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Date: 1/11/2022
BELCHERTOWN – During the Belchertown Select Board’s Jan. 3 meeting, the board agreed to allow the Fire Department to move forward with applying for a Safer Grant and discussed COVID-19 concerns in town.
Fire Chief John Ingram started the discussion by saying the grant, which is through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), funds benefits and salaries for three years for new personnel at the Fire Department.
“Today the Safer Grant is opening through FEMA, and we would like to apply for that grant. It is for three years where you do not pay the benefits or the salaries of the folks if you end up getting the grant. It is very competitive, the question is how many folks would we like to apply for,” he said. “Realistically I would like to apply for six, it is a good number to have response-wise.”
With six firefighters in the grant application, Captain Scott Chapman said the department would be able to make a better case in the application to FEMA.
“It is all about staffing and response, the goal should be to get a minimum of six firefighters to a scene within so many minutes and their goal for a combination department like ours is 14 minutes and they want us to meet that at least 80 percent of the time. The only way we are going to do that is by having six people in the station to start with, I think if we go for less than six, we would not be able to make that argument as well,” he said.
Ingram said by adding six new firefighters, the department would be able to keep more people in the station at a time while others go out on mutual aid to other communities in the area.
“All the communities around us are having the same issue of staffing and we are going mutual aid a lot to other communities as well and they are coming to us, so we are just this round robin of borrowing people from everybody, which is what we do but it is taking people out of the station,” he said.
Chapman added the department has seen a significant increase in call volume over the past year.
“It was another 213 EMS responses, not counting fire responses, plus 96 other transports, plus we lost an extra 12 to mutual aid, it is an increase in call volume. It has gone through the roof in this past year since we have addressed this,” he said.
Town Administrator Gary Brougham said the six additional firefighters would be a good step for the department.
“Twenty-six is the ideal number, and we are at 16 as we speak, it is a giant step forward. We have a relatively young and recently appointed department in some cases, and as they build seniority, we are losing ground because they are gaining benefit time, soon we will be down two employees just in the equivalent of benefit time,” he said.
By relying on mutual aid, Brougham said response times are higher than some people may be able to afford in emergency situations.
“They are going to Cooley Dick, and they are going to Baystate, which is becoming more and more the destination these days, it is an hour that some folks do not have to wait. The outcome may not be what we hope for if we cannot respond in a timely manner. The only way we are going to regain momentum is by hiring staff,” he said.
The board unanimously agreed to move forward with the department applying for the Safer Grant.
During the meeting, Brougham also provided an update on the battle with COVID-19 in town offices.
“Many of our town departments have been stricken by the virus, I do not know which variety, but we continue to have disruptions in staff and a number of town departments. We are limping along the best we can and hopefully we will get beyond this at some point. In the meantime, we are doing the best we can to continue to maintain services and keep offices open,” he said.
As a result of the increase in cases among town employees, Brougham said the Council on Aging suspended its in person meal program for two weeks.
Because of an increased demand for testing in town, Brougham said he is trying to secure test kits for residents who want to test for the virus.
“A number of residents have recently found that they are positive, and many folks are having difficulty finding test sites or testing materials. I spent a bit of time today with the town accountant and the director of the Quabbin Health district trying to make a determination on what would be the best option for Belchertown if the town were to procure materials using ARPA American Rescue Plan Act) fuds,” (he said. “We are working as quickly as we can to see if we can locate test kits and potentially make them available to residents.”
The Belchertown Select Board next met on Jan. 10 and coverage of that meeting will appear in the Jan. 20 edition of The Reminder.