The move comes a week after township trustees approved a pay increase for its police officers.
This will allow the township to begin recruiting more part-time employees to ensure both stations are fully staffed 24 hours a day, according to its fire chief.
“Obviously the pool of part-time people is very limited, and being competitive in the marketplace financially allows us the ability hopefully to draw a larger pool of candidates,” fire Chief Timothy Thomas said.
Fairfield Twp. voters passed a 3.9-mill public services levy last November.
Thomas said while the numbers allowed for an increase in pay without the levy, it wouldn’t have been as big of a jump trustees approved Wednesday.
Other area communities could afford a higher starting salary, which made it difficult for the township to recruit and maintain experienced firefighters, said Fairfield Twp. Trustee Shannon Hartkemeyer.
Hartkemeyer said the move puts the township toward the middle, and makes the jobs more attractive for applicants where they won’t see the township as a career stepping stone.
“At that rate we were at, we were not in a competitive position to draw candidates into the fire department,” she said. “We’re on the low range at that, and as a result it’s impacted us.”
The township’s fire department employees 68 on a part-time basis, but based on the average hours worked, Thomas said projections show they would need to hire more than 130 to have a full complement of staff at the two fire stations: 12 people on duty 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
But Thomas said he’d be able to adequately staff the stations with 100 part-time staff, which means 32 new people are needed.
On average, part-time firefighter/EMTs and firefighter/paramedics work around 800 hours a year. They can work as many as 1,560 before the township would be forced to pay benefits.
Thomas said he’s been working on restructuring the pay for the department the past three years, and this new pay structure is sustainable for the township’s part-time firefighter model. He said the $4-to-$5 an hour increase in starting pay is reasonable, and sustainable.
“The last thing I want to do is to put a number out there that we couldn’t afford and would have to cut it,” he said.
The decision by the board comes on the heels of the township's decision to relaunch its efforts to replace its Tylersville Road fire station.
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