Mission City leaders are struggling to fill the dwindling ranks
of the city’s volunteer fire department
– a problem that could lead to dissolving the agency.
San Juan Bautista – Mission City leaders are struggling to fill the dwindling ranks of the city’s volunteer fire department – a problem that could lead to dissolving the agency.
In around two years, the pool of volunteer firefighters has fallen from 26 to 10, and Fire Chief Scott Freels said fire safety is suffering.
“We’re at a really bad place,” Freels said. “There’s an outside possibility that we will not have a fire department.”
The City Council’s Public Safety Committee, which consists of Councilmen George Dias and Ed Laverone – both former volunteer firefighters – plans to meet with fire department representatives later this month to “brainstorm” solutions. One of the big possibilities, Freels said, is finding money to pay firefighters a small stipend on a per-call basis.
“The majority of guys, they’re not asking for money for themselves – they’re asking for money to retain and recruit others,” he said.
Both Laverone and City Manager Jan McClintock said they support the idea, but McClintock said the city doesn’t have the money to just pay firefighters out of the general fund. City Council members and staff are trying to come up with more creative solutions.
“We need quicker fixes to bring stability to … what little we have left,” Laverone said. “And we need to possibly look at a tax base, some permanent financial support.”
Freels said the problem is that so many locals work out of town, so they don’t have time for the fire department or can’t be in San Juan Bautista during the day. Freels said Tuesday there were only three firefighters in town at the time, and he estimated that there would be one in town Wednesday.
“It’s just that the community’s changed a little bit,” he said. “It’s not the same as when I was a kid.”
With so few volunteers, Freels said the fire department has been missing some calls. If it wasn’t for cooperative agreements with California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, the San Benito County Fire Department and the Aromas Fire Department, he said he would be “really worried” about the town’s safety.
Another possible long-term solution would be consolidating fire service with San Benito County, McClintock said. Laverone noted that the San Juan fire department is often asked to respond to calls on county land.
“The effect is far broader than the city of San Juan and just fire response,” Laverone said.
