By RICHARD DEGENER and MICHAEL MILLER, Staff Writers of The Press of Atlantic City
Andre Jordan is in great demand.
Jordan, 25, is one of the newest members of the Cologne Volunteer Fire Company in Hamilton Township.
He is young, enthusiastic and dedicated — a rare commodity in South Jersey, where more fire companies are having trouble recruiting volunteers.
None of Jordan’s friends are in firefighting. Jordan said he can see why volunteer companies are hurting for members.
“You need to commit to it. Everybody has a paying job. As soon as I get off work, I go to the (fire) academy. If you miss one class, you won’t be certified,” he said.
A sales and service representative at Ocean City Home Bank, Jordan enjoys the physicality of firefighting after spending all day in an office, and the public-service aspect of volunteering appeals to him as.....Continue Reading
There aren’t enough Andre Jordans to go around, fire officials said.
Fire companies are advertising in newspapers, offering pensions and paying a monthly stipend. Some towns have enlisted public works employees who live somewhere else but spend the day in town.
Fewer workers today can set their own schedule, which means they often have to work multiple jobs. Two-income households are the norm.
The problem is worse in South Jersey, where high property values have led to an exodus of young families. Census data show a declining year-round population on barrier islands even as more homes are built. Vacation homes don’t supply new firefighters.
“A person that pays $500,000, maybe $1 million for a home is not going to volunteer,” West Cape May Fire Chief Chuck McPherson said.
That’s not a problem on the mainland, where home prices are much lower. Town Bank Fire Commissioner Lewis Conley said Lower Township has year-round residency with lots of growing families.
“That’s what the islands don’t have. People work there during the day, but your big fires come at night,” Conley said.
Training also scares away some.
Firefighters used to take a weekend course to get certified to enter a burning building. North Wildwood Fire Chief Jeffrey Cole said basic certification now takes 180 hours, but volunteers also are encouraged to take advanced and specialized classes that include water rescue, vehicle extrications, technical rescues and marine vessel training.
“It just goes on and on. It’s a lot more extensive and technical than it used to be,” Cole said.
Add the drills, meetings and alarms, and it can be time-consuming, he said.
McPherson said all that training could be the best thing to ever happen to firefighting, but it also reduces membership.
“Young families are working two jobs. They’re working on Saturdays. They can’t go to fire school,” he said.
Cape May Fire Chief Alex Coulter is pushing to increase the number of paid firefighters to make up for a declining volunteer base. Cape May is one of several shore towns with paid employees and volunteers. Coulter said volunteers are getting older and are not being replaced. Coulter has 13 paid firefighters and four volunteers who can wear an air-pack and enter a fire.
“The average age is in the 50s now. We’re not getting a lot of young people,” Coulter said.
When North Wildwood’s Cole joined in 1980, there was a three-year waiting list to volunteer. Today, they are advertising for volunteers, who are skewing older.
The answer for some towns may be to hire a fully paid department. It’s an expensive proposition. Ocean City’s paid department costs taxpayers $6.6 million per year.
Stone Harbor Mayor Suzanne Walters said converting to a paid department would cost millions. With a $4 billion ratable base, the borough might be able to afford it. Instead, they came up with something much cheaper.
Stone Harbor’s experiment
Down to about 20 volunteers in 2005, with only half living in town, Stone Harbor decided to offer volunteers a stipend of up to $250 per month (now $400) based on the number of drills, alarms, meetings and training they attend. They have 45 volunteers now, which cost taxpayers less than $60,000 per year. Compare that with a paid department, which is as costly as a police force.
“This has been a great answer for us. The program has worked where we are getting people out to the calls,” Fire Chief Roger Stanford said.
When Stanford joined in 1981, the whole company lived in town. Most of them went to school together. The borough now shares a school with neighboring Avalon. Stone Harbor has changed, and the volunteers just were not there anymore. Stanford said the stipend drew them from where they live, mainland areas such as Cape May Court House and Rio Grande, as only about 10 of the 45 live in town.
The borough had considered a pension program called LOSAP (Length of Service Awards Program) that gives volunteers a pension of up to $1,150 per year for making a certain percentage of alarms and drills. Most fire chiefs say LOSAP kept some longtime volunteers from leaving but drew few new members.
“It’s kind of hard to say to an 18-year-old if you make your percentage you’ll get a pension at 62,” he said.
Fire districts also help. This allows a fire company to have its own tax revenue and commissioners to decide how to spend it, albeit mostly on equipment.
The key to a district is that time-pressed volunteers don’t have to constantly raise money with pancake breakfasts, bingos, road races and the like, although they still do some of that.
Fire districts are not necessarily cheap. Town Bank collects more than $1 million in taxes each year, though a smaller rural company such as Belleplain asked voters for $165,000 this year. Districts are cheaper than paid departments.
McPherson said West Cape May would go broke if it had a paid department or if it contracted for fire protection from a town with one.
“The problem with a paid company is the salaries kill you,” McPherson said. “A chief can make $135,000 a year, and a firefighter can make $85,000 a year,” he said.
All-calls and junior firefighters
Junior firefighter programs are one way of drawing recruits. Town Bank has used it for years.
“Kids in high school go to the drills and come to the fires to observe. A good number of them have become actual firefighters,” said Conley, noting they have to be 18 years old to fight their first fire.
Many are the sons and daughters of firefighters.
Some companies are responding to the volunteer shortage by setting up all-call agreements with neighboring towns. West Cape May and Cape May Point respond to each other’s alarms. Cape May and the Coast Guard base respond for each other. Erma, Villas and Town Bank in Lower Township have an all-call for structure fires.
It also can help to sell prospective firefighters on joining before the age of 46, when they can become members of the New Jersey State Firemen’s Association. It offers some perks, including a retirement home, burial benefits and payments to loved ones for a line-of-duty death.
Many companies will take people who can’t fight a fire but can help in some way. Cologne Chief Shawn Vallauri said his company doesn’t turn volunteers away. Even if they don’t have certification, he said there is always something they can contribute.
MMiller@pressofac.com
This story was taken from the news source stated above. It is not necessarily the opinion of The Elwood Vol. Fire Company or it's members.
