Due to budget cuts, the fire department that serves the town of Paris will be changed to an on-call department, effectively laying off 17 per diem firefighters by the end of September.
The voters’ decision to cut funding by $145,629, which would also effectively reduce the fire chief’s $40,000 annual salary down to a $5,000 stipend with hourly pay, came at the town’s annual town meeting on June 17, according to the town’s website.
In an August 30 letter to individual fire department staff, Town Manager Vic Hodgkins notified members of department-wide cleave of per diem workers, which goes into effect Sept. 30.
“In order to continue to provide basic fire services for the remainder of the fiscal year with the limited resources budgeted for that purpose, the town has determined that it must lay off its per diem fire force,” Hodgkins wrote in the letter.
“We regret that our financial exigencies require this step be taken.”
Hodgkins was out of the office Friday and could not be reached by phone.
To say the Paris Fire Department will resort to a volunteer-only department isn’t entirely accurate, Deputy Chief Mark Blaquiere said Friday.
On average, each per diem staff works two 12-hour shifts a week. Starting in October, shifts will be done away with, and those who volunteer to be on-call firefighters will only work if there is a need for the firefighting service, rather than working block shifts, Blaquiere said. They will earn an hourly wage of about $12.
Even so, that could amount to as few as five hours a week, if that. For most per diem firefighters, that change in stability will likely force them to find other work, Blaquiere said.
“Per diem firefighters will go find work elsewhere because they depend on a weekly paycheck,” he said.
Last year, the fire department responded to 537 calls, which amounts to about 10 per week.
For reasons like dwindling numbers of applicants and shrinking budgets, several communities across Maine, especially smaller ones like Harpswell, Freeport, Newburgh and Wiscasset, have experienced the limitations that come with operating a volunteer-only or on-call fire department.
Until the letters were hand delivered to Paris firefighters on Wednesday, department members weren’t sure what to expect, Blaquiere said.
“There [had] been talks,” that the town would make this transition, “but until we got the letter, we didn’t know for sure what was going on.”
Still, he said, the town “has not given us a reason why.”
Deputy Fire Chief Jon Longley, who is slated to become fire chief after the transition, is encouraging all per diem firefighters to stay on in an on-call basis if they wish to, according to an article in the Sun Journal.
“I personally encourage and welcome any current Paris firefighter on the roster who wishes to remain a Paris firefighter to stay with our organization,” Longley said. “However, anyone wishing to pursue other avenues I fully understand, given the circumstances. Quite a few of them have decided to stay on, those who are local, geographically speaking.”
The Paris Fire Department’s per diem program started in 2010 in response to the limitations of having an on-call fire department, Blaquiere said. Because people have to supplement their income with other jobs, it makes it difficult or impossible for them to leave their day job to report on an on-call basis to a call at the fire department, Blaquiere said.
“That’s why we started this program seven years ago,” he said. “This isn’t just a problem in Paris, it’s a problem nationwide.”
“We don’t understand why they’re doing away with this. It works.”
Correction: This story previously listed Rockland as a community that has a volunteer-only or on-call fire department. That was incorrect. The city of Rockland has a full-time fire and emergency medical services department.