LIBERTY — Resident and employee complaints throughout the past week have led township officials to consider adjusting its fire department staffing.

Residents voiced their concerns about the state of the department at Monday’s trustees meeting after the Liberty Professional Firefighters Association Local 2075 posted to its social media page that Belmont Avenue Station 34 would be closed throughout the day March 7 because of understaffing.

“We have been waiting for the township to come to the table and try to resolve this issue, but we have not heard from anyone from administration,” union president Ronnie Simone said Friday.

Trustees met in executive session Monday regarding the concerns about stations being closed.

Simone explained that during that session, trustees decided no longer to staff a fifth firefighter on overtime.

“It’s troubling because this is putting the township at a very significant risk of being understaffed,” Simone said. “Over the last two days, there have been four instances of two to three calls coming in at a time that we’ve been scrambling to cover. We just want them to reinstate the fifth-man for now and come to the table to talk to us about ways to increase staffing.”

Two additional announcements from the union followed the March 7 post, with one stating that Liberty Township, as of last week, had four firefighters / paramedics working any given shift.

“This means we have one cross staffed engine / ambulance and one two-person rescue,” the union explained. “Liberty needs more staffing.”

The other post listed the union’s perspective of recent events that have left some residents worried about their safety.

Liberty resident Chelsea Harris stated Friday, “I am not comfortable, and I’m speaking for a lot of residents on that.” She continued, “I didn’t realize how many until I voiced my opinion.”

Harris, however, said she feels that Liberty’s trustees are good people and they want the same things the firefighters want.

“Safe and adequate emergency care for our township,” Harris said, would be where the two entities intersect. “The issue is when politics get in the way of the job. Unless they’ve (trustees) geared up and gone into a house fire to rescue a victim with the current amount of firefighters, they can’t possibly understand the need for more staffing. So why isn’t there an attempt to make that happen?”

If taxes would increase by hiring more firefighters, Harris said, “put it out there and let us vote on it. I would gladly pay a little more for Liberty’s firefighters to be able to do their job in a more safe and effective manner.”

The union posted to social media again Thursday that two firefighters “stepped up and will work overtime to keep four firefighters on shift and Station 34 open.”

IAFF Local 2075 issued a news release Wednesday stating that the trustees decided to no longer staff a fifth firefighter with overtime.

“This means that if a part-time firefighter is not on duty, we will only have one ambulance and one fire apparatus for 24 hours,” the post states.

“This will no doubt bring about longer response times. More troubling is the decision made by administration to pull fire protection from the township in the very common event of a second ambulance call. When a second ambulance call is dispatched, the captain will be taken off the fire truck and placed on the ambulance to make up for the loss of the fifth man. In the event of a fire where every second counts, we will not have a fire truck in service. We will continue to update Liberty township residents with our daily staffing as it is their right to know! Thank you for your unwavering support. We appreciate every one of you!”

CLOSURES

The March 7 Facebook post read: “Due to minimum manning, Station 34, Belmont Avenue, is closed today from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., leaving Liberty with one ambulance and one fire apparatus. The station will reopen tonight at 7 p.m. For any questions, please message us directly.”

Belmont Avenue closes when staffing reaches minimum staffing of the firefighters, according to the union. But trustees insisted at Monday’s meeting that the Belmont Avenue station closes when staffing reaches four firefighters.

The union then argued that trustees’ alleged claims that March 7 was the first time they heard that Station 34 was closed were false. “That is not true,” the post stated. “The Fire Chief is notified each time the station is closed. The Fire Chief was not working the day of the closure. The station was previously closed: Feb. 2 for 12 hours, Dec. 29 for 24 hours, Dec. 23 for 12 hours, Dec. 20 for 4 hours, Feb. 9 for 14 hours, and Dec. 2 for 24 hours, just to go back to December.”

The union also stated that it did not publicize previous closures “in effort to remain friendly with the Liberty Township trustees in hopes to work toward increasing staffing.”

HIRING

“I think to maintain our current staffing levels without burning out our department, we need two to three. In order to raise the staffing levels to six per shift, we would need three to six (new hires),” Stanley said.

At Monday’s meeting, Stanley explained the goal is to have three to five firefighters each shift, with three at one station and two at the other.

He said contractually, the minimum staffing is three firefighters and with only three, only one station can be open.

“We strive to have at least five firefighters on. If someone calls off and we can’t find anyone else to fill in, we are short staffed and we will rotate someone from the Belmont station to the Logan station. This has only been done a few times,” Stanley said.

Simone later said, “We are a business heavy township, and the National Fire Protection Association has a standard number of how many firefighters it takes to successfully put out a structure fire.” He continued, “We are asking them to just put on the five that we had on recently, and then we can talk about what we need. We definitely need at least six to run three ambulances a day, but our end goal is going to be eight. Eight is what it will take to effectively fix every problem with staffing.”

The union president offered further opinion about the number of firefighters needed per shift, saying, “Six per shift would be great.” Simone also said, “We are tired, and we are running a lot of calls, but we’re firemen and that’s what we do. We are going to continue to work tired, hurt, whatever, because we care more about the residents than we do about ourselves.”

Since ambulances are staffed by two people, Simone said, scheduling six more employees could benefit the department by manning one station with four, and the other with two.

Stanley he believes that based on the amount of overtime Liberty Fire Department has paid the last few years, the township is spending approximately $28 per hour, 24 hours per day 365 days per year.

“I’m not sure that’s sustainable with our current revenue, but it demonstrates the ability to hire one or two full-time employees,” Stanley said. “Please understand we have hired continuously (you can see a recent Facebook post dated Dec 11, 2023, where we welcomed the addition of five new firefighters).”

The point, Stanley said, is that Liberty trustees are “doing absolutely everything in their power to meet, maintain and even increase the staffing levels.”

Stanley said the township has hired every applicant the chief has brought forward, both part time and full time; increased wages for full-time, part-time, and long-term employees; opened the contract to hire experienced firefighters laterally from other departments; and agreed to pay for schooling so that firefighters can become paramedics.

He also said the township has bonus money available for new hires. “I personally have tried to recruit and mint brand new firefighters,” Stanley said. “But the training classes were filled and ‘could not accommodate more than a certain number of students due to a lack of instructors.’ I’m not sure what else we can do, but I am open to suggestions.”

Both Simone and Stanley explained that firefighting is an employee-based market, meaning the few available firefighters / medics are being sought after by all departments, and there aren’t enough available to fill the staffing needs of all departments simultaneously.

CONTRACTS

Simone said while the township has given contracts to new firefighters, “It’s been staggered for over a year.” He continued, “Until we fix that, we can’t compete with departments north and south of us. They’re paying too much at starting pay. Until we can eliminate our step program for our wages, we’re going to continue being a revolving door fire department. There’s just no way to keep up.”

The township’s contract with IAFF Local 2075, effective through Dec. 31, 2025, starts firefighters with a pay rate of $18 per hour, and increases by $1 per year of service. After seven years of service, a firefighter under the contract will be paid an annual salary of $62,048.06.