FARMINGTON – Fire Department representatives recommended Tuesday that selectmen create a formal policy charging property owners for repeated false fire alarms in their buildings.
Town Manager Richard Davis asked Fire Department personnel to write up a draft of the policy, town secretary Linda Grant said, in order to formalize the procedure, which according to both Grant and Deputy Fire Chief Tim Hardy has “always” been Fire Department policy but has never been formalized. Grant said selectmen “wanted to review what has been done in the past and see if that was still” an appropriate way of operating.
The charges, which are called apparatus charges because people are charged based on what equipment is sent to respond to the alarm, have been used in the past to penalize property owners with three or more false alarms per year when the error is caused either by lack of alarm maintenance, mischief, hazardous materials in a confined space, or bomb, weapon or terrorist threats, Hardy said. If the policy is enacted by selectmen, he said, property owners will be charged per apparatus that responds to the alarm, and fines range from $25 for one squad car to $200 when a ladder truck is called out.
Hardy explained that under the Fire Department’s newly drafted policy, no one will be charged more than $500 for any false alarm, no matter how many vehicles respond. He added that the fire chief will have “final discretion” to add or cancel charges in extenuating circumstances.
After discussing the policy, selectmen expressed support for the charges, and chairman of the board Mary Wright went so far as to say she feels in some cases the department is being “very lenient” in allowing three false alarms per building. Selectmen directed the Fire Department representatives to resubmit their policy description during at the Feb. 14 selectmen’s meeting for a vote.
Members of the Fire Department also presented selectmen with a list of engine replacement options. Hardy explained department members began brainstorming options “over the past month” upon realizing that per the department’s capital improvement plan, one engine is scheduled for replacement in 2007 and another in 2012. One idea they had, Hardy said, was rather than buying a $400,000 truck in 2007 and then buying a ladder for about $900,000 in 2012, we’d just combine two trucks into one. “It’s something we’ve done in the past,” he said.
According a fact sheet written by the department, the cost of buying a combination pumper/ladder truck is estimated at $850,000, which would save the town “an estimated $450,000,” the town manager said.
Former Budget Committee member Bill Crandall suggested waiting a few years before purchasing any new trucks.
“At some point, we may not always be able to afford all the new toys we think we need,” he said, “I can’t do it,” he said, “at my home. I’d like to see the selectmen be a little more conservative in spending with regard to fire apparatus.”
But Wright said, “I see no harm” in following the department’s replacement schedule. She said it’s important for Farmington Fire and Rescue services to be ready to serve the numerous facilities in and near town, like the jail, college, and hospital. “We have to take care of them,” she said.
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