By Tiffany S. Jones
News & Record
Copyright 2007 News & Record (Greensboro, NC)
All Rights Reserved
GREENSBORO, N.C. — During a five-hour retreat, the Elon Board of Aldermen heard the same plea from nearly all of their department heads - “we need to hire new people.”
“Staffing is kind of a bad word, I know,” Fire Chief Eddie King told the board.
“Even though we’ve planned and planned, we’ve found out that we only have one person during the day and during the night at the new station,” he said.
King saw just how important it is to have more than one person working a shift a few weeks ago when the man on duty began having chest pains.
“Luckily his wife was there,” King said.
EFD operates with 11 full-time staff members plus two volunteers brought in regularly when there’s an emergency. There are also 30 volunteers but 10 of them are students who are not in Elon for the entire year.
“We run about the same amount of calls as Mebane, and they have 12 on full time,” King said.
“I can’t afford to have anything happen - vacation, sickness, anything,” he added.
King requested four additional firefighters for the upcoming fiscal year. In addition, he also asked that the aldermen consider purchasing equipment for the 800 trunking communications system.
The system will allow the fire department’s walkie-talkies to operate on hundreds of channels as opposed to eight. According to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, 800 trunking is used for notification of mutual aid partners in the event of large emergencies and terrorist attacks.
“If you’re not fully mandated by September, you can’t apply for grants,” King explained.
FEMA requires that all fire departments be compliant with the National Incident Management System before they apply for federal grants. Last year, the fire department received more than $700,000 in grants.
“We benefited from those grant monies, and it’s my hope that we can continue to do that,” King said.
King said that he’d hoped that the fire department could have partnered with the police department when they implemented the new system. Chief LaVell Lovette explained to the board that the money to make the police department compliant was in last year’s budget.
Mayor Pro Tem Ron Klepcyk told King that he will have to decide which is more important of the two.
“The likelihood that the town will be able to do everything is slim,” he said.