer his department.
In his proposed 2020 budget, contractual obligations comprise about $13 million. On top of the contractual portion, Merwede requested $458,226.65.
Merwede urged the council in particular to approve his request for increases in funds for training, general firefighting supplies, and vehicle maintenance.
“The pernicious effect of managing line items to the bare necessity in areas like training, maintenance, and safety supplies, is that when the unexpected happens, it becomes more like crisis management instead of responsible administration,” Merwede told the council. “The fire department will not squander your resources.”
Training
At the scene of a January fire.
He requested $55,000 for training, though last year’s budget allotted him only $7,500 for that line item. The mayor gave him $40,000 in his budget.
“The pool of eligible certified candidate applicants has dwindled to the point that talent pool and demographic band of applicants is far less than desired,” Merwede wrote in the presentation he gave to the council.
With only $7,500, Merwede was unable to send trainees to the Connecticut Fire Academy last year, meaning he could hire only applicants who are already certified. That, he said, severely limits the pool of people he can hire. “I’d like to have a higher range of people to choose from,” he said.
If he gets the funding, he said, he hopes to send five people to the academy in the 2020 fiscal year — two to fill vacancies, two to replace firefighters who retired last fall, and one to fill a position that will open after promotions. Those numbers, however, are just an estimate, because he never knows for sure who will retire and how many positions he will have to fill.
The rest of the $55,000, if he gets it, will help him with other training costs. He hopes to bring in a bailout simulator this year, which is a large prop that allows fire fighters to train rolling out of a window and rappelling down. The four-day program costs around $5,400, he said.
Merwede said he’s also looking into a program to train his staff in peer counseling. There has been focus recently on how first responders often experience post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Merwede would like to train the firefighters in his department to recognize “the signs and symptoms of experiencing extreme stress,” so that they can help their peers before it becomes a problem.
Maintaining The Trucks
Hamden FD
The new Engine 9.
For vehicle maintenance, Merwede requested $95,900; the mayor budgeted $90,000. Last year, that line item was funded at $84,000.
The increasing number of calls has put extra strain on the department’s vehicles, Merwede said. He said he measures the hours that the department spends responding to calls, and has found that every year adds hundreds of hours to the time the trucks are in use.
When the trucks need repairs, said Merwede, he needs to have the tools on hand to fix them quickly because there are no backup vehicles. If one is out of commission and a call comes in, it quickly becomes a matter of crisis management, he said.
On March 25, the department added a new Engine 9 to its fleet in northern Hamden. It has a 1,000-gallon tank because a lot of places in its district don’t have fire hydrants. It arrived at 10 a.m., and was already out on its first call 27 minutes later, according to the Hamden Fire Department Twitter page.
Supplies
Finally, Merwede requested $23,000 for general firefighting supplies, $7000 more than last year. The mayor allotted $19,000.
“I don’t like to stay low on inventory in terms of firefighting supplies,” said Merwede. He explained he would like a baseline inventory to allow pieces of equipment to be swapped out on short notice when something breaks.
“For the volume we’re running at, that’s a prudent safety measure,” he said.
All fire equipment must be checked every day — every truck, every coat, every ax, every piece of paramedic equipment.
With his general firefighting supplies fund, Merwede said he plans to buy more Nomex hoods, which protect the head and neck from particulate burns. They are expensive, he explained, and having replacements on hand is very important.
He will also use the fund to buy more boots, gloves, coats, and other necessities which, if they break, need to be replaced immediately while they are repaired.
Once the chief had finished presenting his budget on Wednesday, he sat back from the microphone to wait for questions from the council. The council had a lot to askd the head of a department that comprises 6 percent of the total budget, but they also had praise.
District 7 Rep. Michael Colaiacovo was the first to offer his gratitude for the chief’s attention to the numbers.
“I never worked with a department head that was so well prepared,” he said.
Well, as a new Chief, and deservedly so, these budget requests are surely to keep the rank and file solidly behind him. I'm sure the Chief knows rolling an Engine company, and sometimes two, to medical calls is wasting of resources, and, just like New Haven, the volume of actual fires is decreasing. Medical calls are the norm.
Break those 11,715 calls down for us? How many fires, how many medicals? It's an average of 32 calls a day, or 1 every 45 minutes or so...it doesn't seem realistic. How many are to Arden House, Hamden Health Care, Whitney Health, Atria, Whitney Rehab, etc...there are about 6 to 8 facilities in Hamden that get about 80% of the calls, and it's a lock that an Emergency unit, and an Engine will respond. And AMR. Why? Why is AMR not under contract to have a paramedic-equipped ambulance stationed at or nearby each health-care facility? Last week, an Emergency unit, AMR, and an Engine responded to a medical in a Skiff St parking lot, and a 2nd Engine trying to respond ended driving on by because of the traffic from gawkers. Is each call double-counted, as two Fire Dept resources respond?
How many addresses in Hamden are 'frequent flyers'? What's a better, different way to tackle that issue?
If we stopped rolling super expensive Engines needlessly, the useful life of each one should be extended dramatically, thereby cutting into the capital budget.
Why not have prospective new-hires pay their own way through a fire-training academy, and paramedic schools? Hire those already qualified, and make a deal, say, stay 10 years and we'll pay off the cost, after the fact? Does having a 'higher pool of candidates' really mean latitude in favoritism in hiring?
Be bold, Chief, be outside the box. the town's treated you right. Pay us back via great management. We're not getting it form the Mayor.