image description

Williamstown Fire District Looks at Recruitment Need

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
Print Story | Email Story
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Williamstown Fire District needs to work on the message it conveys to potential recruits and consider new models for service to make it a more attractive option for residents.
 
That was part of the message the Prudential Committee received last week from the community advisory committee the committee established last year.
 
Jeffrey Thomas, who chairs the advisory group, dropped by the Prudential Committee''s first in-person meeting since before the pandemic to share some input from his group.
 
Recruitment of new firefighters has long been a concern for the Prudential Committee, which oversees the district, and Thomas came with suggestions for concrete steps the committee could take to bolster its ranks.
 
"One thing we felt was important was to increase the awareness that once volunteers are trained, they are compensated for their hours and service," Thomas said. "A lot of people hear ''volunteer'' and assume it's an uncompensated position. That's not true."
 
Other than the chief, the one full-time position in the department, other firefighters are on-call paid volunteers who receive an hourly rate for their time responding to calls.
 
Thomas said the expectation that firefighters are available on a full-time basis can be off-putting to potential recruits, citing the input of one community member he talked to about the department.
 
"He works a full-time job and his wife works a full-time job," Thomas said. "He might be interested in volunteering, but when he hears the chief talking about what's involved — 24/7 availability, 12 months a year — for him, he said he isn't sure he could do that.
 
"We understand that the most important volunteers are fully trained, fully available volunteers. We understand that. But we also think there are probably a number of people who would consider volunteering if it was somewhat less of a commitment. Maybe it's six months out of the year or being trained to do things outside the fire but still having value or maybe some other models. We're not experts, but maybe creating other ways for people to volunteer might be a way to get more people involved."
 
The advisory committee also recommended that the fire district prioritize recruiting women in an effort to grow diversity in its ranks and raise visibility of the need for firefighters.
 
"We're not sure a lot of people in the community understand the need," Thomas said.
 
The advisory committee also suggested that the district find more creative ways to catch the interest of potential firefighters — anything from "job fair" type events at the station to competitive fitness tests.
 
"Maybe you could do some physical obstacle course-type things," he said. "I think there's a physical aptitude tests some fire departments run where people can come and, basically, try out for the fire department. There are a lot of athletic, competitive people in town, and they might respond to that."
 
In the course of last week's discussion with the Prudential Committee, another idea that arose was developing a junior firefighter program that might spark more interest in advancing to full membership in the department. Prudential Committee Chair Richard Reynolds suggested that the district put together a working group to explore what such a program might look like.
 
In other business on Tuesday, district treasurer Corydon Thurston informed the committee that the request for design services developed by the district's building committee had been posted on state's central register with a due date of June 30. Reynolds reported that the district had submitted an application to a federal grant program for up to $400,000 to help support the building project. And David Moresi again raised the issue of whether the Fire Department should be dispatched more to respond to accidents in town.
 
"I've been approached by members of the EMS," Moresi said. "They are rather upset at some of the recent accidents that have occurred and the lack of Fire Department response.
 
"As far as I understand it, this is the only department in Berkshire County that does not respond to accidents most of the time. This is something that needs to be addressed."
 
Moresi pointed to a recent accident involving a utility pole that could have involved live wires.
 
Chief Craig Pedercini said he shared Moresi's concern and that the issue of getting calls from the dispatcher has been going on for a number of years. He said he would reach out to the director of Northern Berkshire EMS about the issue.

 


Tags: firefighters,   prudential committee,   

If you would like to contribute information on this article, contact us at info@iberkshires.com.

Mount Greylock School Committee Votes Slight Increase to Proposed Assessments

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Mount Greylock Regional School Committee on Thursday voted unanimously to slightly increase the assessment to the district's member towns from the figures in the draft budget presented by the administration.
 
The School Committee opted to lower the use of Mount Greylock's reserve account by $70,000 and, instead, increase by that amount the share of the fiscal year 2025 operating budget shared proportionally by Lanesborough and Williamstown taxpayers.
 
The budget prepared by the administration and presented to the School Committee at its annual public hearing on Thursday included $665,000 from the district's Excess and Deficiency account, the equivalent of a municipal free cash balance, an accrual of lower-than-anticipated expenses and higher-than-anticipated revenue in any given year.
 
That represented a 90 percent jump from the $350,000 allocated from E&D for fiscal year 2024, which ends on June 30. And, coupled with more robust use of the district's tuition revenue account (7 percent more in FY25) and School Choice revenue (3 percent more), the draw down on E&D is seen as a stopgap measure to mitigate a spike in FY25 expenses and an unsustainable budgeting strategy long term, administrators say.
 
The budget passed by the School Committee on Thursday continues to rely more heavily on reserves than in years past, but to a lesser extent than originally proposed.
 
Specifically, the budget the panel approved includes a total assessment to Williamstown of $13,775,336 (including capital and operating costs) and a total assessment to Lanesborough of $6,425,373.
 
As a percentage increase from the FY24 assessments, that translates to a 3.90 percent increase to Williamstown and a 3.38 percent increase to Lanesborough.
 
View Full Story

More Williamstown Stories