FARMINGTON — In the coming months, Franklin County firefighters will be meeting in small groups to find opportunities for collaboration on grants, training and group purchases, following the second countywide meeting on fire department regionalization ideas.
A Wednesday night meeting at Franklin Memorial Hospital was part of an ongoing conversation among departments in Franklin County departments, where attendees searched for ways to collaborate in order to combat perennial problems such as declining volunteer rosters, aging equipment and declining budgets.
The 50 selectmen, firefighters, town managers, legislators and members of law enforcement who met Wednesday agreed that grants, training and group purchasing were the top ways they could work together to shore up their departments.
Some firefighters noted, however, that while new trucks and group training were progress, they still did not address directly the looming problem of aging staff members and an inability to recruit new, younger members.
“I can get grants — I’ve been to several trainings — but I can’t get people,” Chesterville Fire Chief Edward Hastings said.
Earlier, during the brainstorming part of the meeting, Farmington officials noted that they had hired a new firefighter recently but still have been able to find only 29 of the theoretical 45 firefighters they are permitted by the town to have on the on-call roster.
After identifying the three categories of grants, training and group purchases, Livermore Falls Fire Chief Tim Hardy agreed to lead the training effort, Farmington Town Manager Richard Davis agreed to lead group purchasing efforts, and Rangeley Fire Chief Tim Pellerin agreed to lead grant-seeking efforts.
Pellerin said the group would look at solutions such as whether the county could have a central grant writer or could encourage better networking between departments on how to apply for different grants.
Hardy said an idea for group training could include having different departments take turns hosting training sessions for the county departments.
Davis said they could look into having the Androscoggin Valley Council of Governments buy equipment such as radios or apparatuses.
He said the council already group-purchases things such as salt for the communities, and perhaps they would be interested in doing the same for fire gear.
All the small groups said they would try to meet in the next month or two and brainstorm on these ideas with the goal of regrouping with specific recommendations.
Along with the issues to be addressed by the three small groups, fire departments listed a host of other challenges such as increased training requirements, a shortage of volunteers who can respond to fires during day shifts and a lack of awareness in the community of the problems.
“Very few people work in the town they live in,” Farmington Fire Chief Terry Bell said.
Officials shared ideas to meet these problems, such as holding a citizens fire academy to educate the public about the fire department’s problems and responsibilities.
Moderator Bill Guindon, director of Maine Fire Service Institute, concluded the meeting by saying he was encouraged by the county officials willingness to work together on a solution to their problems. He said the officials should make sure the conversation doesn’t end with these meetings, but that their knowledge becomes applied in practical solutions.
“This is your chance to build upon what you’ve been doing these past few months,” he said.
Kaitlin Schroeder — 861-9252
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