Fire Rescue News - Ventnor, Margate again consider merging fire departments, closing a fire station
By DEREK HARPER, Staff Writer | Posted: Wednesday, March 17, 2010 | 4 comments
Officials in Ventnor and Margate are again considering consolidating their separate fire departments into one fire company.
Fire and elected officials from the two cities are scheduled to meet Thursday at noon at Margate's City Hall to begin preliminary discussions about joining the two departments together.
"Can this happen and should it happen without it hurting anybody?" Ventnor Mayor Theresa Kelly asked Tuesday....Continue Reading
Continued from page 1
The downbeach towns have talked about consolidating the two separate professional companies that separately cover 3.5 square miles of Absecon Island for more than 15 years, but have made little headway.
MMA Consulting Group, Inc., of Boston, conducted a Fire Department Feasibility Study for the two cities in 2003. Among other things, the report recommended combining Ventnor and Margate's fire departments within 12 months.
The department should use just three stations - Margate's and Ventnor's respective department headquarters, and the Ventnor Heights station - but with more personnel per station, the report said.
The proposal would close Margate's Fire Station No. 2 on North Brunswick Drive.
The report also recommended keeping the same staffing levels but altering ranks, operating two ambulance companies and billing for both emergency and non-emergency services.
Officials shelved the report at the time, but are now reconsidering it as a way to save money. This move comes as Longport and Margate are considering combining emergency-dispatching services, another topic that has been periodically discussed, but never acted upon. Longport, which has an all-volunteer fire department, is not part of those consolidation talks.
Margate has 37 firefighters, and budgeted spending $3.1 million on salaries as well as $102,000 in other associated expenses, according to the city budget.
Ventnor, with 44 firefighters, spent $4.3 million last year on salaries, along with $169,892 in other expenses, city Chief Financial Officer Toro Aborderin said.
In recent months, both Ventnor and Margate have separately approved spending $3,000 for MMA to update its study with current facts.
Maury Blumberg, Margate's commissioner of public safety, said he was opposed to closing a station as the report suggested, but said he wanted to see what the updated survey said.
Kelly similarly said she was open to considering different options, but ultimately supporting joining the two:
"I do think that its time for us to become the Downbeach Fire Company," she said. "Maybe not initially, but eventually."
Contact Derek Harper: 609-272-7046 DHarper@pressofac.com
Posted in ATLANTIC on Wednesday, March 17, 2010 7:15 am Updated: 7:45 am.
