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Emergency services reports rising call volumes, staffing expansions and communications upgrades
Summary
Director Ken Barclay said emergency services continues to meet growing call volumes with a mix of full‑time, paid on‑call and volunteer personnel; the department reported a 28% increase in fire/rescue responses over five years and highlighted communications infrastructure and fleet maintenance investments.
Ken Barclay, director of Emergency Services, told the assembly April 9 that call volume across fire, rescue and EMS continues to rise and that the department has adjusted staffing and equipment to maintain service levels.
Barclay summarized several operational points: firefighters also serve as rescue technicians; EMS call volume increased about 12% over five years while fire/rescue responses rose about 28% in the same timeframe; the department’s on‑call and volunteer workforce recorded roughly 93,000 work hours last year. He said recent accomplishments include consolidation of the Willow and Caswell service areas (effective July 1), reassignment and equipping of rescue squads for fire suppression in remote areas, expansion of technical rescue capability and ongoing fleet maintenance improvements.
Communications and training Barclay said the department is pursuing communications redundancy by partnering with the state and cities to improve repeater coverage and tower access. He noted completion of many repeater moves to borough‑owned land to reduce site lease costs. The department also continues community programs including CERT and a youth firefighter program that Barclay said has started to produce on‑call hires.
Fleet, maintenance and equipment Barclay said fleet maintenance has expanded to five mechanics to support more than 400 vehicles and pieces of equipment and to reduce costly outsourced downtime. The department is implementing an electronic maintenance and reporting platform that tracks repairs and inspection history. Barclay said that preventive maintenance and internal repairs save the borough millions compared with frequent outsourcing.
Training and rescue capacity Emergency Services continues to build technical rescue capabilities — trench, confined‑space, water and dive rescue — and Barclay said training and equipment purchases from prior budgets are now being used to increase self‑sufficiency for significant incidents.
Next steps Barclay said the department will continue to grow preventative maintenance, advance tower and communications projects, and expand youth‑to‑career pipelines through the firefighter program; he asked the assembly to review the department’s capital and personnel requests in the manager’s budget during hearings.
