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Fire chief: 6,959 man-hours in 2024; council warned volunteer losses would raise costs
Summary
Fire Chief Jay Long reported the department logged 6,959.37 combined training and on-scene man-hours in 2024 and warned that replacing volunteers with paid staff would substantially increase costs; council discussed equipment, smoke-detector distribution and regional mutual-aid coverage.
Fire Chief Jay Long told the Sunbury City Council the fire department recorded 6,959.37 combined training and on-scene man-hours in 2024 and cautioned that losing volunteer personnel would produce significant additional payroll costs if the city moved to paid staffing.
Chief Long said the department responded regionally — noting automatic mutual-aid coverage across a large geographic area — and that the recorded man-hours, when multiplied by a notional $25-per-hour rate, equal $173,984.25. He emphasized that figure represents labor for a single-person equivalent and that fully replacing volunteers with paid personnel would…
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