| South Shore Fire & Rescue Down to Business |
 |
 |
 |
| Saturday, 09 May 2009 19:21 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
The combined fire and emergency medical services (EMS) department formed January 1 when the Mount Pleasant and Sturtevant fire departments merged. According to the status report, department personnel are working well together. There have been no problems with interactions between Mount Pleasant and Sturtevant personnel. Also since January, significant training has been completed, inspection routes are being reorganized, and several tours have been held at the Sturtevant and Franksville stations. On the money side, the report stated "We are facing the same challenges as the overall Village budget". Overtime expenses for covering for absent employees were higher than expected, and there were several "relatively unexpected" repair and maintenance outlays. Despite these costs, the report said "Operational changes are beginning to minimize additional expense unless something breaks." The combined department is operating out of four fire stations:
Using data for January 1 2009 through April 18, emergency responses were distributed across the 4 stations as follows:
There were 9 fire calls and 129 rescue calls to Sturtevant, which was about 46% of responses from the Sturtevant station. With the department operating well, the stage appears to be set for fire station relocations to begin. The Village of Mount Pleasant borrowed $2,050,000 earlier this year to pay for either remodeling of Station #1 in Sturtevant or the relocation of Station #2 away from Lake Michigan to an undisclosed location. The status report concluded that "We have been busy in all facets of department operations and services. We do not expect things to slow down." So, any station relocations will need to be done with the department operating at full bore. ***** The voting members of the Fire/EMS Oversight Board are:
|
