County fire departments uneasy with draft of consolidation report : News-Record.com : Greensboro & the Triad's most trusted source for local news and analysis

GREENSBORO — The draft copy of a consultant's report on Guilford County's fire departments is generating controversy.

Fire chiefs and county leaders say some cost-cutting suggestions could hurt services and that the departments aren't being given enough time to offer their feedback.

"We hired the consultants to study these departments," Guilford County Commissioner Billy Yow said. "But now they've given a draft of their report to the fire chiefs and they're saying they want to hear back from them on it in eight days. They need more time than that to really digest these suggestions."

Among the suggestions in the draft study by firm Emergency Services Consultants International:

• Develop regional standards for training and operating procedures for all fire departments in the county.

• Consolidate the county's various fire protection districts under one governing body, which would also include all unincorporated areas of the county.

• Create a single merged county fire department.

The draft of the report says the county could save nearly $1.5 million in personnel costs through combining departments — a claim fire chiefs say they want to see the details on before they comment.

A public forum on the Guilford County Fire Service Agency Evaluation and Emergency Services Master Plan is at 6:30 p.m. tonight at the Cooperative Extension Center at 3309 Burlington Road.

For full coverage, see Thursday's News & Record.

Bilbo

November 2, 2011 - 12:01 pm EDT

..it's tough I know...but cuts are being made everywhere in the public sector....the rich are just gonna have to learn to live with longer response times..and fewer firefighters in the future when their house or business is burning down...and NOT complain...this is what they have asked for...voted for and lesgislated through ol' Phil Berger and his henchmen....

Mad Dog

November 2, 2011 - 12:34 pm EDT

According to WFMY news last night @11:00pm, New Hanover County has consolidated with good results. The downside was it took them seven years.

The scary thought for me is that I remember the consolidation of GSO, HP, & Guilford County Schools and how much money that was going to save us taxpayers and how much more efficient it would be. I'm still waiting on those results.

rando

November 2, 2011 - 2:08 pm EDT

Well, keep on waitin' for those savings to materialize. It's only been about 18 years.

chickenlittle02

November 2, 2011 - 7:16 pm EDT

Yes, I remember those promises too. Consolidation would save a boat-load of money, and they'd create "World Class Schools". Has anyone seen Warren Corrigan or any of the other miscreants that shoved that red herring down everyones throats? Where are our World Class Schools?

chainring53

November 2, 2011 - 2:29 pm EDT

This sounds more like the county administration has their eye on the tax revenue from the fire departments. At least with the current situation the tax collected for the fire districts gets used for the fire departments. Once the county gets their hands on the tax money, they can spend it on whatever they want. There is also a big problem with the report saying that instead of 18 chiefs there will only be 1 county chief and that a total of 30 positions can be eliminated. If the chiefs are eliminated from the individual stations there will be assistant chiefs or someone in leadership at the stations. The current chiefs are on call 24/7, that will probably not be the case with the proposed setup which would lead to more paid personnel at each station to cover all shifts. Added to that will be the increased number of administrative personnel the county will add to handle the large fire district. I think standardized training would be a good idea, but most of the information that I have read from the draft sounds like a snow job.

feedup

November 2, 2011 - 5:54 pm EDT

they have failed to say that some of the positions they want cut does not cost a dime because they are Volunteer positions!!! all though it is a draft at this time it seems to me there is one person that would like to be in charge of the whole county fire service!!!!! just sayin!!!!

polaroid

November 2, 2011 - 6:59 pm EDT

The overstaffing as always is in the command structure. Too much command staff and not enough grunts. Both the City and County Fire Departments along with the Greensboro Police Department suffer from this malady.
They have never learned to be good managers and lack the ability to allow their firefighters and police officers to manage themselves in a squad or unit structure.

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