Council hears K2M study recommending a 24-hour engine company and phased station repairs; agrees to advertise daytime hires

Vaughn Miller, a consultant with K2M, told Hudson City Council on Feb. 18 the firm’s fire and EMS staffing and facility needs study recommends establishing an engine company staffed with four firefighters available in the station 24 hours a day and the duty chief available to respond. The recommendation is driven by the OSHA “2-in, 2-out” safety standard the consultant cited for interior fire attack.

Miller said meeting that safety standard “to completely meet the standard to fight a residential fire takes 17 people,” and offered options that include a four-person engine company plus the duty chief, assembling a company from available daytime staff, or operating a three-person company (which he described as “below the standard”). He also described a multi-phase set of facility improvements if the city keeps crews at the existing station long term: short-term dorm and air-vestibule work, a Phase 2 day-room and kitchen remodel, and later upgrades to bathrooms, EMS dorms and decontamination and storage. Miller provided rough-order-of-magnitude cost estimates, saying one portion of the longer-term work is “about 2 and a half million” and that Phase 2 is “about $2,000,000 total.”

The report also included operational benchmarks. Miller said Hudson’s busiest medic unit (Medic 1) has daytime utilization around 22 percent and recommended beginning serious planning if utilization reaches 25 percent and adding a unit when utilization exceeds 30 percent. He recommended the council adopt an organizational statement — a written set of service objectives and performance targets — and monitor response-time and utilization metrics against that statement.

Council members discussed next steps and local expert input. Councilmember Bandwig said he had invited retired and active firefighters to advise a subcommittee and recommended reconvening the subcommittee for facility tours and focused discussion. Bandwig added the city should begin recruitment activity early: “We can at least advertise, get the names up, get them interviewed, but that doesn't mean we have to hire them.”

Council debated timing for recruitment. Councilmember Sutton and others argued for waiting to complete a short-term staffing and facilities recommendation before making final hires; others supported advertising now to begin the application pipeline, noting equipment procurement and onboarding can take 6–8 weeks. The group agreed to have a subcommittee meet with the consultant and the chief, tour the fire station in an evening meeting, and aim to return a plan to full council in about four weeks. Council members generally signaled support for advertising for daytime positions now but delaying interviews and hires until a proposed plan is finalized.

No formal ordinance or appropriation was adopted at the meeting; council directed staff and the subcommittee to continue work toward a staffing recommendation and a facilities plan and to begin recruitment advertising.

Miller and staff said mutual aid and alternative staffing models remain options and that budget availability would be a key determinant of the final staffing mix. The council asked staff to return with costed options and a short-term recommendation for formal consideration.

The council’s fire and EMS subcommittee will set meeting dates and invite the external firefighters who volunteered to provide technical input, with an anticipated full-council workshop on the consultant recommendation in early April.