Mayor James Ireton Jr., today, linked the loss of the Salisbury SAFER Grant firefighters to the ongoing debate about the long-expired Fire Service Agreement between Wicomico County and the City of Salisbury. As of Friday, November 28, 2014, the SAFER officers’ (12) grant expired. This grant was never meant to hire firefighters for permanent position status.
The Salisbury City Council met this afternoon to discuss the SAFER Grant officers. It is Mayor Ireton’s hope that the Council considers the underlying cause of why more fire service personal aren’t hired: the lack of a Fire Service Agreement with Wicomico County. The Salisbury Fire Department currently services 56.58% of Wicomico County which is outside City limits by responding to 63% of all fire calls, and 67% of all EMS calls which originate in the County. This service amounts to $2.2 million in cost. That money is not paid back to the city.
The City will extend a request that Wicomico County address this financial disparity on Friday, January 2, 2015, the first working day of the New Year. Below is a list of what Mayor Ireton believes benefits city taxpayers.
• A new Fire Service Agreement that pays Salisbury to the full extent of what service is provided to Wicomico County residents.
• No movement of funds from other city departments to pay for extending the SAFER Grant officers.
• No use of surplus funds to pay to extend the SAFER Grant. Taxpayers have already paid for a service for the county which is not being paid back. Asking them to pay again is hitting taxpayers unfairly – TWICE.
“Last week we activated 2 frozen positions in our fire service, we have hired to permanent status 11 SAFER Grant officers, and we extended the life of the grant for 6 weeks to keep our grant officers longer. We are applying for the SAFER grant again in the hopes of being granted an award in 2015. The fair and equitable response to extending SAFER Grant officers into permanent status is for our fire leadership, including myself, the Salisbury City Council, our 3 volunteer fire companies, our local IAFF union, and the public to call on Wicomico County leaders to fix this tax burden inequity in 2015,” said Mayor Ireton.
