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Ryan Eashoo
F L I N T O I D
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Suburban fire chiefs warn Flint they won't take over work because of pink slips
By Ron Fonger | Flint Journal
February 21, 2010, 10:00AM
Jim Harmes
GENESEE COUNTY — No offense Flint, but the suburbs aren’t ready to fight your fires for you.
That’s the message from anxious fire chiefs from all over the county, who last week agreed to tell Flint Mayor Dayne Walling that his plan to pink slip 23 firefighters might mean an end to the city’s mutual aid agreements with outcounty fire departments.
“A lot of departments might refuse to go help if they are asked,” said Eric Merriam, president of the Genesee County Association of Fire Chiefs. “We’ve got to take care of our own people.
“We’re putting (Flint) on notice: You might struggle to get help if you ask for it,” Merriam said.
It’s too soon to say if Walling’s plan to lay off 57 police officers will be met with similar resistance from the county sheriff’s department and state police when it comes to extra help.
Michigan State Police and county Sheriff Robert Pickell said they need more information before commenting on their ability to help fill that void.
Fire chiefs, however, said there is already a problem with Flint’s mutual aid agreements because the city lacks manpower and because their assistance has too often been a one-way arrangement when it comes to helping with otherwise unmanageable fires and other emergencies.
“Our taxpayers are not going to subsidize the city of Flint,” said Jim Harmes, chief of the Grand Blanc Fire Department. “I feel like the city needs to be put on notice that they may be in jeopardy of losing (the mutual aid).”
Grand Blanc Township resident David Cabello said he supports keeping his firefighters close to home.
“My wife is diabetic. If she needed help, it could take forever for the firefighters to get here, and she might not be able to afford that extra time if she was having a seizure or something,” Cabello said.
“If something happened to my house (I don’t want) to lose it because the firefighters don’t get there fast enough (because) they're dealing with something in Flint,” he said.
Outcounty fire chiefs on Wednesday voted to tell Walling in a letter that his layoffs could destroy the already shaky arrangement.
Walling said Friday that he had yet to receive the letter from area fire chiefs and would not comment in detail until he has.
He called mutual aid among fire departments “important” and said he would “have discussions to work through those concerns” to keep the agreements in place.
The concerns are real, said Gary Domerese, chief of the Clio Area Fire Department, which covers the city, Vienna and Thetford townships.
Even before Walling announced the latest layoffs, Domerese said he wrote to the city about six months ago, because Flint’s fire-fighting ranks had become too depleted.
“We’ve got good relations (with Flint firefighters). I don’t want people to think we’re adversarial ... I just want the relationship to be truly mutual,” he said.
Burton Fire Chief Doug Halstead said he’s already talked to Burton officials about the potential for more requests for help from Flint.
Halstead he won’t hesitate to help in an emergency but won’t cover Flint fire stations’ more routine work because the city has cut back its fire services too much.
“That’s been an ongoing concern —trying to subsidize Flint’s lack of personnel,” he said. “With budgets being cut everywhere, our departments can’t do it anymore.”
Flint firefighters union president Raul Garcia said he understands why other departments are wary of the latest pink slips in Flint.
“I respect their position,” he said. “Mutual aid is supposed to work both ways. If they have a major fire, we should be able to respond too.”
Fire chiefs said they aren’t reimbursed when they are requested to help Flint on mutual aid calls and when equipment is damaged fighting fires in Flint, taxpayers in those communities pay the cost.
Flint should call in its own off-duty firefighters when it’s faced with simultaneous or large-scale fires before asking for mutual aid, Domerese said.
On the police side, Flint state police post Commander Rick Arnold said he wants to talk to city of Flint officials before reacting to media reports of planned layoffs.
Troopers already patrol some in the city but don’t typically respond to calls for service.
“We’re limited also,” said Arnold, who said the state police force is at its lowest staffing level since the 1970s.
“We would do what we feasibly could do,” he said.
Pickell would not comment on how his department would handle any increased workload in the city. When city officials broached the idea of more joint services with the county in 2002, Pickell said at the time that he was very limited in the support he could give the city as it went through a different budget struggle.
Two Flint officers are currently assigned to two joint initiatives that the county is also involved in — a drug team run by the sheriff and the Safe Streets Task Force.
It’s not known if those officers would be affected by the layoffs.
Flint police union president Keith Speer could not be reached for comment
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Flint Michigan Resident, Tax Payer, Flint Nutt - Local REALTOR - Activist. www.FlintTown.com |
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Tue Feb 23, 2010 9:52 am |
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Elias12
F L I N T O I D
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| I am wondering if Flint could use volunteer firefighters like they do in the outlaying areas? Maybe get a federal grant to cover the first round of training and outfitting and then the volunteers can assist the remaining firefighters. I know there are a lot of problems to cover but I think this may be an option . Also if we get most of the abandoned houses torn down the risk of them causing occupied homesto catch on fire is diminished. I wish we didn't have to face cutting the departments so deeply but if there is no money what can be done? We here know we are pretty much on our own here in Flint. Our state government is failing and the Feds have written us off long ago. They would rather pour money into Iraq for schools and stuff than help out U.S. citizens. And with the mess that Dubya has unleashed with two protracted wars our coffers are depleted. So , to put it succintly,, WE ARE SCREWED !! |
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You fool all the people all the time,if you control the press. By pass the "offical channels" and see what is really going. |
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Tue Feb 23, 2010 7:20 pm |
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back again
F L I N T O I D
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| great idea elias, and such a great way to at least get them trained enough so whenever the department could hire again, they'd have a ready and willing group!! perhaps, if possible, a small stipend to keep them interested? |
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even a small act of goodness may be a tiny raft of salvation across the treacherous gulf of sin, but one who drinks the wine of selfishness, and dances on the little boat of meaness, sinks in the ocean of ignorance.
P.Y. |
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Tue Feb 23, 2010 11:24 pm |
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Ryan Eashoo
F L I N T O I D
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I hate to say it but the snowball has started rolling down the hill. This mayor is way out of touch with everyday residents.
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Flint Michigan Resident, Tax Payer, Flint Nutt - Local REALTOR - Activist. www.FlintTown.com |
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Wed Feb 24, 2010 12:43 am |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Flint is too large to depend on volunteer firefighters. Imagine the extra time to summon and send volunteers for a fire like the one in which 4 children died. We have too many apartment complexes and high density neighborhoods to risk having a fire spread. Of course with our greatly reduced fire department, that could happen too.
We have relied on mutual aid for a number of our fires, especially when we have multiple fires at one time. |
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Wed Feb 24, 2010 6:12 am |
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Dave Starr
F L I N T O I D
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| Right now, when there's a potential for a fire to spread, every rig in town is sent to the fire to get the necessary manpower. What's going to happen when 23 more firefighters are gone? Will all fires be handled in a defensive mode? Don't try to put it out, just try to keep it from spreading? |
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I used to care, but I take a pill for that now.
Pushing buttons sure can be fun.
When a lion wants to go somewhere, he doesn’t worry about how many hyenas are in the way.
Paddle faster, I hear banjos. |
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Wed Feb 24, 2010 8:53 am |
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