Committee OKs Fisher Creek site for firefighters' training facility

By Lynn Hotaling

Committee members - Maurice Moody, Eldon Cabe and Eldridge Painter - agreed Jan. 7 to recommend approval of Sylva firefighters' request to the full board. Because all three on the committee are also members of the five-member Sylva Town Board, final approval of the site is virtually assured.

Sylva Fire Department members intend to apply for grant funding to construct the facility but must have an approved site before their application can be considered, said Chief Mike Beck.

On a motion from Painter, committee members voted to recommend allowing firefighters to use the site for five years, with an option to renew the agreement when it expires.

The site is located above a large storage basin that was once part of Sylva's water system. It would be ideal for a fire department training facility because firefighters could pump water from the storage pond during their training exercises, Beck said.

"If we get a training facility, all the water we need will be right there," he said.

The facility is needed because fire department members currently have no place where they can train new recruits, said Assistant Chief James Rogers. "We have nowhere we can simulate the smoke, heat and darkness they'd actually face," Rogers said.

If the training facility is built, it will be fired with clean-burning propane, Beck said, to reduce environmental concerns. Training exercises would be conducted during the daytime and early evening hours, he said.

Other county fire departments could utilize the training facility as well, Beck said.

"We need a place where the firemen can all train together," said Cabe.

Once that issue was resolved, Beck recommended that the committee begin planning for an expanded firehouse.

"We need to plan something that will be adequate for 20 years," Beck said.

Based on the premise that the town will move to a paid firefighting staff within that period, an expanded facility would need to include living quarters, Beck said. Other requirements would be training rooms, office space, meeting rooms, fitness room and more and bigger bays for trucks, the chief said. A new or expanded fire department would also need space for a platform truck, Beck said.

"Twenty to 25 years down the road we'll need paid people," Rogers said. "Our thought is to get the building built and equipped before you have to start paying salaries," Rogers told the committee members.

Committee Chairman Moody suggested fire department members get an estimate of the project cost that could be presented to the entire town board. Finally, Beck brought up the matter of incentives for firefighters to aid the department in recruiting new members.

To illustrate the commitment required, Beck and Rogers presented information on the number of volunteer hours firefighters provide to the town. They estimated that firefighters put in about 7, 272 hours answering calls and another 4,500 hours on training and meetings. Because of the time and training involved, recruiting new members is becoming increasingly difficult, they said.

"We need a recruitment incentive - a perk to get people to volunteer," Rogers said.

One possibility could be a retirement benefit or a 401-K account set up for each fireman, Beck said.

Beck reminded the committee that town officials discussed some sort of gift or cash bonus for all firefighters this past summer when they discontinued the practice of paying water bills for firemen who had access to Tuckaseigee Water and Sewer Authority lines.

Moody said that only about nine firemen qualified for that benefit, and town officials had hoped to provide a benefit for every firefighter.

"The only perk we had was free water, and we don't even have that any more," said Capt. Harold Norman. "We're trying to keep you from having to pay a fire department for as long as we can, and you don't see it," Norman said. "If you can defer paying a fire department for a year, you're talking about a lot of money." Waynesville and Franklin now partially compensate their firefighters on a pay-per-call basis, Beck said.

"We're not asking for that," Rogers said, adding that the proposed training facility and new building could be viewed as recruitment incentives.

Moody told the firefiighters' representatives that the question of incentives would also have to be considered by the entire town board.

Back to Archive: 01/16/03.