By Kristin Zagurski
Omaha World-Herald (Nebraska)
Copyright 2007 The Omaha World-Herald Company
BELLEVUE, Neb. — Bellevue officials believe their community — not the Nebraska Legislature — should decide when the city should switch from a volunteer fire department to a paid one.
But an Omaha state senator and the leader of the statewide fire union say the change is necessary soon to improve public safety in the city.
That’s why the senator, Brad Ashford, said he introduced legislation to require certain cities to have a paid fire chief and firefighters.
Only two Nebraska cities meet the bill’s criteria: Bellevue and Grand Island. The latter has had a paid department for nearly 100 years.
The passage of Legislative Bill 607 would be a blow to Bellevue, which is struggling financially. A paid department would cost the city at least $6 million a year, Fire Chief Dale Tedder said.
Ashford said he introduced the bill after being approached by a family concerned about the Bellevue department’s response times and by the Nebraska Professional Fire Fighters Association, a statewide union.
Ashford said he believes everyone in the Omaha metropolitan area should have access to equal public safety services.
“The City of Omaha, the City of Bellevue and, potentially, other areas in Douglas and Sarpy Counties should all have a professional, full-time fire department,” he said.
The City of Bellevue opposes the bill because of its costs, said City Administrator Gary Troutman. “Due to our financial situation, we just can’t swing that.”
In addition, he said, the bill involves the state telling a city how to run one of its departments.
“It’s not a fire department issue, it’s a city issue,” Troutman said.
Tedder also said he believes a community should be able to decide for itself when to switch from a volunteer to a paid fire force.
Bellevue’s current property tax rate could not support a paid department, said John Collins, city finance director. In addition, the city faces cash-flow problems and needs to repay its wastewater fund more than $3 million it improperly used over the past decade to cover daily expenses.
A public committee hearing has been scheduled for Feb. 13.
Mike McDonnell, president of the Nebraska Professional Fire Fighters Association, said his group’s issue isn’t with the training of volunteer firefighters in Bellevue or elsewhere.
The issue is that it takes volunteers longer to reach emergencies than paid firefighters, said McDonnell, who also is president of the Omaha Firefighters Union. That’s because when a call comes, volunteers must first go to the fire station and then to the call site, whereas a paid firefighter already is at the station.
Tedder agrees that firefighters get out the door more quickly when they already are at the station. But other variables, such as a station’s location, also affect response times, he said.
“I think our response times are great, compared to everybody else in the county,” Tedder said.
It took the Bellevue department an average of 5 minutes, 47 seconds to respond to a fire call in the city in 2004. That compared with Papillion’s average that year of 3 minutes, 23 seconds and La Vista’s average of 6 minutes, 54 seconds. More recent statistics were not immediately available.
Papillion, which has fewer than half the residents of Bellevue, has a half-paid, half-volunteer department. La Vista, which has one-third Bellevue’s population, has an all-volunteer force but is hiring a paid chief.
The issue of whether Bellevue should switch to a paid department has been raised in the past, including after a fire there killed 10-year-old Lita Lee Virgilito in December 2002.
Lita’s family was critical of the department’s response time -- the first fire engine arrived 11 minutes after being notified.
Lita’s father, Jim Virgilito, said at the time that he didn’t think the firefighters could have saved the girl. The home had no working smoke detectors, and the house was well on its way to destruction by the time a neighbor saw the fire and called 911.
McDonnell said this week that the bill isn’t about any one city or incident.
State Sen. Don Preister, whose district includes part of northern Bellevue, is a co-sponsor of the bill. He declined to say this week why he believes a paid department is a good idea for Bellevue.
State Sen. Abbie Cornett, Bellevue’s other state senator, said she would work to oppose or amend the bill.
The city doesn’t have the money to implement a paid department by Oct. 1, as the bill would require, Cornett said.
Even if funds were available, the city could not set up a testing process, screen applicants and hire them in a handful of months. “You’re talking more than a yearlong process here,” said Cornett, a former police officer.
Cornett believes the bill has widespread support in the Legislature, which is why she is working on amendments to ease the burden on Bellevue.
One idea would be to phase in the conversion: first hiring a chief, then paramedics and, finally, firefighters.
Grand Island, which like Bellevue has four fire stations, employs 69 fire and rescue personnel, said Fire Chief Jim Rowell. The fire and rescue budget is $6.3 million.
Tedder believes Bellevue would need 96 firefighters — four for each of the city’s eight firetrucks over three shifts. The department now has 146 volunteers, 100 of whom are “very active,” he said.
The city budgeted $1.74 million this year for fire and rescue services. That includes operating costs and salaries and benefits for six paid employees.
The city would have to come up with at least $4 million more each year to run a paid department, under Tedder’s projected cost.
Ashford said he is aware of Bellevue’s financial problems but said a paid department still needs to be discussed.
“I look upon this as really a big issue,” he said, “and not just an issue about Bellevue’s finances and their inability or ability to do something this year.”
Lower insurance premiums?
Switching to a paid fire department could result in lower insurance premiums for property owners in Bellevue, because it probably would improve a score some insurance companies use in setting premiums, said Bellevue Fire Chief Dale Tedder.
The Insurance Service Organization rates Bellevue’s volunteer department a Class 3. The organization rates fire districts on a scale of 1 to 10, with Class 1 being the best and resulting in the lowest premiums.
Bellevue narrowly missed a Class 2 rating two years ago, Tedder said, and probably would attain that rating with a switch to a paid department.
Proximity to fire stations and proximity to water sources are the biggest factors the organization uses in setting ratings.
The Kearney Volunteer Fire Department, which has seven full-time equipment operators, is rated Class 2. La Vista and Grand Island’s departments both are rated Class 3, and Papillion’s is a Class 4.