JACKSON – Officials honored Jackson Township First Aid Squad member Patrick Handle while he was surrounded by fellow EMTs and officials during a recent Township Council meeting.
“Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs) are dedicated professionals that provide critical care and services to the community often in challenging and high stress situations. EMTs play a vital role in safeguarding the health and safety of individuals by responding swiftly and efficiently to emergencies to bring lifesaving medical care and offering support to those in need,” Council President Jennifer Kuhn said, reading the proclamation by Jackson Mayor Michael Reina.
Kuhn noted “that each year the Office of Emergency Medical Services and the Emergency Services Advisory Council select an individual to receive the EMT of the year award who is a currently licensed EMT and has demonstrated outstanding leadership for the past year making a positive impact in areas such as patient care, public access to EMS, master preparedness, public education and/or training.”
In other news, township officials listened to two representatives of Fire District 3 regarding the district’s needs and its spending plan during a hearing held during the township council meeting. District 2 representatives spoke previously and the council is awaiting word from District 4.
The representatives were provided 10 minutes to go over their needs and costs for the new year. The budget process is proceeding and the annual fire district election is February 15. The hours are normally 2 to 9 p.m. but permission was granted by the Board of Elections to extend the election by one hour to 10 p.m. at the main station of Fire District 3 at 113 North New Prospect Road on the corner of Larson Road.
There are about 17,500 voters in Fire District 3 and the turnout was said to normally be a small fraction of that number according to the representatives. They said the idea of extending the election by an hour was due to Jewish religious observances and that this might allow members of that segment of the community to vote without interruption of those observances. The district passed a resolution to make those hours permanent going forward.
Four months were spent in developing what was described as the district’s bare bones budget. A referendum was added to go above the 2% cap asking for an additional half million dollars which was said to be required to provide the level of services needed.
The cost of the entire budget for the average household would be $8 a month which the representative remarked “was not much to ask and I would hope most folks would see it that way.”
Kuhn noted that equipment costs for each firefighter: their helmet alone is $405, their hood $125, the turnout coat is $2,367, their breathing apparatus and mask is $7,350, their portable radio is $9,600, their gloves are $140, their bunker pants are $1,820, and the boots are $482 “so the average cost per firefighter is quite a bit of money.”
“I know we are all seeing what is going on in our country with firefighting and the last thing that this council wants to do is cut any budget. We don’t want to revisit what we revisited last year but we also want to make sure we are doing proper spending,” the council president added.
Kuhn said “so it is probably $20,000 per firefighter?”
The figure is actually closer to $23,000 the district representative responded.
“How often does that gear have to be updated?” Kuhn asked. The answer was every 10 years and six sets are needed to be updated at the current time.
Station 55 has a tower truck which is the only one operated within Jackson. Kuhn asked about the benefit of that vehicle. It was explained that a tower truck has a platform and ladder and depending on the situation it is easier to have that platform as opposed to a person who would need to reach that ladder and climb the ladder. With the platform a rescued person can be put on it and depending on the scene they could be brought down to the ground and not have to climb the ladder at all.
Council Vice President Mordechai Burstein asked about the referendum that would raise taxes by a half million dollars, “if that wouldn’t pass by the taxpayers what wouldn’t you be able to continue doing?”
He was told that it would affect the district’s ability to continue its weekend coverage which began at mid-point last year at a cost of $180,000 to cover overtime expenses. That covers 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. which has been shared with District 2 but the $180,000 cost is just District 3.
The east end of Jackson has been the most heavily affected by losing a number of volunteer firefighters that the district has tried to make up with career staff which is much more expensive to support than volunteer staff. Firefighters are seeing a lot of oven fires during weekend calls as well as fireplaces, water utility issues like broken pipes among a large assortment of calls.
Firefighters use breathing apparatus whenever there is smoke being produced. Burnstein asked for a breakup of the type of calls responded to that could be seen by the public and weekend calls and expenses. “That would be important for the taxpayers.”
Burnstein also asked about consideration of fire district consolidation and was told negotiations were going quite well between districts 2 and 3 and set to move ahead in July which would allow for combining career staff and allow for additional flexibility. District 4 officials previously expressed that consolidating their district in this process would not be cost effective for their district.
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