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Weston officials describe fire staffing gaps; board discusses SAFER grant, paid-on-call recruitment and possible fire fee
Summary
At a Village of Weston meeting, the fire chief and trustees described staffing shortages that left periods with no coverage, recounted a 23-minute response to a house fire, and discussed recruitment efforts, a SAFER grant application and a potential fire fee to fund EMS-related costs.
The village’s fire chief told trustees and residents the department is understaffed and has regular periods with no coverage because many personnel are out on calls. "There are several hours a day where we have 0 coverage to the communities because everybody's out on calls," the chief said, describing a situation that has left neighboring departments to respond at times.
Trustees and the chief cited a specific house fire where the first apparatus arrived about 23 minutes after the 911 call. The chief said Riverside was first on scene because Weston crews were committed to other calls. The chief and trustees said that staffing shortages are driven in part by recruitment attrition: of 11 applicants for a paid-per-call program, only four completed the testing and hiring steps.
The board discussed three parallel responses: ongoing recruitment for paid-per-call personnel, an internship program starting in June, and applying for the federal SAFER (Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response) grant, which trustees said could add as many as nine staff (described by a trustee as "three per day"). The chief said the SAFER outcome was uncertain: "If we don't know if it's going to come out yet."
Trustees also discussed a possible fire fee to fund fire and EMS expenditures; the board indicated that any collected fee would be restricted to fire- and EMS-related uses. Trustees noted existing mutual-aid agreements with neighboring departments and that making the fire service fully staffed with full-time personnel would be "astronomical" in cost.
Board members and residents proposed outreach steps to boost recruitment — including social media and public events — and said the village has been advertising paid-per-call openings. One trustee noted that Trustee Steve Cronin had become an on-call volunteer firefighter in response to staffing needs.
No formal budget decision was made at the meeting. Trustees said they would continue recruitment efforts, pursue the SAFER grant application, and consider a fire-fee proposal in future budget discussions.
