Hopes findings will loosen fed purse strings
By Kristen Moulton
The Salt Lake Tribune
OGDEN, Utah — Years of economic recession and a tight rein on spending have left the Ogden Fire Department short-staffed and reliant on aging stations and equipment.
Yet there is a glimmer of hope: that the feds, cognizant of Ogden’s demographics, will cough up more money.
Fire Chief Mike Mathieu recently told the City Council that existing and pending federal grants hold the key to his department’s most pressing needs: hiring firefighters, buying a new engine and remodeling outdated stations.
Otherwise, it’s unclear when or how Ogden will pay for a host of improvements suggested in a management audit conducted for the council earlier this year.
That study concluded that while fires are being attended and medical calls answered with “excellent” patient care, Ogden firefighters are stretched thin and forced to cope with old, high-mileage trucks and to live in stations that are “tired to very poor.”
Councilwoman Amy Wicks said the audit gave the city a “good, hard look” at the needs of the fire department. The council paid the auditor, Citygate Associates of Folsom, Calif., extra to interview firefighters as well as managers, she said.
Now Wicks hopes the administration will address the issues in next year’s budget.
John Patterson, the city’s chief administrative officer, lauded the audit for bringing into focus the department’s needs.
But, he said, the fire department has had its proportionate share of funding, given the city’s economy and the “conservative nature” of Mayor Matthew Godfrey’s administration.
Nobody “could, should or would” predict whether next year’s budget will include money for remodeling more fire stations or replacing the one particularly cramped station, No. 3 on Washington Boulevard, he said.
The hiring of three new firefighters, however, could be in the budget if the city’s application for a federal SAFER grant is approved, Patterson said. Last year’s application was rejected.
Ogden also is awaiting word on a federal Fire Act grant for a new engine.
The audit concluded that the city has just enough firefighters for up to three small to moderate emergencies at once or one big fire and a couple of medical emergencies.
“Current staffing is very thin to guarantee a strong firefighting response during periods of high medical calls for service,” the audit said.
Ogden has had trouble attracting, retaining and training firefighters, the audit added. “The entry-level turnover is indicative of something seriously wrong with the management, leadership and/or hiring practices of the city and department.”
Mathieu noted a new wage scale — entry-level firefighter pay jumped from $28,600 to $34,000 in July — is helping the city to recruit better applicants.
The audit also dinged the department for sending new firefighters “on the line” without training in Ogden’s procedures and equipment. And it noted the department has slower response times than it should, a problem that Mathieu said is being reviewed.
New computer software might help, he said. For instance, dispatch calls go to stations one at a time rather than simultaneously. If that could be fixed, it would shave some response time.
The audit suggested a full-time training-and-safety officer at the rank of battalion chief and two more clerical staffers, but Mathieu said those should wait until more firefighters are hired.
“Putting more boots on the ground right now is my first priority,” he said.
The audit urged Ogden to buy land and replace Station 3, which is both old and cramped, and to get rolling on a plan to remodel other stations.
Mathieu pointed to one such project under way, with the help of $375,000 in federal money, to make Station 5 on Harrison Boulevard earthquake-safe. The city is kicking in $125,000 and another $400,000 to remodel the station’s living quarters.
That project can serve as a template for remodeling Stations 2 and 4 since they are identical in design, Mathieu told the council.
Ogden firefighters must rely on old, high-mileage engines, the audit said, and that means the department cannot ensure a safe, functional vehicle is at every station.
Mathieu said his department is trying to use an SUV for medical calls, at least downtown, instead of fire engines. That is saving some wear on firetrucks.
Wicks said an important, though inadvertent, audit observation was that some of Ogden’s fire hydrants cannot be opened. In some cases, pavement has been laid so high that a wrench cannot open the hydrant’s valve. In others, bushes block access.
George Benford, Ogden’s public services director, told the council that, starting in December, his staff will inventory hydrants and record their accessibility and locations with GPS coordinates.
All 3,000 hydrants will be opened, too.
“You ought to exercise every valve in the city periodically, and some of that hasn’t been done,” Benford said. “Things stiffen up and you don’t know if all the parts are going to work.”
| Key findings of an audit of the Ogden Fire Department:
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