Fire departments think long term

CANTON — In what could become a model for the state, the town has developed long-range plans for its four fire departments — with input from their members — to keep their standards up over the next decade.

The plans, coordinated by summer employee Ethan P. Fischer, a Canton Central School graduate, already have been requested by the state Comptroller's Office, Supervisor David T. Button said.

"They want these as a best practices model," he said.

While starting out, Mr. Fischer discovered only a handful of communities in the country have developed any kind of long-range plan for emergency services.

The plans, which cover how to address changes in standards, training, preparing for inspections, membership goals, community involvement, capital needs and expectations, show the community believes in the importance of maintaining emergency services and will be useful when applying for grants, Director of Economic Development Linda M. McQuinn said.

Mr. Fischer, who worked on the project for two years while on break from college, provided the Canton Town Council with an overview at a meeting Friday.

The theme of the plans is to help departments maintain current standards while dealing with fluctuating fuel oil costs, financial strains, more calls for service, stricter training requirements and advances in equipment and periodic changes in leadership, Mr. Fischer said.

The report looks at various factors, such as response time, number of members, expenses and recruitment to measure success.

"We didn't see any weaknesses, in fact," Mr. Fischer said.

The plans call for the departments in Canton, Morley, Pyrites and Rensselaer Falls to establish reserve accounts from their contracts with the town to help deal with the unexpected. The town hopes to see increases or steady maintenance of membership over the years.

"The health of a department is really dependent on its membership levels," Mr. Fischer said.

The town also is requesting that departments share in the responsibility of explaining to taxpayers why equipment is needed and to monitor mutual-aid calls to neighboring communities whose financial outlay to emergency services is not as strong. The plan also sets up reporting of department finances to the town in a standard way to eliminate inconsistencies.

The plans shouldn't be seen as too rigid, Mr. Fischer said.

"The success of these plans is the amount of flexibility we're able to give," he said.