{"id":9134,"date":"2012-06-03T19:03:01","date_gmt":"2012-06-04T00:03:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/?p=9134"},"modified":"2012-06-03T19:03:01","modified_gmt":"2012-06-04T00:03:01","slug":"could-thinking-outside-the-box-save-our-fire-department-too","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/2012\/06\/could-thinking-outside-the-box-save-our-fire-department-too\/","title":{"rendered":"Could Thinking Outside The Box Save Our Fire Department Too?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Opinion\/Editorial by Robert J Anderson<\/em><\/strong>
\nPublisher \u2013 Lehigh Acres Gazette<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
St Paul Engine 13<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A recent article in the Pioneer Press<\/em> about the St Paul Fire Department showed some interesting fire budget realities.<\/p>\n

St Paul\u2019s Mayor Chris Coleman recently adopted a recommendation from a city task force. During city budgeting meetings, the Mayor noted that rescue service had been in danger of being dissolved.<\/p>\n

After firefighters and city council members raised concerns that decommissioning the rescue service would leave a hole in emergency response for the city, the firefighters’ union asked that a committee be convened to find other solutions, and the mayor’s office and Fire Chief Tim Butler organized a task force.<\/p>\n

“We had to take the lesser of two evils,” said Mike Smith, International Association of Fire Fighters Local 21 president and a member of the committee, about the recommendation to keep a rescue service going and brown out Engine 13.<\/p>\n

Engine 13 operates out of Station 23 at 1929 Como Ave. and serves the Como, St. Anthony and Hamline-Midway neighborhoods. The station is home to two other fire rigs — Engine 23 and Medic 23 — that will remain in service.<\/p>\n

No firefighters will be laid off, and Engine 13 is not being decommissioned; the fire department still has the vehicle, and it could be used in emergency situations, Butler said.<\/p>\n

Browning out Engine 13, as well as other task force recommendations, will save the department $180,000 this year, said Todd Hurley, St. Paul finance director.<\/p>\n

The St Paul Fire budget task force also recommended ways for the department to raise money including providing scheduled medical transport — having ambulances bring patients from hospitals to nursing homes or assisted-care centers. Coleman said in a letter to task force participants that the fire department should begin this work, and Butler said it would.<\/p>\n

Why can\u2019t the Lehigh Acres Fire Chief, Fire Commissioners and Fire Union work together to figure out a “real” solution to save the department without having any noticeable service cut backs?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Opinion\/Editorial by Robert J Anderson Publisher \u2013 Lehigh Acres Gazette A recent article in the Pioneer Press about the St Paul Fire Department showed some interesting fire budget realities. St… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[79],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9134"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9134"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9134\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}