December, 2005

Plainfield Township’s Fire Department

by Township Manager Robert Homan

The following is the third in an ongoing series of PROFILE articles featuring the eight departments comprising the Plainfield Township organization. So far, the Planning and the Building Departments have been described. This issue of the PROFILE introduces the Fire Department, the largest department in the General Fund, which is supported almost entirely by shared revenue from the State of Michigan and local property taxes.

Plainfield Charter Township has been in existence for 60 years. Dexter Hamilton organized a group of Belmont residents to create the Plainfield Township Volunteer Fire Department. Their purpose was to provide faster service than could be provided by the County of Kent from their DPW garage near downtown Grand Rapids. Following Chief Hamilton’s retirement in 1968, Jack Brydges was appointed Chief, becoming the Township’s first full time Fire Chief in 1989. He served the community until his retirement in 1993. Today, our third Chief, David Peterson, leads a combination full-time / part-time / paid-on-call department consisting of 13 full-time, 15 part-time, and 29 paid-on-call fire professionals.

Visit the Fire Department’s neat website at www.plainfieldfire.org.

The Mission Statement of the Plainfield Fire Department (PFD) is: “To provide those services, either proactive or emergency, necessary to enhance the quality of life for the citizens and visitors of Plainfield Charter Township.” The fire service has changed considerably over the decades since the PFD was formed.

• Residents expect more services,
• Training requirements have been established by law, and
• There are more regulations governing the operation of the fire department.

It is no longer just a group of guys who can respond to the station when the alarm sounds; today’s fire service requires many hours of training and an even greater level of dedication.

PFD provides a full range of services:

• EMS first response
• Extrication from accidents
• Technical rescue - cave-ins, high angle, structure collapse, confined space
• Carbon monoxide investigations
• Building safety inspections
• New construction site and plan reviews
• Community safety education (CPR and fire for all ages)
• Juvenile fire setter screening
• Issuing burning permits (We are very particular about these.)
• Pre-planning for emergencies (from tornados to terrorism)
• Fuel spills and other hazardous material responses
• Limited water rescues (Department has no boat)
• And, of course, fire suppression and rescue

Deputy Chief Don Bigger manages the Suppression Division, Assistant Chief Steve McKellar manages the Prevention Division, and the Administrative Assistant, Ruth Plambeck, is responsible for managing the office. PFD responded to 2109 emergency calls in 2004.

• 50% of these were medical calls,
• 15% were public service (hazardous conditions, assists to citizens, police, and ambulances),
• 13% were rescues,
• 10% were good intent or false alarms, and
• 9% were actual fires (grass, vehicles, dumpsters, structures).
• The remaining runs being mutual aid and miscellaneous.

The PFD works out of two stations; Station #1 at 6145 Belmont and Station #3 recently relocated in a new building at 4343 Plainfield Ave. Station #3 was cited in the Fire Chief magazine design award contest. One might think that this recognition for quality would imply a relatively high unit cost; but the station was completed for less than $90 per square foot – which is remarkably low.

Next to the Station #3 is the fire department training center, located in a building that was remodeled as part of the new station project. The training center is equipped with the latest technology for instructional purposes, and it will accommodate 60 students at tables and chairs. Much of the expense of equipping the training center was offset by a $71,000 Federal grant. The training center is already scheduled to be used over days 80 in the first six months of the year.

The PFD has grown over the last sixty years to keep pace with the community’s size and needs. The current annual budget for the PFD is $1,839,216. Personnel costs amount to $1,328,864 – 72% of the total budget. The two stations together are staffed by a minimum of 5 people round the clock, with 2 fulltime Equipment Operators, 2 part time firefighters, and 1 fulltime officer who responds when supervision is required. Additionally, the paid-on-call staff, including two lieutenants, responds from home on an as-needed basis. This staffing formula enables us to provide services at the current level for a significantly lower cost than employing only full time people.

The fire department administration has worked closely with the Township’s Public Safety Committee to plan for the future and make decisions based on the Committee’s input. This committee is responsible for making recommendations to the Township Board on major capital purchases and new programs undertaken by the fire department.

As the Township continues to grow, the number of calls for emergency services will also continue to grow. As the population center shifts northward, stationing equipment and personnel further north may also be needed. The increased personnel costs for two people on duty at a new station would be about $450,000 for fulltime people. A building, equipment, training, and other operational costs would probably total another $300,000. If these additional costs ($750,000) were entirely supported by local millage, current property taxes levied by Plainfield Township (3.29 mills) would have to be increased by about 0.8 mills.

I have performed this little exercise to focus on the cost of emergency services. They are not provided free. On the other side of the coin are the potential benefits of the additional expenditures. The many emergency and non-emergency services listed above would be available quicker, with greater back-up and support, and with greater reliability. When you are trapped in a wrecked automobile, when you are having chest pains and have difficulty breathing, or when you awake at 1:30 AM and hear your smoke alarms going off, you will not be thinking of the expense of emergency response; you’ll be glad it is available. Your fire department is a great community asset, and you are paying for dedicated personnel, excellent training, good equipment, and the availability of all that they can do for you in a hurry.

Staffing 5 positions, 24/7 would take about 18 fulltime people. Using part time employees to supplement our ten full time operational people cost $210,000. We would need eight more full time people to staff the remaining two positions, and that would cost over $480,000. We have therefore avoided paying about $270,000.