Richmond, Stockbridge, and West Stockbridge — In their second session, the leaders of three southern Berkshire towns met to mull over a system that would take their emergency medical (EMS) and firefighter services into the future as the number of personnel lapses and needed educational requirements for these positions climb.
The August 22 discussion comes on the heels of the Richmond/Stockbridge/West Stockbridge Fire/EMS Committee’s first session in July, during which community leaders acknowledged the recent decline in fire department staffing historically handled by volunteers, as well as the geographical issues faced by high-demand EMS departments whose members must now travel greater distances to reach calls.
“Volunteerism is dying out as a whole,” said Stockbridge Fire Chief Vincent Garofoli. “Not because of the fire service, per se, but because of the demands on the current people that live in our area, the cost of living.”
The details
The meeting’s focus was on an August 22 report analyzing the costs of shared fire and EMS departments between the three towns. A preferred option looked at combining the emergency services of Stockbridge and West Stockbridge, transitioning their departments into full-time fire/EMS units backed by volunteers. While this proposal provides for those two towns to be the primary areas for response, it would offer support services and training to Richmond staff that would manage its own EMS and fire services according to the municipality’s financial ability and needs. Although this option would allow resources to be shared to financially benefit Stockbridge and West Stockbridge with improved services and staff training, Richmond may “miss out” on these benefits as its budget is limited. Under the plan, Richmond would house its own EMS staff as its department currently includes ambulance services.
Another option that wasn’t favored involved all three named towns sharing resources and support, resulting in improved response times. However, the setup would require more costs upfront and operationally for staffing, infrastructure, and equipment, monies Richmond lacks.
“Given the importance of ensuring that any shared services arrangement is financially viable for all participating municipalities is key,” the report stated. “Given Richmond’s fiscal limitations, their involvement could impose undue financial stress on the town, potentially compromising the quality and sustainability of a shared service agreement.”
Dollars and sense
The proposed scenario is based on a department with eight full-time fire/EMS staffers plus one full-time chief. Two of these staff members would serve as deputy chiefs, with one assigned to finance and the other to operations. The annual salary and benefit cost of this configuration is $977,205, and the crew would be backed up by volunteer firefighters.
According to the proposal, the cost to each town would be based on the department’s salaries and municipal population, with West Stockbridge responsible for 40 percent of the costs, or $387,420, and Stockbridge taking on 60 percent of the costs, or $589,785.
The proposal centers around the possibility of adding a new station on West Stockbridge Road in Stockbridge, a move that would result in improved response times, the report stated. The cost estimate for constructing the new fire/emergency station is around $4.33 million, according to the report that based the calculation on a 2019 Hadley station build, with the Stockbridge site requiring an additional bay and more square footage.
However, Richmond Select Board Chair Neal Pilson said those construction figures are outdated, and current costs would be greater, with the Stockbridge project even three to four more years out to completion if it moves forward.
Stockbridge Town Administrator Michael Canales said his town would be fully responsible for the cost of the new station since, should the other municipalities involved pull out of the agreement, Stockbridge would be able to continue its services in the town-owned facility. The report provided a debt-amortization schedule for the structure that reflected that, with a four percent interest rate over 20 years, the annual payment for Stockbridge would tally $318,484, with the potential to decrease that debt if the Glendale and Interlaken fire stations were sold and the profits applied to the project.
With the annual fire/EMS crew salary cost of $589,785 and an annual building payment of $318,484, Stockbridge would be on the hook for an estimated $908,269 annually and West Stockbridge for $387,420. Under the terms of the proposal, Richmond would contribute one-fourth of the fire chief’s estimated $104,572 salary, or $26,143, and “would provide their own Fire/EMS staff while receiving leadership, training and professional support” from the other two towns.
Over the years, the Stockbridge department’s calls between fire and EMS have skewed heavily to the latter, Canales said. “One thing that we are seeing across the county, not just what we’re looking at here is just the amount, the overall amount of medical calls, the demand on the EMS services increasing,” said Stockbridge Fire Chief Vincent Garofoli. “Not only that but the number of severe medical calls, trauma, are also increasing.”
For Richmond, Pilson said his town’s call record over the last three to four months barely supports a single EMS shift. “The call numbers are just not that high,” he said.
The timing of the project is crucial for committee members.
“A lot of it is going to depend on volunteerism and how this ramps up,” said Stockbridge Select Board Chair Ernesto Cardillo. “As the volunteers die down, you’re going to hire more full time. You can’t really put a year on it; it all depends on how the volunteers stay up because once we get to a certain point where the volunteers can’t do it anymore, we [must] go to paid [staff]—it could be two years, it could be 10 years. It’s kind of hard to pinpoint.”
Stockbridge Select Board member Patrick White pointed out that the population of his town swells in the summer, an issue warranting a staffing formula to accommodate the additional seasonal residents but be fair to employing public-safety personnel.
With its fire department, West Stockbridge shares services with Richmond that includes firefighters who double as emergency medical technicians. Stockbridge and Lee share services, with Lee embarking on a new public-safety complex.
Although the discussion hit various topics, no decision was made, with more research to be undertaken before the group meets again on October 24. Canales said the group can explore other “decent cost measures across the board” for services to be shared between all three towns, with those services being “attainable, affordable and realistic.”
“What we don’t want to do is weaken one community and strengthen others,” he said. “That doesn’t help. We’ve got to be raising the entire system up so it’s stronger as a whole.”
