Directors discuss fire, police expansion and changes

story by Luke Hobbs
[email protected]

In Tuesday’s (June 14) study session, one Fort Smith city director proposed that the city study the costs of updating its fire station facilities.

City Director Kevin Settle made the suggestion while the board was discussing proposed improvements to city fire protection. City Fire Chief Mike Richards presented details of a plan to maintain the city’s ISO 2 rating for fire safety. Fort Smith is one of only 14 Arkansas cities with an ISO 2 rating.

Settle said he made the suggestion after driving around town and noticing that most of the fire stations were in bad shape. Most of the 10 current stations are more than 40 years old, according to Richards. Settle said while the city should first focus on maintaining a strong ISO rating, a facilities upgrade could help the Fire Department do its job better.

City Administrator Ray Gosack clarified that the condition of the fire stations will not affect the city’s ISO rating. Gosack said if the directors decide to study the costs of updating fire station facilities, they could also study the locations of current fire stations. The city’s makeup has changed significantly in the past 40 years, Gosack said, meaning that moving some fire stations could allow more of the city to have fast fire protection.

The board listened to Richards for most of the study session, as the fire chief outlined a proposal to build Fort Smith’s 11th fire station at Chaffee Crossing. The new station would boost the city’s score in ISO Category 6, which measures the distribution of fire stations throughout the city. Richards said the city also needs to strengthen several other ISO areas, including ladder service and company personnel.

To address these issues, the Fire Department is proposing a Fire Apparatus Replacement Plan, which includes purchasing three new pumper trucks, two new ladder trucks, and one new quint (pumper/ladder combo) truck. Ladder company districts in the south part of the city would also be realigned to cover more area. The plan would cost the city an estimated $4.3 million, but Richards said it would save $1.7 million in new apparatus and $270,000 a year in personnel.

The replacement plan would also make the proposed Fire Station 11 cheaper for the city. Richards said the station will cost $3 million if the plan is implemented and $3.5 million if it is not.

If the city does not act to fund fire system improvements, Richards said, it will lose its ISO 2 rating in 2013, and insurance premiums will rise throughout the city.

“We’re going to pay, one way or the other,” he said.

City Director George Catsavis asked Gosack how much leeway the city will have when ISO re-inspects fire safety in 2013. Gosack said that whatever the city does must be “in place” by the end of that year, meaning that the new fire station should at least be under construction and the Fire Department must have a specific plan for implementing other changes.

The city does not have the revenue to fund a new fire station or the Fire Apparatus Replacement Plan. Richards and Gosack recommend calling a special election for late 2011 or early 2012, to let voters choose whether to extend an existing 1% sales tax and redirect some of the revenue to fire protection. In a separate question on the ballot, voters would also decide whether to redirect the rest of the 1% sales tax revenue to fund improvements to the city’s wet-weather sanitation system.

POLICE PAY CHANGES
Gosack also presented a proposal to reduce the amount in hours in police officers’ work weeks, which would result in officers being paid more overtime. Currently overtime kicks in after 43 hours for police officers, but the threshold is 40 hours for all other city employees except firefighters, who have a 53-hour work week.

The work week reduction would happen in several steps:
• From 43 weeks to 42 weeks, beginning in July of this year;
• From 42 weeks to 41 weeks, beginning in January 2012;
• From 41 weeks to 40 weeks, beginning in January 2013.

City Director Pam Weber asked Gosack if police officers are getting significant overtime hours now, and wondered whether it would be more cost-efficient to hire more officers than to pay overtime. Gosack said most of the Police Department’s current overtime occurs when officers have to go to court outside of their scheduled shifts.

The work week adjustment was added to the Board’s agenda for its June 21 regular meeting.