By Roger Amsden
The Union Leader
OSSIPEE, N.H. — Selectmen plan to hold a public informational meeting early in February on a recently completed report from a consulting firm that recommends consolidating the town’s three fire precincts into a single entity.
Martha Eldridge, town administrative assistant, said there are no plans to bring any of the report’s recommendations before voters in March and that town and precinct officials will work together to determine what steps need to be taken in order to create one fire precinct.
The report, done by Municipal Resources Inc. of Meredith, cites deficiencies in the current system, noting that over the course of the study, “the paramount theme that has surfaced is the lack of a sense of common vision for the delivery of cost-effective fire services among and between the three precincts and the town of Ossipee. This isolation extends to all aspects of planning, operations and resources allocation. The precincts have not made any effort to eliminate or reduce duplicate apparatus, equipment, staffing and response patterns. Administrative expenses have increased over time and no longer provide realistically balanced oversight. Communications between the three precinct fire commissions and elected town officials appear to be strained and limited.”
The report concludes that the consolidation of the three precinct fire departments into a single precinct would improve the delivery of fire and rescue services and would save Ossipee residents money.
The town’s three fire precincts, each covering a separate geographic area of the 72-square-mile community, are supported by taxpayers of the individual precincts and have three fire chiefs, Michael Brownwell of Center Ossipee, Adam Riley of Ossipee Corner and Brad Eldridge of West Ossipee.
Collectively the precincts have budgets totaling more than $1.1 million (West Ossipee $354,000; Ossipee Corner $364,000 and Center Ossipee $388,000). The town also pays $188,000 for a private ambulance service, which would not be affected by the proposed changes.
The report recommends the combined precincts be headquartered at Center Ossipee, and that the operations be overseen by a chief, who would be paid $90,000, including benefits; an administrative assistant, $45,000, including benefits, and two part-time officers, one for operations and training and another who would handle fire prevention duties.
The report recommends that the existing volunteer, on-call firefighter system, which involves a total of 50 volunteers who receive hourly pay for calls, be continued, but urges standardized pay and benefits as well as improvements in recruitment and retention.
The report also calls for replacement of the three-bay Ossipee Corner station as a priority in a 10-year capital improvement plan that it urges be established once the precincts are merged. The report says the station is “dysfunctional in all respects” and urges that a new station be built on a 32.5-acre lot off Old Route 28.
Copyright 2009 Union Leader Corp.
All Rights Reserved