Chief: Wallingford Fire, EMT Faces 'Monumental' Shift In Staffing

WALLINGFORD, CT — The Wallingford fire and emergency services department is in the midst of a monumental shift in how it is staffed, but the move will allow Fire Chief Richard Heidgerd to make the most of the skillset of first responders he has at his disposal. Under a proposed budget presented last week by Mayor William Dickinson, Jr., the department will operate on a budget of $8,772,568 in the coming year with 85.6 percent of those funds going for salaries and wages.

While the fire and EMS services department had requested $9,884,948 to cover its operational costs, Heidgerd said Monday that discussions between himself, Dickinson and union officials have been “very good”. Shifting how the department is staff has been part of a process that has been in the works for more than two years, the chief said. Until now, ambulances were staffed with firefighter/paramedics while firefighters were used strictly in their own role. Under the mayor's proposed budget, 16 new EMTs would be hired with $570,000 going toward salaries and nearly $200,000 going toward benefits. The EMT position is a new one for the department, Heidgerd said Monday.

In exchange, the department will work with seven fewer firefighters, Heidgerd said, as the department's fire trucks will now strictly use firefighter/paramedics to provide advanced life support care. The first responders assigned to ambulances, meanwhile, will provide basic life support. Because the of the shift, the department’s firefighting capacity increases based on the number of firefighters that will be on duty despite the number of firefighters being reduced from 63 to 56.

The department has experienced an increase in call volume and Heidgerd said that while filling the firefighter/paramedic role can be complicated because of the high-end skill set needed to carry out of the position, the chief said the shift in staffing has been a priority for some time.

“There’s a lot of discussions that need to take place, a lot of pieces that need to fall into place,” Heidgerd said. “It all worked out and I dare say that everybody involved was phenomenal. It was a great process – challenging at times, of course – but that’s normal.”

“It was a logical progression. It was just a matter of how it got done.”

Dickinson’s budget also includes a total of $948,120 in new equipment – including for an ambulance and self-contained breathing apparatus, both of which will replace existing equipment, Heidgerd said.

The Record-Journal reported that funds for the equipment will come from the Connecticut Resources Recovery Authority Distribution Fund. The ambulance will cost $250,000 and the SCBA equipment costs $497,380. CRRA funds, the paper reported, come from a former trash-to-energy-plant in Wallingford that distributes surplus funds to five municipalities that use the plant. The fund was developed after CRRA was dissolved with the town still being owed money.

The money that will go toward the SCBA equipment will replace old or obsolete air packs that had reached the end-of-life cycle, the chief said. The department attempts to replace ambulances once they cross over the 200,000-mile mark and the ambulance that will be replaced under the current budget is 13 years old after it was purchased used. Dickinson’s budget also allows for $48,000 for personal protection equipment, which is used by both EMTs and firefighters and that needs to be replaced after 10 years of use, Heidgerd said.