County approves partial South Warren Emergency Services funding

Just over a month after hearing an impassioned plea to fund additional Fire & Rescue staffing at the South Warren Volunteer Fire Company, the Warren County Board of Supervisors approved that funding – or at least part of it.

On Tuesday Jan. 17, the Warren Supervisors unanimously approved $56,222 out of its FY 2017 Contingency Fund to hire two paid, full-time staff for the remainder of this Fiscal Year (ending June 30).  That amount was reduced from original estimates of $60,000 to $70,000.

Warren County Fire & Rescue Chief Richard Mabie explains funding parameters for two paid positions for five months, with an eye on four as of July 1. Photo/Roger Bianchini

The urgency of South Warren’s situation extends into other coverage areas whose departments often have to dispatch their personnel to cover South Warren emergency calls.  Those calls numbered 378 in the last Fiscal Year.  County Fire & Rescue Chief Richard Mabie and Fire Marshal Gerry Maiatico brought the situation before the Supervisors at a December 13 work session.

As reported previously, the departmental recommendation was for four, new paid staff to provide full, daytime coverage at South Warren Company 3.  On December 13, Maiatico noted that Company 3 covers a rural and mountainous area comprising about 30 percent of the County’s land holding about 10 percent of its population.  It is a population with a disproportionate number of older citizens raising the likelihood of emergency health-related calls.

When you need them, you need them – TRUST me on THAT! File Photo/Roger Bianchini

In order to achieve the full-staffing option by July 1 when the next Fiscal Year begins, the County will pursue emergency services grant options in coming months.  The cost of the four-position option is estimated at $240,000 a year.  Were the County to have to fund it alone, a two-thirds of a penny Real Estate Tax hike would cover the cost.

At a second, related work session on January 3, the supervisors appeared to concur that the recommended full staffing of South Warren was their ultimate goal.  However, with grant options available that might disappear if the County was already funding all four positions, the consensus was to phase in full coverage in the hope of accessing an outside funding stream for the final two positions.

Asked if he could live with the compromise following adjournment of the January 3 work session, South Warren Chief Alan Brockway said he would have to, and then repeated what he told the supervisors earlier, “I just hope nothing happens on those off days – what price do you put on a human life?”

Those “off days” with no daytime coverage in place due to the two-position solution were estimated at 9 to 11 per month.  And while that is certainly an improvement over the total lack of daytime staffing Company 3 now has, for those who have made a career in emergency services, that week-and-a-half per month of no guaranteed local responders seems a dangerous gamble to live – or die – with.

As Brockway said, “What price do you put on a human life?”

On January 17, the Warren Supervisors gambled that for five months that price will NOT be $60,000.