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Northborough fire deputy lays out prevention-focused operations, staffing pressures and ambulance revenue
Summary
Deputy Stucie told the Appropriations Committee the fire department is increasingly a prevention and EMS provider: training hours and outreach rose sharply in 2025, the department collected roughly $1 million from ambulance billing, and capital timing and recruitment challenges shape the FY27 request.
Deputy Stucie told the Town of Northborough Appropriations Committee on Feb. 24 that the fire department’s role is broad — from administration and fire suppression to emergency medical services and community risk reduction — and that recent investments are shifting the department toward prevention as much as response. "We really are a prevention industry," he said when describing inspections, education and outreach programs.
Stucie summarized 2025 activity and capacity changes. He said the department handled about 2,479 emergency responses in 2025, up from about 2,365 the prior year, and reported a sharp increase in training and public education: staff logged roughly 4,000 training hours in 2025 (about 1,800 in 2024) and doubled community events from about 47 in 2024 to 93 in 2025. He credited a SAFER grant for enabling dedicated staffing for training and outreach.
On staffing, Stucie said the department has 28 line firefighters, organized with seven personnel per shift (one captain, three to four firefighter-paramedics and two to three firefighter/EMTs) and aims to maintain at least three paramedics on duty per shift. He outlined recruitment challenges for paramedics statewide and locally, noting the department has expanded its hiring radius and relies on EMT hires and paramedic-school pipelines to build capacity.
Stucie described the ambulance revolving fund as a significant revenue source. "In 2025 we collected just over $1,000,000," he said, adding that a formula transfers a portion of those receipts into the town’s general fund and the remainder covers ambulance debt service, fleet maintenance and EMS-related operating costs. He said roughly $235,000 of ambulance receipts were discussed in the meeting as a direct transfer to the general fund under the department’s allocation model.
On capital equipment, Stucie warned of long factory lead times for custom apparatus and said the department is prioritizing spec-built vehicles to reduce wait times and cost. He described redesigning a multipurpose squad so the purchase price fell from a planned $450,000 to about $222,000. He also said ladder apparatus, which historically have long service lives, can incur expensive, specialized repairs if the model is highly customized.
Committee members asked about openings, retention and morale. Stucie said positions were filled at the time of the presentation but reiterated turnover since 2023 — he quantified several recent departures and said the market for paramedics is competitive. Chair Scott Rogers also noted a complaint filed by a member of an internal Slack board over the fire station building project that staff said has contributed to morale issues within the department.
Stucie highlighted a recent EMS protocol change allowing ambulances to call for and carry whole blood for prehospital transfusion, calling it a "big, big change" that could improve survivability for patients with major hemorrhage.
The department presented an operating request in the packet roughly in the $2.7 million range and an adjusted budget near $3.0 million when accounting for revolving-fund support and debt items; Stucie described the FY27 increase as about 2.11% above FY26 and noted the outcome will be affected by ongoing contract negotiations.
Chair Rogers thanked Stucie for a detailed presentation and asked staff to make additional materials available; the committee moved on to a finance department briefing that night.
