By Scott Jenkins
Salisbury Post
EAST SPENCER ó Firefighters considered walking off the job over equipment and money issues Monday night, but decided to keep operating “as normal” for now and hope things improve, one firefighter said.
“As far as I know, we’re going to attempt to continue to operate as normal, if you call it operating as normal with our conditions,” Joshua Smith, a firefighter and engineer, said Tuesday.
Those conditions, firefighters say, include trucks that don’t work correctly and substandard protective gear.
Smith, who works part-time for the East Spencer Fire Department, submitted a letter to the Board of Aldermen Monday night saying a local grocery store wouldn’t cash his latest check from the town because a previous one hadn’t yet cleared.
After the board meeting, Smith said, firefighters gathered at town hall held their own meeting, Smith said, at which they discussed the possibility of responding only to working house fires and no other calls. But most, if not all, agreed to keep responding to all calls, including medical emergencies and accidents, he said.
Smith’s check isn’t the only issue that has firefighters angry. He said their equipment is in poor shape and could endanger not only firefighters, but the people they’re trying to protect.
Firefighters have voiced concern publically over the past couple of months about substandard protective turnout gear. The town had used a grant meant to pay for new gear to buy a pumper truck instead, and has included money in this year’s budget for the gear to avoid having to return the grant.
Smith said the department’s best pumper, the first truck to roll out on fires, is also a problem.
“Half the time, you can’t get it in gear,” he said.
And another truck takes about seven minutes to build up enough air pressure so that the brakes work, he said. When volunteers take a few minutes to respond to the station and need another seven to roll out, it puts lives in danger, he said.
“That’s 10 minutes killed already,” he said. “If you have a medical call for a cardiac arrest, the first five to eight minutes are critical for that patient. … Every second counts.”
Smith said firefighters are also unhappy that the fire station is not air-conditioned and a bay door has to stay open to accommodate a truck, making the heat useless in the winter.
And Smith said the town still hasn’t bought some things the department requested, such as new pads for a defibrillator, used to revive cardiac-arrest victims. The department has one set of pads and they can only be used once, he said.
Another speaker Monday night questioned aldermen about compensatory time promised to part-time firefighters in lieu of payment for time they’ve already worked. Board members didn’t answer at the time, but Mayor Erma Jefferies said the board has approved some compensatory time to be taken later in the year.
Jefferies said the town asked the department to cut back on the number of hours it used for part-timers late in the just-ended fiscal year in an attempt to come closer to budget projections. She said department leaders assumed that when the new budget year started, they could increase those hours to the previous number, but that the town hadn’t approved it.
“We were waiting … for tax dollars to start rolling in,” Jefferies said.
Jefferies also said town leaders told the fire department the new turnout gear was ordered at the beginning of July, “so it should be on its way.”
As for Smith’s trouble cashing his check ó which he eventually was able to do at the bank where the town does business ó Jefferies said she looked at the town’s records Tuesday and saw no evidence of problems with checks.
“There is no returned check from the town of East Spencer,” she said. The only problem the town has had, she said, is when someone stole a town employee’s check and cashed it at Wal Mart, another store that refused to cash Smith’s check.
Town leadership and the fire department have been odds the past several months. Fire Chief Skipper Davis turned information over to the Rowan County District Attorney’s office concerning the turnout gear grant spent for the truck, though District Attorney Bill Kenerly said it didn’t constitute a criminal act and the company that issued the grant was satisfied with the town’s promise to buy the gear this year.
Jefferies and Town Administrator Richard Hunter subsequently tried to fire Davis ó for overusing his town vehicle and buying too much gas on a town credit card, they said ó but he appealed and remains chief.
Jefferies blamed this week’s near-walkout on Davis, who couldn’t be reached Tuesday, and others in the fire department unhappy with the town .
“I really think we’ve got a couple of disgruntled employees, one of them being Skipper, and they’re just dusting up a dust storm out there,” she said. She said the town remains covered by mutual-aid agreements with other fire departments.
“Even if they do go on strike, we have other avenues in place that will protect this town,” she said.
Contact Scott Jenkins at 704-797-4248 or sjenkins@salisburypost.com.