Is the Crescent City Fire and Rescue moving to an all-paid Fire department?
That question was posed to City Manager Eric Wier and Fire Chief Kevin Carey, in a May 6th email with no response from either.
In the shadow of the appointments of three paid City captain positions, last year and the approval of an official bargaining unit for the paid captains, The Triplicate posed the following queries to Wier and Carey:
• Do the City and Fire Department anticipate more fire / rescue employees? If Yes, please share with the public the costs associated with growing the Department.
• What is the funding source to transition from an all-volunteer Fire department to a paid employee department. The response to these questions was crickets.
Apparently, the cat is out of the bag and, perhaps without intending to “show the cards,” Fire Chief Carey plans to grow his department, asking the City Council, at the recent City Budget Workshop, support for hiring a Lieutenant administrator to oversee operations at a cost of $130,000 per annum. The Triplicate asked how the co-funding by the City and Crescent Fire Protection District will be handled. What will be the impact on a beleaguered public? More crickets…If the City and CFPD move forward on this transition like a big city department, wouldn’t the City be expected to tell the public?
Funding to pay for an all-paid department would possibly call for an increase in the sales tax and/or property tax assessment.
Will this possible expansion affect how the City and County addresses the plethora of potholes on city and county streets?
Additionally, The County supports a full vetting of Del Norte Ambulance (DNAMB) to consider reconsider replacing the four decades old DNAMB, with emergency funding from the Department of Health and Human Services. Funds have been dispersed to consultant EndPoint for $97,000 and expected to exceed $160,000 before the 2028 decision on DNAMB’s future. And no emergency has been articulated by DHHS.
This is a continuing story.