By Rod Hansen
Staff Writer

A firefighter-submitted warrant article requests $221,258 for hiring 18 new firefighter/EMTs, but the move could ultimately cost Goffstown taxpayers additional millions of dollars, the chairman of the town's board of selectmen said.

“This is a ploy that people use to get what they want,” said Goffstown Selectmen Chairman Gossett McRae of the article, which calls for hiring nine new firefighter/EMTs in July, and the remaining nine in September.

“When you look at how much it will cost to employ 18 new firefighter/EMTs, including base pay and benefits, you could be into $3 million or $4 million,” McRae said.

The petitioned article, submitted by Fire Lt. Bill Connor with more than 70 signatures, requests $221,258 for the hiring of 18 new firefighter/EMTs to provide 24-hour fire and emergency medical coverage to the town.

The money in that warrant article will combine with an additional $181,635 already in the town budget for firefighters ' pay, bringing the cost of paying for the 18 firefighters to $402,893, Connor said.

The article, as it will appear on the town warrant, reads as follows:

“To see if the Town will vote to raise and appropriate an additional sum of $221,258 (above the 2006 operating budget) of the $402,893 necessary to employ 18 additional full time Firefighter/EMTs within the Goffstown Fire Department, in order to implement 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, fire and fire based Emergency Medical Services, staffing a minimum of two fire stations. The effective date of hiring nine new full time Firefighter/EMTs shall commence effective July 1, 2006; and the effective date of which the remaining nine full time Firefighter/EMTs shall commence with a hiring date of Sept. 1, 2006.”

The money in that article covers the cost of hiring the new personnel as they are staggered in, but does not cover the expense of employing them in future years, Connor said.

However, the cost of employing full-time firefighter/EMTs will decrease the amount spent on weekend and holiday coverage, Connor said.

Despite the $221,258 requested in the article, McRae said the cost of employing 18 new firefighter/EMT's would more likely reach nearly $1 million during their first 12 months, and would increase further as the new employees acquire additional benefit and vacation pay, McRae said.

“The big three costs in employing the firefighters would be base pay, retirement and medical” benefits, McRae said.

With base pay and benefits, McRae said, employing a fulltime firefighter/EMT costs the town an average of $70,000. Town hall staff projected the cost of employing the 18 new firefighter/EMTs by calculating their expected base pay and benefits, McRae said.

Speaking to the notion of around-the-clock coverage, McRae said the town already provides such services. Goffstown 's three fire stations operate from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays, McRae said. Those stations include the Pinardville station on Mast Road, the village station on Church Street, and the East Goffstown station on Tirrell Hill Road.

During the hours between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m., the town is covered by on-call firefighters and two ambulance workers who stay in the Pinardville station, McRae said.

The cost of increasing the number of around-the-clock firefighters would also include building new lodging for them, McRae said. The current overnight ambulance workers stay at the Pinardville station when on duty, he said.

Goffstown employs 54 on-call firefighters who answer emergencies on evenings, weekends and holidays, said Fire Chief Frank Carpentino. Those firefighters are paid between $16.23 and $24 per hour, Carpentino said.

Members of the fire department canvassed the town on Saturday, Jan. 21, to promote the idea of hiring the new firefighter/EMT staff. In a good-natured show of “mutual aid” from their firefighting brethren, the 10 firefighters from Goffstown were joined by 65 firefighters from departments across the state and by David Lang, president of the Professional Firefighters of New Hampshire.

During the activities, firefighters collected signatures in support of the 18 new firefighters petition, which they promoted with large yellow lapel pins proclaiming “24/7.” Firefighters also collected information for a database of residents who support the idea, and handed out a “24/7 Fire and EMS Coverage Fact Sheet” in support of the measure.

“We want to keep gearing up support leading up to voting, and we want to be able to provide people with information as it becomes available,” Connor said during the event from his post at the Pinardville station.

The fact sheet provided several reasons why firefighters believe voters should support the hiring of new firefighters.

“The greatest advantage to providing 24-hour coverage to the community is that it will provide ?immediate response' of fire and EMS crews 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to meet the needs of the community ... the proposed warrant article will provide enough employees to staff two of the town's fire stations 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The department (will) provide the community with the same level of service at night as during the day,” the firefighters' information said.

The article asking for additional firefighter/EMTs is one of a handful of articles concerning the fire department that will appear on the ballot during March 14 voting. The most controversial of these articles involves a selectmen-submitted plan to merge the police and fire departments.

That article reads as follows:

“To see if the Town will vote to endorse the Board of Selectmen's decision to consolidate Police, Fire, EMS, and Code Enforcement services into a Public Safety Department administered by a Public Safety Director. The savings from this administrative consolidation will result in a reduction to the operating budget of Seventy Seven Thousand Sixteen Dollars ($77,016).”

Carpentino was ousted from his position Jan. 1 to make room for the merger of the town's safety departments, but Hillsborough Superior Court Judge Philip Mangones issued a temporary order Jan. 12 stating that selectmen could not fire Carpentino without cause, and that the merger must go to voters.

Carpentino was reinstated following that order.

Prior to Mangones' ruling, selectmen had named Police Chief Michael French as the interim public safety director and Deputy Fire Chief Mark Hurley as the town's fire chief of operations pending the voters ' decision on the merger.

McRae said selectmen are now asking Mangones to reconsider the ruling. Explaining his doubts about the ruling, McRae said, “I don't think (Mangones) understood all the issues.”