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Date: 10/12/2022
BELCHERTOWN – In a decision that was met with rousing applause, the Belchertown Select Board unanimously voted at its Oct. 3 meeting to accept a grant that would allow the Fire Department to bolster its staff and improve the department’s ability to provide adequate coverage to the town.
On Sept. 21, Belchertown was awarded a federal Staffing For Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) grant in the amount of $1.47 million for the purpose of hiring firefighters. The grant will allow the department to install six new firefighters and will provide full funding for those positions, including benefits, for three years.
Selectman Ronald Aponte explained the board had previously granted Fire Chief John Ingram authority to apply for the competitive grant administered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). According to Ingram and information provided by FEMA, as of Sept. 21, Belchertown was one of only 118 SAFER grant recipients nationwide out of more than 1,500 applicants in the 2021 grant cycle. The town was one of 16 Massachusetts municipalities and the only one in Hampden County to receive a grant. Ingram credited Capt. Scott Chapman with doing the legwork required to secure the grant.
With the town having been awarded the grant, the board had 30 days to accept. Now accepted, Ingram said the department would begin seeking candidates for the open positions immediately.
Aponte said part of the department’s charge prior to meeting with the board on Oct. 3 was not only to illustrate the need for the additional firefighters, but to determine whether the town would be able to afford to support the positions once the three-year grant award has been expended.
With a number of fire personnel lining the wall at the meeting, Ingram explained the additional staffing would enhance the department’s ability to adequately respond to emergencies as demand for services continue to rise. Additional staff would also put them in compliance with National Fire Protection Association staffing, response and operational standards.
“The benefit is obviously to have six people on shift so we can start covering all the calls that we are having,” Ingram said. “We’re having an increase in call volume just as everybody else around us with multiple calls at once. As soon as the first ambulance goes out, we’re having a second and sometimes a third medical call come in.”
Ingram explained the department does not have the staffing to maintain acceptable service levels during its daytime shifts due to a combination of injuries and coronavirus-related absences, at times having only three firefighters active on a shift.
The department has performed 377 “call backs” – requests for off-duty personnel to return to duty – in order to keep its station operational and many of those have gone unfulfilled.
“Frankly, everybody’s just exhausted from the busyness of all the calls that are taking place,” he said.
Fiscal year 2022’s (FY22) call volume included a total of 2,369 calls, including 1,922 EMS calls with 1,318 resulting in medical transports. In FY21, the 2,027 total calls, 1,804 of which required EMS response and 1,295 transports. There were 2,084 calls, including 1,676 EMS responses and 1,151 transports in FY20.
Ingram asserted that with the newly funded positions, the department would be able to staff two ambulances, and perhaps three, during a shift, which would reduce the need for mutual aid response from neighboring communities. The chief explained the town has been increasingly reliant on mutual aid with 123 such responses for ambulance services this year – 35 from Granby, 31 from Ludlow, 28 from Amherst, 18 from Ware and 12 from Palmer. Local response as opposed to mutual aid would result in $113,000 in additional revenue for the department, he estimated.
“The need is there to cover these calls, we just have not been able to do it,” he said. “We’ve been strapped and, again, we’re strapping the communities around us.”
Ingram also noted there are times when Belchertown’s ambulance provides mutual aid services, making it unavailable to the town’s residents, creating a “round robin” situation with surrounding towns to cover all of the emergency calls for service. When asked by the board how many times Belchertown has provided mutual aid, he admitted he did not have that information available at the time.
Aponte opined that Ingram illustrated in the packet he provided to the board that adding the six firefighters to the roster could actually mitigate some financial difficulties by reducing mutual aid and overtime expenses.
“I think even above and beyond the financial aspect, I think it safeguards our firefighter/paramedics because, as our chief has alluded to, I think we’re very quickly reaching burnout,” he said.
Other members of the board concurred and unanimously supported the chief’s plan.
“I agree with Mr. Aponte that from a safety viewpoint for our citizens and from a safety viewpoint for our employees, this makes sense,” Selectman James Berry said.
Selectman Edward Boscher said grant opportunities like these presented by departments are “what we’ve been looking for as a board” and the Fire Department “found a big one.” He did warn about the town’s current structural deficit to which Ingram said his plan was to work with the town to determine if and how the positions could be maintained once the grant monies are expended.