At a recent Great Falls Town Council meeting, Fire Chief Chapin Jones sounded the alarm about the scarcity of firefighters in his department. The problem got even worse on Monday.
Great Falls Town Council held an emergency meeting Monday with the only item on the agenda being a personnel matter in the fire department. After about an hour of discussion behind closed doors, the Council emerged and voted unanimously to terminate Jones. No reason for the dismissal was given. Jones was present for the meeting but left just as the vote was being taken. During the executive session, he told the News & Reporter he was unsure of what the meeting was about.
At a meeting last month, Jones addressed the council about his staffing issues and his assessment was fairly dire. He said at time, “the Town is going without coverage” because of a lack of firefighters. His staff at that point included one full-time firefighter (who was slated to leave five days later), about 20 volunteers (all of whom have other jobs and are not always able to respond) and some part-timers, all of whom were on “a break,” he said. Given that situation, Jones said he often had to rely on Fort Lawn and other departments to respond to calls.
The primary issue with attracting and retaining firefighters is pay, he said. While Great Falls starts new hires out at a slightly higher pay rate than the City of Chester ($29,000), there is no room for growth or advancement.
“You stay at $29,000,” he said.
They can also go to Lancaster County and start at a higher rate of pay and have more opportunities for salary increases, he said. Mayor Josh Brantley asked if those other departments pay the full cost of insurance, as Great Falls does. Jones said while that is a great perk, most perspective firefighters see $29,000 versus $35,000 and just take the higher salary, without taking insurance into consideration.
Jones said he himself wasn’t in it for the money and was dedicated to his hometown, but that a bump in pay for both firefighters and the chief would be a big help. He said he basically lived at the department for about a month trying to do everything and burned himself out pretty quickly.
Brantley initially made a motion to increase salaries across the board by $2,000, but tabled that when it was decided the matter needed to be discussed at a workshop before changes were instituted.
Jones told the News & Reporter during Monday’s executive session that no member of the Council reached out to him about his severe personnel shortage after speaking at the last meeting.
Brantley did not respond to a question about the reasons for the dismissal of Jones, but did give a plan on how the department, which now lacks any full-time employees, will operate.
“We are partnering with Barkley Ramsey (Chester County fire coordinator) and the county to cover shifts until we can get a replacement fire chief,” Brantley said.
Great Falls Town Council had a regularly scheduled meeting Tuesday night.
