Fire Officials Plan Cost Savings, Morris County Dispatch Response

Fire officials agreed at Wednesday's Joint Board of Fire Commissioners meeting to check into new money saving strategies, as well as set a work session date of May 11 to compose questions and concerns regarding Morris County dispatch.

Ron Cain Jr., president of District 3, stated that all three fire districts currently share legal services, hose testing, and make joint purchases, but proposed joint pump testing as well.

“We are lax on having fire pumps tested,” Cain said. “Right now all three do hose testing at the same vendor, and so we get a discount. Parsippany-Troy Hills has six fire districts and they test all their pumps together,” Cain said.

He added that the cost is maybe a couple hundred dollars per truck, but that is “darn reasonable to have tested and certified pumps.”

The panel agreed to research joint pump testing.

Regarding additional shared services, Anthony Speciale of fire District 3 suggested that all three districts continue to do mandatory drills and rotate houses. He suggested composing a list of mandatory drills and having chiefs make arrangements at each house.

Cain noted that while District 2 is undergoing certain personnel changes, “we want to make sure shared services continue to happen.”

One of the shared services, legal services published by District 2, Cain said would be best if another district took over, though District 2 would still share costs.

Cain mentioned that all three districts will now share in maintenance of equipment located at 86 River Road. Whereas the shared service agreement made District 2 the caretaker of the system, a representative from District 2 said Towaco was paying the cost and billing it out.

Speciale suggested compiling a list of maintenance contracts and vendors to facilitate shared maintenance of equipment.

Sharing questions and concerns for the Morris County dispatch was next on the agenda. Cain mentioned he received an email from the town council on Wednesday asking him how much time he needed to respond with input on the possible transfer of service to the county. 

“We should go over it, compile something, and have a spokesperson for all three districts present it,” Cain said.  He added that “there concerns are a little different than ours.  They have different operation concerns than we have.”

Cain said the figures in the town’s proposal are not accurate.

Cain cited “the discussion type proposal” the town administrator submitted to the town council for their review incorrectly lists 12 mobile radios in the police department.

“They have twice that many cars.  It’s not an accurate figure,” he said.

Cain said he has to read the proposal a couple times to digest it. Another panel member said 30 days would not be enough time for each of them to read the documents, digest them, and discuss among the fire districts.

Speciale added that “our job is to get the response back to the town as fast as possible” because the county is limited until its new building is completed.

“Three other towns are being considered while the county is breaking ground next month with the addition,” Speciale said.

Speciale suggested a joint work session before meeting next month to come up with a list of objections and concerns. The group of fire commissioners set the date of May 11 for a joint work session of three districts at the Pine Brook firehouse at 7 p.m. Additional meetings may be set if necessary. Cain said they will extend an invitation to the first aid squad.

The session will be closed to the public. However, a member of the panel suggested offering future meetings in which the public may share their ideas, to which the fire commissioners agreed.