Van Buren Hires New Part-timers |
| In the fall/winter of 2005 Van Buren Township
underwent drastic personnel changes with regards to Chief and Deputy Chief.
Then Fire Chief Robert Johnson resigned from his position to take the Captain’s
position on Red shift, enabling him to participate more hands on in the
daily firefighting activities. Deputy Chief Tim Deckard was promoted to
Fire Chief and Captain Russel Clark took his place as Deputy Chief. The
new chiefs were faced with the common problem of personnel shortage and
began the process of hiring 5 part time firefighters to alleviate the stress
of covering sick and vacation days. Our goal at Van Buren Fire Department
has been to keep both stations manned 24/7. In order to attain this goal
we have 2 full time and 1 part time firefighter at station 9 at all times
and 1 full time firefighter at station 19 at all times. In October of 2005
VBFD hired 5 part time firefighters after accessing the budget constraints
and finding the funds necessary.
During 2006 we, as the chiefs, found that we were in need of more part
time personnel to cover the remaining days that would come up. The chiefs
worked on the budget once again and were able to find the funds to accommodate
hiring 5 additional part time firefighters. Van Buren Fire Department
is continuing to look to the future of Van Buren Township and firefighting
itself and is determined to meet the new standards and surpass them. Currently
VBFD employees 11 full time firefighters and 13 part time firefighters. |