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Address the Root Cause

While it is an undisputed tragedy that a North Haven resident died last August while waiting for medical assistance, it is the responsibility of our Board of Finance (BOF) to fund the North Haven Fire Department based upon facts, not emotions. Rather than blindly authorizing the addition of 16 more firefighters (eight per year for two years) in a town whose population has been declining for the past five years, an efficiency analysis of the use of current resources may point out cost-effective opportunities for improvement.

For example, a review of dispatch procedures would likely demonstrate that North Haven does not maximally utilize all of its first responder resources (both paid and volunteer). It should be pointed out that the 34 salaried and 55 volunteer firefighters, as well as some of the police officers in North Haven, are certified emergency medical technicians (EMTs) who are more than qualified to respond to many medical calls. However, if they are not routinely authorized to do so, and all on-duty paramedics are dispatched to a single fire, then no amount of firefighter staff growth will address the root cause of the medical response problem.

Lastly, it would be prudent to have some accountability for the recent spike in North Haven firefighters calling in sick (aka “red rash”) and the resultant escalation of overtime/holiday wage expenditures, which has annually exceeded $750,000. It would be irresponsible for the BOF to approve hiring more firefighters without a thorough investigation into overtime expenditures.

Nancy E.V. Barrett

North Haven