By David O’connor and Jenna Ebersole
The Intelligencer Journal/New Era
MANHEIM TOWNSHIP, Pa. — Manheim Township on Monday became the second county municipality to hire paid firefighters, naming 10 part-time career firefighters/EMTs. Lancaster city also has paid firefighters.
The move is not a step toward having a paid fire department in the suburban township, officials have emphasized. The hirings are meant to prevent manpower shortages and ensure no fire call goes unanswered, Manheim Township fire chief Rick Kane said.
Township commissioners Monday night appointed the 10 part-time career firefighters, who will assist the volunteers of the township’s three fire companies.
“Our first priority operationally is to make sure we can staff our fire equipment,” Kane said Monday.
“Our volunteers provide an exceptional service to Manheim Township, and by adding part-time firefighters, we are adding another layer of personnel to supplement our volunteers and to better serve our community.”
The township commissioners had agreed in March to amend the township’s civil-service procedures, allowing the process of hiring part-time firefighters to begin.
The 10 who were named Monday are Peter Jacobs, Douglas Kemmerly, Jon Merrell, Steven Miller, William Geoffrey Miller, Troy Redcay, Jeremy Shaffner, Thomas Smith Jr., Daniel Wagaman and Kenneth Yost.
Manheim Township last year became the second Lancaster County municipality, after neighboring East Petersburg Borough, to enact a tax dedicated solely to the fire service.
The hiring of part-time personnel is a step that township officials have been predicting.
Commissioner Larry Downing agreed Monday that the paid firefighters will help to meet the rising number of calls.
But Downing said he doesn’t see the addition of paid firefighters as a move in the direction of replacing volunteers, even though volunteerism is down across the country.
“We’re very careful not to be moving to a paid fire company,” he said.
He said he expects the two groups to work together, especially because volunteers made the recommendation.
The township has a computerized system at each of its firehouses in which volunteer firefighters notify fire officials when they will and will not be available to fight fires.
Kane will check that list and make sure there is adequate staffing for each firehouse at all times, and he will not schedule part-time paid crew members if there’s adequate volunteer staffing.
But the paid firefighters will fill any shortages, at a rate of $16 per hour.
The three township volunteer fire departments, Eden, Neffsville and Southern Manheim Township, respond to an estimated 3,000 emergency calls a year.
Copyright 2010 Lancaster Newspapers, Inc.