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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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With a loss of 23 more firefighters and 2 fire stations it is no wonder the county will drop us.
Suburban fire chiefs warn Flint they won't take over work because of pink slips
By Ron Fonger | Flint Journal
February 21, 2010, 10:00AM
Jim Harmes
GENESEE COUNTY — No offense Flint, but the suburbs aren’t ready to fight your fires for you.
That’s the message from anxious fire chiefs from all over the county, who last week agreed to tell Flint Mayor Dayne Walling that his plan to pink slip 23 firefighters might mean an end to the city’s mutual aid agreements with outcounty fire departments.
“A lot of departments might refuse to go help if they are asked,” said Eric Merriam, president of the Genesee County Association of Fire Chiefs. “We’ve got to take care of our own people.
“We’re putting (Flint) on notice: You might struggle to get help if you ask for it,” Merriam said.
It’s too soon to say if Walling’s plan to lay off 57 police officers will be met with similar resistance from the county sheriff’s department and state police when it comes to extra help.
Michigan State Police and county Sheriff Robert Pickell said they need more information before commenting on their ability to help fill that void.
Fire chiefs, however, said there is already a problem with Flint’s mutual aid agreements because the city lacks manpower and because their assistance has too often been a one-way arrangement when it comes to helping with otherwise unmanageable fires and other emergencies.
“Our taxpayers are not going to subsidize the city of Flint,” said Jim Harmes, chief of the Grand Blanc Fire Department. “I feel like the city needs to be put on notice that they may be in jeopardy of losing (the mutual aid).”
Grand Blanc Township resident David Cabello said he supports keeping his firefighters close to home.
“My wife is diabetic. If she needed help, it could take forever for the firefighters to get here, and she might not be able to afford that extra time if she was having a seizure or something,” Cabello said.
“If something happened to my house (I don’t want) to lose it because the firefighters don’t get there fast enough (because) they're dealing with something in Flint,” he said.
Outcounty fire chiefs on Wednesday voted to tell Walling in a letter that his layoffs could destroy the already shaky arrangement.
Walling said Friday that he had yet to receive the letter from area fire chiefs and would not comment in detail until he has.
He called mutual aid among fire departments “important” and said he would “have discussions to work through those concerns” to keep the agreements in place.
The concerns are real, said Gary Domerese, chief of the Clio Area Fire Department, which covers the city, Vienna and Thetford townships.
Even before Walling announced the latest layoffs, Domerese said he wrote to the city about six months ago, because Flint’s fire-fighting ranks had become too depleted.
“We’ve got good relations (with Flint firefighters). I don’t want people to think we’re adversarial ... I just want the relationship to be truly mutual,” he said.
Burton Fire Chief Doug Halstead said he’s already talked to Burton officials about the potential for more requests for help from Flint.
Halstead he won’t hesitate to help in an emergency but won’t cover Flint fire stations’ more routine work because the city has cut back its fire services too much.
“That’s been an ongoing concern —trying to subsidize Flint’s lack of personnel,” he said. “With budgets being cut everywhere, our departments can’t do it anymore.”
Flint firefighters union president Raul Garcia said he understands why other departments are wary of the latest pink slips in Flint.
“I respect their position,” he said. “Mutual aid is supposed to work both ways. If they have a major fire, we should be able to respond too.”
Fire chiefs said they aren’t reimbursed when they are requested to help Flint on mutual aid calls and when equipment is damaged fighting fires in Flint, taxpayers in those communities pay the cost.
Flint should call in its own off-duty firefighters when it’s faced with simultaneous or large-scale fires before asking for mutual aid, Domerese said.
On the police side, Flint state police post Commander Rick Arnold said he wants to talk to city of Flint officials before reacting to media reports of planned layoffs.
Troopers already patrol some in the city but don’t typically respond to calls for service.
“We’re limited also,” said Arnold, who said the state police force is at its lowest staffing level since the 1970s.
“We would do what we feasibly could do,” he said.
Pickell would not comment on how his department would handle any increased workload in the city. When city officials broached the idea of more joint services with the county in 2002, Pickell said at the time that he was very limited in the support he could give the city as it went through a different budget struggle.
Two Flint officers are currently assigned to two joint initiatives that the county is also involved in — a drug team run by the sheriff and the Safe Streets Task Force.
It’s not known if those officers would be affected by the layoffs.
Flint police union president Keith Speer could not be reached for comment.
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Two Flint officers are currently assigned to two joint initiatives that the county is also involved in — a drug team run by the sheriff and the Safe Streets Task Force.
It’s not known if those officers would be affected by the layoffs.
Flint police union president Keith Speer could not be reached for comment.
It is supposed to be more than two officers. Six were for the south side task force alone and were supposed to be recalled from previous layoffs. |
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Sun Feb 21, 2010 11:14 pm |
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andi03
F L I N T O I D
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It didn't say "No More Mutual Aid". It would be lessened than it has been in the past.
I have said in the past on here that the major cities are the anchor for the bedroom communities, especially if the city is construed as the county seat. Now, the unintended consequences of Walling's decisions are coming to fruition.
Everyone in America <insert patriotic music here> has a right when they pay taxes to have a public safety system in place in order to maintain peace and order, this includes firefighters.
There was one comment on that article that stated, paraphrasing severely: "If one of the large facilities, like the colleges, hospitals, theaters were to go up in smoke, then mutual aid would be necessary...."
But if a house were to catch on fire, I wouldn't want my jurisdiction to help out, as crass as it may seem. My jurisdiction has already cut their fire dept. personnel.
Mutual aid is only good when you are able to take care of your own first. |
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Mon Feb 22, 2010 7:38 am |
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back again
F L I N T O I D
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andi, get your butt back into the city and run for council!!!!!  |
_________________
even a small act of goodness may be a tiny raft of salvation across the treacherous gulf of sin, but one who drinks the wine of selfishness, and dances on the little boat of meaness, sinks in the ocean of ignorance.
P.Y. |
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Mon Feb 22, 2010 12:42 pm |
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andi03
F L I N T O I D
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I tried to submit my name in my own jurisdiction..was turned down... |
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Mon Feb 22, 2010 12:43 pm |
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back again
F L I N T O I D
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| in flint? |
_________________
even a small act of goodness may be a tiny raft of salvation across the treacherous gulf of sin, but one who drinks the wine of selfishness, and dances on the little boat of meaness, sinks in the ocean of ignorance.
P.Y. |
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Mon Feb 22, 2010 12:47 pm |
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twotap
F L I N T O I D
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Hey!! whats with the refrence to Andis butt. 
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"If you like your current healthcare you can keep it, Period"!!
Barack Hussein Obama--- multiple times. |
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Mon Feb 22, 2010 12:52 pm |
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andi03
F L I N T O I D
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quote:
back again schreef:
in flint?
no "outbound" |
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Mon Feb 22, 2010 1:08 pm |
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andi03
F L I N T O I D
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tt...nevermind.  |
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Mon Feb 22, 2010 1:09 pm |
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twotap
F L I N T O I D
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| Just kidding of course but ya gotta watch that backagain guy |
_________________
"If you like your current healthcare you can keep it, Period"!!
Barack Hussein Obama--- multiple times. |
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Mon Feb 22, 2010 1:39 pm |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Burton fire chief: Closing 2 Flint fire stations could jeopardize mutual aid
By Kristin Longley | Flint Journal
February 26, 2010, 3:18PM
FLINT, Michigan — The Burton fire chief said closing two Flint fire stations could jeopardize its mutual aid agreements with other Genesee County communities.
"Mutual aid is an agreement based upon reciprocity," Burton Fire Chief Doug Halstead said. "Flint as of late has not been able to provide reciprocity. They only have a limited number of people."
Flint Mayor Dayne Walling announced today that Station 8 on Atherton Road on the city’s south side and Station 3 on King Avenue on the city’s north side will close March 9 if his proposed 23 firefighter layoffs go into effect.
Walling said the layoffs could be avoided if an agreement is reached on union concessions. The city is trying to trim an $8-million deficit.
Halstead said no decision on mutual aid will be made until the targeted stations close.
But last week, a group of fire chiefs from all over the county agreed to tell Walling that his plan to lay off 23 firefighters might mean an end to the city’s agreement with the rest of the county.
Fire chiefs have said there is already a problem with Flint’s mutual aid agreements because the city lacks manpower and because their assistance has too often been a one-way arrangement when it comes to helping with otherwise unmanageable fires and other emergencies.
Halstead said he already has told Flint fire officials that Burton firefighters will not staff Flint fire stations. He said Flint in the past has asked Burton fire personnel to come in and backfill its stations, which he said isn't fair to the taxpayers of Burton.
Halstead said up to this point and "until the point of layoffs" the mutual aid agreement is intact.
"We are still providing mutual aid," he said. "I don't know what will happen if and when they close the stations." |
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Fri Feb 26, 2010 8:24 pm |
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