Published in the Current
Until recently, there was no way for businesses and schools in Southern Maine to get rid of old computers. A new program through Ruth’s Reusable Resources in Scarborough is solving that problem. For a fee, Ruth’s will store old computers and arrange for their proper disposal after the end of their useful lives.
Gary Lanoie, technology coordinator for Cape Elizabeth schools, said he has been storing old computers in closets for years. Computers that are beyond repair or are so old as to no longer be useful in classrooms now occupy “one big storage closet per school,” Lanoie said.
Because of heavy metals used in computer parts, they are considered hazardous materials and cannot be thrown out with regular garbage.
“We can’t just be throwing this stuff in landfills,” Lanoie said. With the new program through Ruth’s though, “we are starting to get rid of them.”
Ruth’s is a non-profit clearinghouse known for giving donated items, which can be used in the classroom, to area schools. School districts pay a fee to belong, and, in return, their staff can visit and pick up items they need, ranging from three-hole binders to reams of paper.
In a role reversal, of sorts, now schools and businesses can pay Ruth’s to get rid of what they don’t want, recycling the oldest computers in an environmentally safe way.
A recycling company in the Midwest will pick up large loads of computers, but won’t pick up anything less than an 18-wheeler full of old equipment. That is a lot for a business or school district to generate alone.
Becoming the middleman
Ruth’s has stepped in to play the role of consolidator. Project coordinator Chris Slader, an alternative learning teacher for primary grades in Westbrook, volunteers his time to handle computer donations.
Slader will accept working computers with processor speeds faster than 200 megahertz at no charge, as they can still be useful to schools.
Central Maine Power has donated a number of 400 megahertz machines that could last four or five years in a school. Those are available at no charge to employees of school districts that are members of Ruth’s network.
“It works out better for us,” said CMP community relations specialist John Carroll. Previously, the company donated computers on an individual basis to various non-profits.
That was labor-intensive, Carroll said, and didn’t always result in the agencies getting the best computers for their purposes.
The arrangement with Ruth’s, Carroll said, is more efficient and assures CMP that its computers are being used until the end of their usable lives.
Old computers, though, cost money on their way out the door. Ruth’s charges $15 for a monitor, $3 for a central processing unit (including the hard drive and CD drive), $7 for a printer and $2 for a keyboard or mouse. The money pays for the fees for the recycling company to pick up the equipment, as well as the rental of a storage trailer outside the Ruth’s space at the Bessey School. There is also a small surcharge Ruth’s uses to pay for disposal of old computers that Ruth’s already has on hand and needs to get rid of, Slader said.
When computers come in, Slader sorts them and puts the old ones in the trailer. In his spare time, he will stack them on shipping pallets and wrap them with clear plastic film.
When the trailer is full, he will call to have it taken away.
They are taken to a furnace, he said, where the parts are melted down and reused. Slader said the equipment is not incinerated but is recycled.
Clearing the decks
There are other ways to get rid of computers, but none of them are as certain to be environmentally sound.
Capt. Mark Unruh of the Salvation Army in Portland said he receives donations of computers regularly. Working ones are sold in the organization’s stores for $25 to $50. When he gets a large number of non-working computers, Unruh puts them in a large box and sells the whole box for about $25 in the store on Warren Avenue in Portland.
That way, he said, he gets rid of the old computers as well as the newer ones. He said he has no way of knowing what happens to the computers after they leave his store.
Scarborough’s technology coordinator, Stephen Tewhey, said the district gives many of its oldest computers to non-profits and day care centers in town. They have also used state programs and private recyclers to handle defunct computers.
Tewhey said the town’s yard sale last year was a good way to get rid of equipment the schools did not need any more. He expects to use the program at Ruth’s as well.
In Cape, the money spent so far on recycling some equipment came out of other budget savings, Lanoie said. But he expects to ask for recycling money in the next budget cycle.
“It’s probably going to be a standard budget item,” Lanoie said.
He said laptops issued to students through the state’s laptop initiative belong to the state. If they break or need to be disposed of, he would send them to the state or to Apple, meaning the town would not have to pay to dispose of those machines.
Slader said the recycling program may expand to individuals in the near future. Businesses should call Ruth’s at 883-8407 to make an appointment to drop off old computers.
Thursday, September 19, 2002
Cape is media mecca
Published in the Current
For a quiet town that sometimes thinks it has little news, Cape Elizabeth has more than its fair share of news professionals in residence.
Anchors of Portland television stations, several top editors at the Portland Press Herald, including editor Jeannine Guttman and managing editor Eric Conrad, and even regular reporters live scattered throughout the town. They say they like the peace and quiet as well as its proximity to work and the bustle of Portland.
Guttman and Conrad did not return multiple phone calls seeking comment for this story. But one of their colleagues was willing to talk. John Richardson, a reporter for the Portland Press Herald, has lived in Cape since 1994. He has two children, 11 and 9, and he likes the environment they have. “It’s a great place for them to grow up,” he said.
The family previously lived in York County, but it was a longer commute and more isolated. “We like being near the ocean,” Richardson said, citing the town’s rural character as another strength.
“It’s a great community for families and kids,” Richardson said.
Bruce Glasier, a native of Portland, has lived in Cape since 1978. The sports anchor for WCSH 6, Glasier’s family started in the Two Lights neighborhood, then moved to Star Road and now live on a dirt road in a house with a view of the ocean. It is only one road over from where his wife, Marita Ray, grew up.
“I just love the community,” he said. His son went to Cape schools, which was different from Glasier’s childhood.
“I grew up as a city kid,” he said. But it’s different now that he has moved to the country. “I don’t have to go far to look at the ocean,” Glasier said.
Doug Cook, an evening anchor for WMTW, Channel 8, feels similarly. “I always liked the fact that it’s close to the water,” he said. Cook and his wife, Cape native Elisa Boxer, who is also his co-anchor, are building a house in Cross Hill.
They had looked in Falmouth, but hadn’t found a place that felt right to them. In Cape, though, they are close to work and family and in a town with strong schools.
“We found an unbeatable combination. It’s perfect,” Cook said. He and Boxer haven’t moved in yet, but are looking forward to doing so next year. “I think it’s going to be awesome,” Cook said.
He had to persuade Boxer to look at Cape. She grew up there, and like many small-town kids, wanted to “get out.”
“Growing up, I swore it was the one place I would never return to,” Boxer said. But now she is happy to make it her home.
“I think it’s such a great place, because you’re 10 or 15 minutes from Portland, and it really feels so rural and suburban,” Boxer said. “It’s kind of the best of both worlds,” she said.
Cindy Williams, an evening anchor for WCSH 6, and her husband Lee Nelson, one of the station’s morning anchors, also find a pleasant balance in Cape.
They have lived in town for six years. Before that they lived just down the street in South Portland, and loved the neighborhood. When they needed a new house, they didn’t look far.
The big farmhouse they now call home is in the same neighborhood, but is just across the line in Cape.
Being close to the beaches is a plus for Williams, as are the friendly people and quiet streets where she lives. The house is also close to work, a plus for Nelson, who gets up before the crack of dawn to be on the air by 6 a.m.
A lot of the folks they work with live in South Portland, but William s and Nelson have a head start to their favorite eating place: the Lobster Shack.
These news folks like to get away from the hectic pace of city life and come home to Cape. Boxer said the town has a good mix, and despite physical proximity has a totally different air than Portland or South Portland. She called the feeling “so close and yet so far. ”
For a quiet town that sometimes thinks it has little news, Cape Elizabeth has more than its fair share of news professionals in residence.
Anchors of Portland television stations, several top editors at the Portland Press Herald, including editor Jeannine Guttman and managing editor Eric Conrad, and even regular reporters live scattered throughout the town. They say they like the peace and quiet as well as its proximity to work and the bustle of Portland.
Guttman and Conrad did not return multiple phone calls seeking comment for this story. But one of their colleagues was willing to talk. John Richardson, a reporter for the Portland Press Herald, has lived in Cape since 1994. He has two children, 11 and 9, and he likes the environment they have. “It’s a great place for them to grow up,” he said.
The family previously lived in York County, but it was a longer commute and more isolated. “We like being near the ocean,” Richardson said, citing the town’s rural character as another strength.
“It’s a great community for families and kids,” Richardson said.
Bruce Glasier, a native of Portland, has lived in Cape since 1978. The sports anchor for WCSH 6, Glasier’s family started in the Two Lights neighborhood, then moved to Star Road and now live on a dirt road in a house with a view of the ocean. It is only one road over from where his wife, Marita Ray, grew up.
“I just love the community,” he said. His son went to Cape schools, which was different from Glasier’s childhood.
“I grew up as a city kid,” he said. But it’s different now that he has moved to the country. “I don’t have to go far to look at the ocean,” Glasier said.
Doug Cook, an evening anchor for WMTW, Channel 8, feels similarly. “I always liked the fact that it’s close to the water,” he said. Cook and his wife, Cape native Elisa Boxer, who is also his co-anchor, are building a house in Cross Hill.
They had looked in Falmouth, but hadn’t found a place that felt right to them. In Cape, though, they are close to work and family and in a town with strong schools.
“We found an unbeatable combination. It’s perfect,” Cook said. He and Boxer haven’t moved in yet, but are looking forward to doing so next year. “I think it’s going to be awesome,” Cook said.
He had to persuade Boxer to look at Cape. She grew up there, and like many small-town kids, wanted to “get out.”
“Growing up, I swore it was the one place I would never return to,” Boxer said. But now she is happy to make it her home.
“I think it’s such a great place, because you’re 10 or 15 minutes from Portland, and it really feels so rural and suburban,” Boxer said. “It’s kind of the best of both worlds,” she said.
Cindy Williams, an evening anchor for WCSH 6, and her husband Lee Nelson, one of the station’s morning anchors, also find a pleasant balance in Cape.
They have lived in town for six years. Before that they lived just down the street in South Portland, and loved the neighborhood. When they needed a new house, they didn’t look far.
The big farmhouse they now call home is in the same neighborhood, but is just across the line in Cape.
Being close to the beaches is a plus for Williams, as are the friendly people and quiet streets where she lives. The house is also close to work, a plus for Nelson, who gets up before the crack of dawn to be on the air by 6 a.m.
A lot of the folks they work with live in South Portland, but William s and Nelson have a head start to their favorite eating place: the Lobster Shack.
These news folks like to get away from the hectic pace of city life and come home to Cape. Boxer said the town has a good mix, and despite physical proximity has a totally different air than Portland or South Portland. She called the feeling “so close and yet so far. ”
Thursday, September 12, 2002
Lifeline busy with seal release
Published in the Current
The Marine Animal Lifeline released three seals on the morning of Sept. 5, including one, named Chance, that had been found with a gunshot wound in her head on Pine Point Beach July 2.
The release, in Cape Elizabeth’s Dyer Cove, was successful, with all three animals heading out to sea.
Two of the seals had lived in the wild for a long time, and headed quickly back to their natural habitat.
The third, rescued by the Lifeline when only a day old, took longer to get used to the surf and salt water, changes from its tank at the Lifeline’s rehabilitation center.
Immediately following the release, Lifeline President Greg Jakush and several volunteers drove to Hannaford Cove to check out a report of a dead turtle on the beach.
The turtle was located and was “very dead,” Jakush said. The Lifeline had been receiving reports of the dead turtle floating along the coast for a couple of weeks. The first sighting was in Damariscotta.
Also on the beach at Hannaford Cove was a dead adult seal, part of a recent surge in dead seal reports to the Lifeline. Jakush said the increase is natural and is not cause for alarm. He said recent high tides and odd currents are washing seal carcasses off ledges further out to sea, where they die of natural causes.
None of the seals so far, he said, were rescued and released by the Lifeline.
Jakush said he also received a report recently of a former Lifeline patient “frolicking and playing” in the Cape Cod Channel in Massachusetts.
“He made a heck of a j o u r n e y,” Jakush said.
People who find stranded or injured marine animals should call the Marine Animal Lifeline’s 24-hour hotline at 851-6625.
The Marine Animal Lifeline released three seals on the morning of Sept. 5, including one, named Chance, that had been found with a gunshot wound in her head on Pine Point Beach July 2.
The release, in Cape Elizabeth’s Dyer Cove, was successful, with all three animals heading out to sea.
Two of the seals had lived in the wild for a long time, and headed quickly back to their natural habitat.
The third, rescued by the Lifeline when only a day old, took longer to get used to the surf and salt water, changes from its tank at the Lifeline’s rehabilitation center.
Immediately following the release, Lifeline President Greg Jakush and several volunteers drove to Hannaford Cove to check out a report of a dead turtle on the beach.
The turtle was located and was “very dead,” Jakush said. The Lifeline had been receiving reports of the dead turtle floating along the coast for a couple of weeks. The first sighting was in Damariscotta.
Also on the beach at Hannaford Cove was a dead adult seal, part of a recent surge in dead seal reports to the Lifeline. Jakush said the increase is natural and is not cause for alarm. He said recent high tides and odd currents are washing seal carcasses off ledges further out to sea, where they die of natural causes.
None of the seals so far, he said, were rescued and released by the Lifeline.
Jakush said he also received a report recently of a former Lifeline patient “frolicking and playing” in the Cape Cod Channel in Massachusetts.
“He made a heck of a j o u r n e y,” Jakush said.
People who find stranded or injured marine animals should call the Marine Animal Lifeline’s 24-hour hotline at 851-6625.
School renovation costs cut
Published in the Current
Cape Elizabeth school officials have been able to trim $1.6 million from the plans to renovate the high school, and say they are not yet finished.
Large questions remain about how classes will use space, and whether the changes need to be made all at once or can be made over time.
A meeting of several school department staff members, building committee members and project architect Bob Howe led cuts in the high school project from $9.2 million to $7.6 million, School Board and building committee Chairman Marie Prager told the board’s Finance Committee on Tuesday.
That brings the total, for renovations at the high school and additions to Pond Cove School, to $10.1 million, down from $11.7 million.
“We were able to shave down some of the dollars,” Prager told the Current in an interview. Specific details will not be available until a Sept. 26 meeting of the building committee, she said.
“We took out things that were obvious to all of us had to come out,” she said.
Among the cuts, Prager told the Finance Committee, were some site work and a $500,000 sprinkler system. Also reduced were costs to pave the rear parking lot at the school, now a gravel area. The original plan included relocating the road behind the school, but Prager said leaving the road where it is could save as much as $70,000.
Other savings may come in work that can be completed by the schools’ maintenance staff.
The cuts so far are preliminary and are subject to the decision of the entire building committee, Prager said.
The board will hold a workshop Sept. 24 on all-day or extended-day kindergarten, to decide if the addition to Pond Cove needs to be as extensive as it is planned. If all-day kindergarten happens in the next several years, said Superintendent Tom Forcella, “it would be foolish not to build space for it.”
Enrollment that continues to exceed even the high end of the district’s projections is also cause for concern. So is the timeline: The board would like to have the school bond available for a referendum on the town’s election day in May, if the Town Council sends the question to the voters.
Prager said the building committee may get to a point with the project
where they turn to Howe with a total dollar figure and ask, “what can we get for that?”
Board member Kevin Sweeney pointed out the importance of getting everything organized the first time, saying there would not be a second chance to get the project past the council or the public.
Board member Susan Steinman worried about the process being driven by the building project’s urgency, rather than educational priorities. “What population do we want to be serving, to what degree?” she asked.
Also undecided are the total cost and construction timeline. “Alot of things are up in the air,” Prager said.
Prager said she and board finance Chairman Elaine Moloney are laying the ground work for extended dealings with the Town Council this year.
“We realize that we’re all not going to always agree,” Prager said.
But she said it was important for the two bodies to keep in close contact, especially with money so tight. “We’re headed for difficult times,” she said.
Building committee meetings will now have minutes recorded. The minutes will be sent to members of the School Board and the Town Council, to keep everyone informed, Moloney said. She expects to give the council a budget update in December or January as well, she said.
Not all the board members are ready to go along with the plan of improving school-council relations.
Board member George Entwistle, who took a strong stand against council budget cuts during last year’s school budget process, warned Prager and Moloney against getting too close to the council.
“I am very cautious about inviting the fox into the henhouse,” he said. “There’s a fundamental difference of mission.”
At the School Board’s regular business meeting, which followed the finance committee meeting, the board heard from:
– Superintendent Tom Forcella that several groups of school staff were recognized on the first day of school for their hard work and dedication. They included the seventh grade teaching team for their work with the laptop program, the entire staff of Pond Cove school for its literacy accomplishments, the maintenance department for helping save money in energy and maintenance costs, and the high school science department for organizing the new high school science curriculum.
– Pond Cove Principal Tom Eismeier that while first-grade teacher Kelly Hasson was not selected as the Maine Teacher of the Year, “we still think Kelly Hasson would be our teacher of the year. ”
– Seventh-grade teacher Beverly Bisbee about the first few days of work with the laptops, accompanied by a digital photo slide-show to the music of “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring.”
The School Board will hold a workshop meeting on the subject of all-day and extended-day kindergarten, at 7:30 p.m., Sept. 24, in the high school library. The board’s next regular business meeting will be Oct. 8, at 7:30 p.m., in the Town Council chambers.
Cape Elizabeth school officials have been able to trim $1.6 million from the plans to renovate the high school, and say they are not yet finished.
Large questions remain about how classes will use space, and whether the changes need to be made all at once or can be made over time.
A meeting of several school department staff members, building committee members and project architect Bob Howe led cuts in the high school project from $9.2 million to $7.6 million, School Board and building committee Chairman Marie Prager told the board’s Finance Committee on Tuesday.
That brings the total, for renovations at the high school and additions to Pond Cove School, to $10.1 million, down from $11.7 million.
“We were able to shave down some of the dollars,” Prager told the Current in an interview. Specific details will not be available until a Sept. 26 meeting of the building committee, she said.
“We took out things that were obvious to all of us had to come out,” she said.
Among the cuts, Prager told the Finance Committee, were some site work and a $500,000 sprinkler system. Also reduced were costs to pave the rear parking lot at the school, now a gravel area. The original plan included relocating the road behind the school, but Prager said leaving the road where it is could save as much as $70,000.
Other savings may come in work that can be completed by the schools’ maintenance staff.
The cuts so far are preliminary and are subject to the decision of the entire building committee, Prager said.
The board will hold a workshop Sept. 24 on all-day or extended-day kindergarten, to decide if the addition to Pond Cove needs to be as extensive as it is planned. If all-day kindergarten happens in the next several years, said Superintendent Tom Forcella, “it would be foolish not to build space for it.”
Enrollment that continues to exceed even the high end of the district’s projections is also cause for concern. So is the timeline: The board would like to have the school bond available for a referendum on the town’s election day in May, if the Town Council sends the question to the voters.
Prager said the building committee may get to a point with the project
where they turn to Howe with a total dollar figure and ask, “what can we get for that?”
Board member Kevin Sweeney pointed out the importance of getting everything organized the first time, saying there would not be a second chance to get the project past the council or the public.
Board member Susan Steinman worried about the process being driven by the building project’s urgency, rather than educational priorities. “What population do we want to be serving, to what degree?” she asked.
Also undecided are the total cost and construction timeline. “Alot of things are up in the air,” Prager said.
Prager said she and board finance Chairman Elaine Moloney are laying the ground work for extended dealings with the Town Council this year.
“We realize that we’re all not going to always agree,” Prager said.
But she said it was important for the two bodies to keep in close contact, especially with money so tight. “We’re headed for difficult times,” she said.
Building committee meetings will now have minutes recorded. The minutes will be sent to members of the School Board and the Town Council, to keep everyone informed, Moloney said. She expects to give the council a budget update in December or January as well, she said.
Not all the board members are ready to go along with the plan of improving school-council relations.
Board member George Entwistle, who took a strong stand against council budget cuts during last year’s school budget process, warned Prager and Moloney against getting too close to the council.
“I am very cautious about inviting the fox into the henhouse,” he said. “There’s a fundamental difference of mission.”
At the School Board’s regular business meeting, which followed the finance committee meeting, the board heard from:
– Superintendent Tom Forcella that several groups of school staff were recognized on the first day of school for their hard work and dedication. They included the seventh grade teaching team for their work with the laptop program, the entire staff of Pond Cove school for its literacy accomplishments, the maintenance department for helping save money in energy and maintenance costs, and the high school science department for organizing the new high school science curriculum.
– Pond Cove Principal Tom Eismeier that while first-grade teacher Kelly Hasson was not selected as the Maine Teacher of the Year, “we still think Kelly Hasson would be our teacher of the year. ”
– Seventh-grade teacher Beverly Bisbee about the first few days of work with the laptops, accompanied by a digital photo slide-show to the music of “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring.”
The School Board will hold a workshop meeting on the subject of all-day and extended-day kindergarten, at 7:30 p.m., Sept. 24, in the high school library. The board’s next regular business meeting will be Oct. 8, at 7:30 p.m., in the Town Council chambers.
Chief wants more pay for firefighters
Published in the Current
Scarborough Fire Chief Michael Thurlow last week laid out his plan to increase firefighters’ pay, improve coverage throughout the town and reorganize some of the department’s administrative and training duties.
It is a sweeping plan, which could cost thousands of dollars a year in additional salary and benefits, but Thurlow told the Town Council at its Sept. 4 workshop the town needs it.
Further, he said, it is far cheaper than the alternative: a fire service staffed entirely by full-time firefighters.
“It is inevitable that this community will grow to the extent that we need a full-time department, at some point,” Thurlow said. But in the meantime, there are some changes the Town Council can implement to keep the town’s fire protection level up while still keeping costs at a reasonable level.
Thurlow asked councilors to phase in firefighters’ pay increases for advanced fire and rescue training, pay firefighters for the hours they spend in training and pay increments for people who stay in the department over the long term. Also part of his plan is for additional full-time administrative and regulatory staff to handle the department’s paperwork, supervisory tasks and fire prevention responsibilities.
All firefighters now get paid $10 per hour, a rate Thurlow wants to use as the base rate for basic firefighters.
Thurlow asked the council to increase pay rates 50 cents per hour for each fire training level a firefighter attains, starting Jan. 1.
That could cost as much as $98,000 a year, Thurlow said, though there is no money in this budget for such an expense.
Rather, savings would need to be found in other areas of town spending, according to Town Manager Ron Owens.
Paying firefighters more would help the town retain its fire crews, Thurlow
said. The more on-call firefighters the town has, the longer it can last without a full-time fire service, Thurlow said.
He said the expense of increasing firefighters’ pay pales in comparison to what it would cost to pay full-time firefighters for similar service. “It is a much cheaper alternative to full-time staffing,” he said.
To further streamline department operations, Thurlow wants to add a full-time training coordinator to handle the 8,000 man-hours of training the department conducts each year, a full-time administrative assistant for the
rescue department and a fire prevention officer.
He also wants to add two daytime firefighters, who staff the town’s fire stations from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. each day, to ensure a faster response to fires. In addition to fire coverage, they can be used as shift supervisors.
The fire prevention officer, Thurlow said, could be partially paid for by fees the department now charges developers for reviewing fire safety plans.
That officer would also do fire safety inspections for businesses and visit the town’s schools, especially during October’s Fire Prevention Week, Thurlow said.
He went on to lay the groundwork for a future request for additional full-time staff, saying there may be a need for full-time emergency medical technicians at the stations, to supplement the paramedics now there. Further, he said, there may also be a need to increase firefighter coverage during the evening commute time. Presently, daytime firefighters leave work at 4:30 p.m., handing off coverage to on-call firefighters.
Bad traffic at the Route 22 intersection with Route 114 can keep firefighters from getting to the station quickly, to respond to fires in time, he said.
Thurlow said he expects to need to phase in these changes, to reduce impact on the budget, but said the changes need to happen quickly. “I’m hoping that we can accomplish a lot of it within the next three years,” he said.
Councilor and Finance Committee Chairman Patrick O’Reilly encouraged Thurlow to look at cooperation with neighboring towns for training purposes and staffing. The town has such an agreement with Gorham, in which one Gorham firefighter and fire truck are based at the North Scarborough fire station, which provides fire protection in North Scarborough and South Gorham.
Council Chairman Jeff Messer said he would support a 10 percent annual increase for the fire and rescue budget, with some of that money increasing pay and the rest of it used for additional full-time staff.
Town Manager Ron Owens cautioned Messer not to commit himself before reviewing the needs of the rest of the town’s departments.
O’Reilly said he wanted to know the numbers of people at each training level and longevity step. Thurlow said he would bring that to a follow-up meeting, to happen in October.
Scarborough Fire Chief Michael Thurlow last week laid out his plan to increase firefighters’ pay, improve coverage throughout the town and reorganize some of the department’s administrative and training duties.
It is a sweeping plan, which could cost thousands of dollars a year in additional salary and benefits, but Thurlow told the Town Council at its Sept. 4 workshop the town needs it.
Further, he said, it is far cheaper than the alternative: a fire service staffed entirely by full-time firefighters.
“It is inevitable that this community will grow to the extent that we need a full-time department, at some point,” Thurlow said. But in the meantime, there are some changes the Town Council can implement to keep the town’s fire protection level up while still keeping costs at a reasonable level.
Thurlow asked councilors to phase in firefighters’ pay increases for advanced fire and rescue training, pay firefighters for the hours they spend in training and pay increments for people who stay in the department over the long term. Also part of his plan is for additional full-time administrative and regulatory staff to handle the department’s paperwork, supervisory tasks and fire prevention responsibilities.
All firefighters now get paid $10 per hour, a rate Thurlow wants to use as the base rate for basic firefighters.
Thurlow asked the council to increase pay rates 50 cents per hour for each fire training level a firefighter attains, starting Jan. 1.
That could cost as much as $98,000 a year, Thurlow said, though there is no money in this budget for such an expense.
Rather, savings would need to be found in other areas of town spending, according to Town Manager Ron Owens.
Paying firefighters more would help the town retain its fire crews, Thurlow
said. The more on-call firefighters the town has, the longer it can last without a full-time fire service, Thurlow said.
He said the expense of increasing firefighters’ pay pales in comparison to what it would cost to pay full-time firefighters for similar service. “It is a much cheaper alternative to full-time staffing,” he said.
To further streamline department operations, Thurlow wants to add a full-time training coordinator to handle the 8,000 man-hours of training the department conducts each year, a full-time administrative assistant for the
rescue department and a fire prevention officer.
He also wants to add two daytime firefighters, who staff the town’s fire stations from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. each day, to ensure a faster response to fires. In addition to fire coverage, they can be used as shift supervisors.
The fire prevention officer, Thurlow said, could be partially paid for by fees the department now charges developers for reviewing fire safety plans.
That officer would also do fire safety inspections for businesses and visit the town’s schools, especially during October’s Fire Prevention Week, Thurlow said.
He went on to lay the groundwork for a future request for additional full-time staff, saying there may be a need for full-time emergency medical technicians at the stations, to supplement the paramedics now there. Further, he said, there may also be a need to increase firefighter coverage during the evening commute time. Presently, daytime firefighters leave work at 4:30 p.m., handing off coverage to on-call firefighters.
Bad traffic at the Route 22 intersection with Route 114 can keep firefighters from getting to the station quickly, to respond to fires in time, he said.
Thurlow said he expects to need to phase in these changes, to reduce impact on the budget, but said the changes need to happen quickly. “I’m hoping that we can accomplish a lot of it within the next three years,” he said.
Councilor and Finance Committee Chairman Patrick O’Reilly encouraged Thurlow to look at cooperation with neighboring towns for training purposes and staffing. The town has such an agreement with Gorham, in which one Gorham firefighter and fire truck are based at the North Scarborough fire station, which provides fire protection in North Scarborough and South Gorham.
Council Chairman Jeff Messer said he would support a 10 percent annual increase for the fire and rescue budget, with some of that money increasing pay and the rest of it used for additional full-time staff.
Town Manager Ron Owens cautioned Messer not to commit himself before reviewing the needs of the rest of the town’s departments.
O’Reilly said he wanted to know the numbers of people at each training level and longevity step. Thurlow said he would bring that to a follow-up meeting, to happen in October.
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