Roseboro OKs part-time firefighter pay raise

ROSEBORO — Increased wages for part-time employees of the Roseboro Volunteer Fire Department are on tap following unanimous approval of a request for higher pay that passed.

Discussions for a pay bump were presented under new business for the town by Fire Chief Lee Coleman, who noted the reason for the increase request was to attract and retain part-time personnel during daytime shifts.

“I have a prepared statement tonight so that I don’t ramble on like I sometimes do,” he said jokingly. “I would like to speak with you today about a critical issue affecting our fire department and the safety of our community.”

Coleman began diving into his prepared statement, citing his request comes following a dire need to address increased call volume and staffing shortages, along with current pay being among the lowest in the county.

“As you know, sometime after I became fire chief, I saw the need for part-time employees to staff the station during weekdays due to a lack of volunteers and increase in call volume and responsibility,” he said. “At the time, we were one of the first departments to staff our station during the day, and since then, several other departments have done so as well. I have surveyed several other departments in the county, and have seen that we need to increase our pay to be competitive, with it being increasingly difficult to recruit and retain part-time personnel for daytime shifts.”

Coleman noted he believed the increase would solve the staff shortage, which he stated was the most critical issue.

“With staffing shortages being the most critical, the increase will make it easier for me to employ daytime help,” he relayed. “I feel it’s time to offer our personnel the same competitive wage as the other departments in this county. As to why this is important, the majority of our members, all but one, have an 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. job, working Monday through Friday, so they’re not able to respond unless somebody happens to be off of work.”

Because of those problems, Coleman said not only do they struggle to find and keep staff, it also hinders the department’s ability to tackle fire crisis.

“This directly affects our ability to meet the minimum staffing requirements for a structure fire, which calls for at least four firefighters on the initial response,” he said. “With our current staffing challenges, we have struggled to assemble enough personnel quickly enough during the weekdays, which can delay critical fire suppression and rescue efforts, ultimately impacting the safety of both firefighters and the public.”

Those stresses, Coleman said, were not only problematic for fire crews but affected him and his duty as fire chief as well.

“As fire chief, this ongoing daytime staffing shortage is a significant source of stress — I want to emphasize that — and concern,” he stated. “Every day I worry about whether we will have enough firefighters available to respond to emergencies during the daytime hours. The uncertainty of whether help will arrive is not just frustrating, it’s dangerous.”

Following those outlines, Coleman asked the board to approve his pay increase request which would up the current pay of $10 an hour by an additional $4.

“I’m hoping that competitive pay will attract more personnel willing to work during critical daytime hours and ultimately improve the service that we provide,” Coleman stressed. “I’m asking that you support a pay increase to $14 an hour. This will not require any added money, as we already have what we need in our current budget to support this increase. Hopefully this will increase the number of days we have someone on duty, and so that somebody will be working the day we might have a house fire at 11 a.m. on a Tuesday, so we can be there.”

The board questioned what hours part-timers work, which chief specified to be between 20-30 hours.

“That’s maybe six hours here, four hours there, a part-timer is going to come in when they come in and leave when they need to leave,” Coleman said. “I can’t tell them they can’t leave, and I’ve emphasized the importance of being there all day. Even so, they come in and do the work and at lunch time they’re done, they want to go do other things, so they leave. And some leave to go to another job, because its a part-time job that pays more money. So we hope to change that by offering $14, which is very competitive with the rest of the county.”

Following no further questions, the motion was made and the board voted to unanimously approve the increase.