SPRINGDALE -- The Fire Department needs three crews to staff Station 7, which should open this summer. The City Council gave its OK Monday night.
The fire station will need two firefighters, an engineer and a captain to serve each of three, 24-hour shifts -- totaling 12 staff members for Station 7, said Fire Chief Mike Irwin.
Council members approved $110,319 in salaries for six new firefighters for the station when they approved the 2019 budget in November. The city would begin paying six new firefighters July 1 when Station 7 opens.
Fire Chief Mike Irwin asked the council to move up these hires and to begin paying the new firefighters March 1. This would add $183,865 to the city's budget.
Irwin said these new recruits would need to attend the session of the Arkansas Fire Training Academy that begins March 1, so they would be trained and ready when the new station opens.
Irwin also asked the council to approve the pay for three new captains and three new drivers/operators the department would promote to lead the shifts at Station 7.
He said their work, which would start June 1, would add $29,948 to the 2019 budget.
Irwin's total budget increase was $103,494, including the extra firefighter pay and the shift leaders' salaries.
The voters approval of the 2018 bond issue provided the money to construct and equip the new station on Har-Ber Avenue, close to Hellstern Elementary School.
The city will use bond money to build Station 8 next year in the city's industrial area on the east side of town. The fire department's planning will see the ladder truck and its 12 staff members move to Station 8 from Station 1 to better serve the industrial area. Irwin said he plans no new hires for Station 8.
"You could open Station 7 with no new hires, but that ladder crew would not be where it needs to be," Mayor Doug Sprouse said.
"With our response times, I recommend approval," said Kathy Jaycox, a council member. Response times were one determination of the city's Level 1 rating from the Insurance Service Office.
Sprouse pointed out the additional salary money for the firefighters could come from three new positions for the Parks & Recreation Department the council approved in the budget. They are intended to support the new Shaw Family Park which will not be opening until late this year. Those positions -- and thus the salaries -- will not be needed until the park opens, Sprouse said.
City and fire officials also look to the bond money to build a third station -- Station 9 -- on land adjacent to the Shaw Family Park in northwest Springdale. Irwin said the department will need to hire new crews for Station 9.
Engines for the three stations have been ordered with bond money. The city saved $250,000 because the vehicles were ordered at the same time, Irwin said.
Council member Jeff Watson remembered Irwin's original budget request in November asked for seven new positions within the department.
Irwin said one of those was a person to lead training for the department. "We were willing cut that position," he said.
NW News on 01/15/2019