Two Flint fire stations could close
Vice president of Local 352 concerned about response time
Andrew Fergerson
Issue date: 3/16/10 Section: Local News
Two of five fire stations in Flint are on the verge of possibly being closed due to layoffs that Flint Mayor Dayne Walling believes need to happen.
Station 3, located on Martin Luther King Boulevard and Station 8, located on Atherton Road have been listed as stations that may be closed if an agreement is not reached concerning the 15 percent concession being asked from public safety employees.
Walling had been seeking the concessions for a while, said Dawn Jones, communications director for the city of Flint. “Without concessions, the city has to rethink the way they do business,” Jones said. “The concessions would help close the $8 million budget deficit.”
If the deadline comes and goes with no agreement, the 80 planned layoffs, including 24 firefighters will go into effect, as well as closing the two stations. It would leave Flint with three fully operational fire stations.
Fire Chief Alvern Lock believes that this is a difficult decision. “We are in a time when the city can’t afford to keep some stations open,” Lock said. “I don’t want to see anyone lose their jobs.”
Jones and the mayor’s office don’t anticipate any problems. “The mayor’s position is that all areas would be fully serviced by the other stations,” Jones said. “We have a fully capable and professional team of firefighters and public safety officials who give their best to the citizens of the community and will continue to do so.”
Mark Kovach, vice president of Flint Firefighters Local 352 said there will be problems with the cuts. “The layoffs would put Flint firefighters down from 98 to 74 firefighters,” Kovach said. “Flint firefighters now rank number one or two in the country in terms of fires per firefighter.”
City Councilman Scott Kincaid believes that the city should look elsewhere for cuts. “The city needs to get the financial house in order,” Kincaid said. “But the most important thing is public safety.”
According to Jones, the main point for the layoffs is “shared sacrifice saves jobs. Walling is making sacrifices of his own,” Jones said. “These include giving back five percent of his salary to the city, as well as taking 12 days off without pay, along with several people of Local 1799. That amounts to an eight percent pay reduction on top of the five percent.”
However, Kincaid thinks that’s not enough. “I do believe that Walling is doing good things by giving up his car and paying some of his salary back,” Kincaid said. “But I believe that in order to pay for fire stations and public safety officials, cutting unneeded jobs’ salaries and benefits in his administration would help pay for those.”
Kincaid said his main criticism is the way the announcement came. “The announcement was made, but no one ever talked about a plan to provide services with the cuts proposed,” Kincaid said. “They didn’t thoroughly think before the announcement.”
Kovach is concerned with how the stations will run with fewer firefighters. “No one has come to us with an idea of how we’re going to operate or if anything is going to change,” Kovach said. “Fewer people will be doing more work, it’ll be difficult to get to every emergency quickly.”
“We can only get what we can afford, and only have so many resources to work with,” Jones said. “It’s no different than a household budget.”
The deadline for an agreement was originally March 8, but has since been moved back to March 25. Kincaid was confused by this move. “I didn’t understand why (city officials) did that and paid $25,000 for a two-day furlough,” Kincaid said.
Neither Jones, nor Kincaid can foresee any kind of response from the public yet. “It’s hard to evaluate what will happen until the cuts go into effect,” Kincaid said.
The issue for some people may be response time. “There will be no lack of service,” Lock said. “There could possibly be a slower response time.”
Because of the diminished response time, Kincaid believes that the residents’ safety is being put in jeopardy. “I think it would be better to close station 1 over station 3,” Kincaid said.
The other issue is the amount of runs the stations are called on, according to Kovach. “The response time will really suffer,” Kovach said. “The response for a fire should be no more than five minutes.”
Combined, both stations 3 and 8 took in over 2,500 calls last year. “The calls would be redistributed to the remaining three stations,” Kovach said. “Those calls aren’t going anywhere. Run volume has been going up.”
According to a recommendation from the National Fire Protection Agency, anytime staffing falls below 15 total firefighters, full alarm compliance would suffer. “With the cuts, daily staffing at the stations would be around 12,” Kovach said. “On a good day with everyone available, we would not have enough to safely operate.”
“Public safety is a top priority for the mayor,” Jones said. “He is committed to the city living within its means.”
According to Chief Lock, station 1 on 5th Street and station 6 on Pierson Road would take over the areas previously held by 3 and 8.
Andrew can be reached at afergers@umflint.edu.
Station 3, located on Martin Luther King Boulevard and Station 8, located on Atherton Road have been listed as stations that may be closed if an agreement is not reached concerning the 15 percent concession being asked from public safety employees.
Walling had been seeking the concessions for a while, said Dawn Jones, communications director for the city of Flint. “Without concessions, the city has to rethink the way they do business,” Jones said. “The concessions would help close the $8 million budget deficit.”
If the deadline comes and goes with no agreement, the 80 planned layoffs, including 24 firefighters will go into effect, as well as closing the two stations. It would leave Flint with three fully operational fire stations.
Fire Chief Alvern Lock believes that this is a difficult decision. “We are in a time when the city can’t afford to keep some stations open,” Lock said. “I don’t want to see anyone lose their jobs.”
Jones and the mayor’s office don’t anticipate any problems. “The mayor’s position is that all areas would be fully serviced by the other stations,” Jones said. “We have a fully capable and professional team of firefighters and public safety officials who give their best to the citizens of the community and will continue to do so.”
Mark Kovach, vice president of Flint Firefighters Local 352 said there will be problems with the cuts. “The layoffs would put Flint firefighters down from 98 to 74 firefighters,” Kovach said. “Flint firefighters now rank number one or two in the country in terms of fires per firefighter.”
City Councilman Scott Kincaid believes that the city should look elsewhere for cuts. “The city needs to get the financial house in order,” Kincaid said. “But the most important thing is public safety.”
According to Jones, the main point for the layoffs is “shared sacrifice saves jobs. Walling is making sacrifices of his own,” Jones said. “These include giving back five percent of his salary to the city, as well as taking 12 days off without pay, along with several people of Local 1799. That amounts to an eight percent pay reduction on top of the five percent.”
However, Kincaid thinks that’s not enough. “I do believe that Walling is doing good things by giving up his car and paying some of his salary back,” Kincaid said. “But I believe that in order to pay for fire stations and public safety officials, cutting unneeded jobs’ salaries and benefits in his administration would help pay for those.”
Kincaid said his main criticism is the way the announcement came. “The announcement was made, but no one ever talked about a plan to provide services with the cuts proposed,” Kincaid said. “They didn’t thoroughly think before the announcement.”
Kovach is concerned with how the stations will run with fewer firefighters. “No one has come to us with an idea of how we’re going to operate or if anything is going to change,” Kovach said. “Fewer people will be doing more work, it’ll be difficult to get to every emergency quickly.”
“We can only get what we can afford, and only have so many resources to work with,” Jones said. “It’s no different than a household budget.”
The deadline for an agreement was originally March 8, but has since been moved back to March 25. Kincaid was confused by this move. “I didn’t understand why (city officials) did that and paid $25,000 for a two-day furlough,” Kincaid said.
Neither Jones, nor Kincaid can foresee any kind of response from the public yet. “It’s hard to evaluate what will happen until the cuts go into effect,” Kincaid said.
The issue for some people may be response time. “There will be no lack of service,” Lock said. “There could possibly be a slower response time.”
Because of the diminished response time, Kincaid believes that the residents’ safety is being put in jeopardy. “I think it would be better to close station 1 over station 3,” Kincaid said.
The other issue is the amount of runs the stations are called on, according to Kovach. “The response time will really suffer,” Kovach said. “The response for a fire should be no more than five minutes.”
Combined, both stations 3 and 8 took in over 2,500 calls last year. “The calls would be redistributed to the remaining three stations,” Kovach said. “Those calls aren’t going anywhere. Run volume has been going up.”
According to a recommendation from the National Fire Protection Agency, anytime staffing falls below 15 total firefighters, full alarm compliance would suffer. “With the cuts, daily staffing at the stations would be around 12,” Kovach said. “On a good day with everyone available, we would not have enough to safely operate.”
“Public safety is a top priority for the mayor,” Jones said. “He is committed to the city living within its means.”
According to Chief Lock, station 1 on 5th Street and station 6 on Pierson Road would take over the areas previously held by 3 and 8.
Andrew can be reached at afergers@umflint.edu.
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