Published Sunday, December 8, 2002
Herald Staff Writer
If the Act 47 financial recovery plan for Greenville is approved in its current form, residents will soon see some sweeping changes in the services and government of the borough.
Almost no department was left untouched: there are guidelines for change in the borough's fire, police, management, personnel and fiscal areas.
The study, which cost around $70,000 to produce, is required for Greenville to receive state money to pull itself out of distressed community status. The borough is facing a $1 million plus budget deficit as a result of fiscal mismanagement.
The plan includes "shall" clauses that must be implemented if the borough accepts the state's help and "should" clauses that are optional but recommended to dig the borough out of debt.
Among the "should" recommendations, the program calls for the reduction of its paid borough fire department from seven full time personnel to two.
Currently, the fire department is staffed by Chief Steve Thompson, three lieutenants, three drivers and seven volunteer firefighters. Under the state plan, the borough "should" reduce the department to a paid chief and assistant chief, and rely on volunteer firefighters to fill out the department.
"We have some issues with the plan," Thompson said.
"The response time really slows down," he said. Currently, the fire department can respond to any fire in the borough in about three minutes, Thompson said. If the borough had to rely on volunteers, that time would drastically increase, he said.
"With volunteers, they have to come to the fire department first," he said. "They have work and family obligations. Sometimes, they can't leave work. Other times, they might have to make arrangements for child care. And if there is a call at 2 a.m., they may not make it to work the next morning, and that doesn't work either."
Quick response time is vital in a heavily developed area like Greenville, Thompson said.
"In the country, if a fire starts, it might only claim one or two buildings. In a city setting, the fire can spread much more quickly. When we get a call on a fire, when we get there, it is still a small fire. With volunteers, that might not be the case."
Thompson said the fire department also does a lot of fire prevention work, making fire inspections and ensuring buildings are up to code.
A paid fire staff, he said, not only makes the community safer for residents, but also lowers fire insurance bills.
"When fire insurance companies rate fire departments, they give three times as much credit for a paid firefighter than a volunteer," he said. Thompson said the Greenville department has the third best rating in the county, behind only Sharon and Hermitage.
Thompson said other area departments are having a hard time getting volunteers. "It is a problem across the commonwealth," he said, citing a 2001 study of Pennsylvania fire departments.
The study, conducted by the National Fire Protection Association, reports a sharp decline in volunteer firefighters in Pennsylvania.
In the late 1970s, more than 250,000 people were volunteer firefighters. In the late 1990s, however, that number had fell to 65,000 state-wide.
"This is one of the most hazardous jobs in the world," Thompson said. "I don't know how anyone could expect us to do it without pay."
Greenville Borough Manager Kenneth S. Weaver said the borough must be sure it can get volunteers to staff the fire department before cutting paid personnel.
He said many people have work or family obligations, and there is an extensive training process they have to go through.
"We don't have that many now," he said.
The Act 47 plan says the borough should begin to reduce paid personnel through attrition, and should consider reducing the force at the end of the current fire contract, which expires Dec. 31, 2005.
You can e-mail Herald Staff Writer Amanda Smith-Teutsch at: ateutsch@sharonherald.com