Plum departments begin volunteer firefighter stipend program
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Five days into a new program that offers stipends for volunteer firefighters in Plum, Holiday Park VFD Chief Jim Sims said things have gone “very well.”
The stipends — $15 per hour — were approved by the borough in January after the Plum Fire Chiefs Association initially presented the program last year.
Sims said the stipends ensure that at least three trained firefighters are available to supplement other crews during daylight shifts from 7 a.m. to noon and noon to 5 p.m. during weekdays at the centrally located Renton Volunteer FD station.
On Monday, a three-man crew from Renton, Unity and Logans Ferry Heights departments were the first to receive the stipends. Throughout the week, Sims said, stipend crews responded to several fires throughout Plum and nearby, including a deadly fire Thursday in New Kensington.
The new program, Sims said, aims to bolster the Plum departments in the face of decades of declining numbers among volunteer fire departments throughout the country.
“It’s a recruitment tool, and we consider it a retention tool so that guys know that they have the opportunity with the stipend program to participate and actually make some money on the side, too,” the chief said.
So far, around 36 active members from among Plum’s four departments have applied to be part of the program, Sims said.
In the early development stages, the Plum chiefs looked to Unity Township in Westmoreland County, which launched a similar program among its seven departments last year.
The volunteers are paid out of Plum’s fire tax fund, which gets its money from a portion of the borough’s property taxes earmarked for the fire companies. But Borough Manager David Soboslay said the firefighters are not borough employees nor does the borough direct any department operations.
Soboslay said the stipends are part of a trial program that will continue until the end of this year, when the chiefs and borough will analyze the results. The future of the program is unclear at this point, but Soboslay said he would “love to see it move forward” into next year.
Soboslay said borough officials hope the program becomes a success, provides value to Plum residents and decreases response times is every part of the borough.
For Sims, the new program also represents the banding together of Plum’s four departments in the face of occasional staffing difficulties.
But in the end, the move is simply meant as an assurance to the citizens of Plum that calls will be answered no matter the time of day.
“(Each department) needs help at some point during the day, and we’re coming together as a group, and we’ve worked very hard,” Sims said.