Vols plan on target

Somewhere in Waynesboro’s pulsing West End, a firehouse will rise bearing a similarity to the plain-faced efficiency of that section’s anchor, the Wal-Mart Supercenter off Lucy Lane. It will be green, which is to say reliant upon renewable energy, to the extent that $700,000 in construction spending will allow. A similar hue may apply to some of the firefighters who staff the place, which is a good or bad thing depending on one’s perspective.

From the vantage point of the City Council’s reigning conservative faction, finding volunteers to cover the 12 additional positions required by the new substation is a sensible alternative to hiring paid firefighters at a cost of $600,000 annually. From the vantage point of fire Chief Charlie Scott, the majority’s plan is “theoretically impossible,” which raises concerns more than trifling, since the city is preparing to spend as much $2.6 million buying land and building the station. Firehouses generally aren’t much good without the firefighters.

So where does Scott see theoretical fissures? Principally in the notion that volunteers can easily be had. A dozen or so volunteers make up roughly a fourth of the city’s firefighting force. Doubling their ranks would drive that share to more than 40 percent. More to Scott’s point, it would be a daunting enterprise. Recruiting volunteers has become steadily more difficult.

Almost 90 percent of Virginia’s fire departments are all-volunteer, according to the National Fire Protection Association. Among departments in Waynesboro’s population category, 70 percent are all- or mostly volunteer. More than 70 percent of the nation’s more than 1 million firefighters are volunteers.

In other words, what the majority suggests appears plausible.

Vice Mayor Frank Lucente, the majority’s strongest voice, long has opposed the substation project as an unnecessary expense, but consented to support it after voters backed the project in a nonbinding referendum in November 2007. He hopes to control construction spending by building a no-frills firehouse similar to a 4,000-square-foot substation in Staunton. While minority faction members Lorie Smith and Nancy Dowdy – the council’s left-leaners – want an environmentally friendly building, they’re unlikely to push hard for features that will sharply increase the total bill.

The larger issue for Lucente always has been personnel costs. Filling the additional 12 firefighting slots with volunteers would strike that concern from his mind. Certainly, this would add a worry for Scott. Hiring paid firefighters is easier than recruiting volunteers.

But Scott also has a benefit many fire departments lack. Volunteers in other parts of the country are slipping from firefighting ranks not because they mind the risks but because they’re tiring of the job’s other task: raising money to cover funding gaps frequently not filled by local communities. In some cases, this is the only means local departments possess to pay for badly needed equipment.

We have supported the West End fire station for the primary reason that Scott has trumpeted the project, as a way to halve response times in an area that has emerged as a regional retail hub. But we appreciate the majority’s emphasis on restraining construction and personnel costs, especially during times like these. Construction isn’t expected to begin for another 18 to 24 months. That gives Scott plenty of time to find volunteers. We suggest he consider the possibilities and get cracking.