By Danielle E. Gaines
The Frederick News-Post
FREDERICK COUNTY, Md. — Changes to Frederick County’s fire and rescue response goals could help county fire stations get more support — and maybe more personnel.
The Frederick County Council heard testimony Tuesday on a bill to change target response times throughout the county.
Right now, county code has a blanket approach to measuring fire station responses, the time it takes units to leave a station after a dispatched call. All stations are expected to respond within eight minutes 90 percent of the time.
The bill from the county’s Division of Fire and Rescue Services would distinguish urban, suburban and rural stations.
Targets would tighten for urban areas, to four minutes at least 99 percent of the time, and for suburban areas, to six minutes at least 90 percent of the time. Targets would loosen for rural areas, to an eight-minute response at least 80 percent of the time.
Councilman Jerry Donald (D) asked what happens if stations don’t meet new targets.
Fire Chief Tom Owens said the new goals are not meant to be punitive. If a station fails to meet response standards, the fire service will work with the station’s leadership on weaknesses, possibly by adding more staff.
The County Council could create a special taxing district to support the improvements.
Owens made clear that new standards would be for statistical purposes only; the fire service already dispatches more units to emergencies after five minutes.
Another proposed change is expanding the “first due” response area — the distance volunteers must live from station houses to be part of a company’s initial response team — for suburban and rural stations. The bill would also add the Career Firefighters Association president to the Fire and Rescue Advisory Board and codify some current division practices for staffing levels and training requirements.
John Neary, president of the Career Fire Fighters Association of Frederick County, said the organization accepts many of the changes, but opposes one that codifies the position of current Volunteer Fire Chief Chip Jewell.
In the bill, the position would be added to the county’s chain of command as a deputy chief and would be director of Volunteer Fire and Rescue Services.
Neary said the position should be recognized as a deputy chief, but not as a director, which could cause confusion.
Owens saw the bill as a compromise between volunteer and career firefighters’ interests. The volunteer director will fall in the chain of command to avoid possible conflicts in a “two-chief structure,” but would retain the director title — a county executive-appointed position requiring input from the Frederick County Volunteer Fire and Rescue Association — to ensure that volunteers are adequately represented.
The county’s volunteer and career fire and rescue systems were consolidated in 2013, the last time county fire ordinances were substantially changed.
Planning Commission role restored
Also Tuesday, the council unanimously approved changes to the county’s approval process for new housing developments.
The bill, introduced by County Executive Jan Gardner (D), rolls back a 2012 law by breaking the county’s development approval process into smaller steps. The bill restores the county’s previous practice of considering rezoning applications and Developer Rights and Responsibilities Agreements — long-term contracts that lock in zoning laws, rules and exemptions for proposed developments — separately.
The bill also requires a separate determination of Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance standards, meant to ensure that public infrastructure such as roads and schools can handle added traffic and students from new developments. That decision would return to the Frederick County Planning Commission.
Copyright 2016 The Frederick News-Post