Fire department improves efficiency

The Avon Lake Fire Department is reporting positive results after a year of experimenting with a new system of managing its manpower.

Ward 4 Councilman David Kos, who chairs Avon Lake City Council’s Safety Committee, lauded efforts by the Fire Department on Sept. 23 that has increased manpower while also reducing overtime costs for the city.

“They ran the numbers and saw when the most calls came in, and they made the decision that they added an additional personnel during those peak times that they would be less reliant on mutual aid to be able to respond to emergencies faster to assist our residents,” Kos said.

A year ago, the Fire Department spearheaded a program under former Chief Chris Huerner to implement a one-year trial to analyze the effectiveness of increasing man power during peak times.

Current Chief Jeremy Betsa has continued the program and reported good results and seeing a drop in overtime costs.

“I’ll tell you the biggest concern even if no one said it, what will this do to the costs for the city as far as overtime goes?” Kos asked. “Chief Betsa came in and the program has worked out exceptionally well.”

The Fire Department will continue studying the initiative to see if it makes sense to expand it.

“I want to congratulate Chief Betsa and his staff, and former Chief Huerner, for putting this in place and implementing it,” Kos said. “Because adding that extra person during those peak hours actually reduced overtime, which is a very good accomplishment.”

Running the numbers

In a report to City Council’s Safety Committee earlier this month, Betsa reported the Fire Department significantly reduced overtime costs by having a sixperson minimum during peak hours.

Analysis showed the Fire Department was getting the bulk of calls for service between the hours of 7 a.m. and 9 p.m.

While the Department’s current collective bargaining agreement has a fiveperson minimum during peak hours, Betsa wrote that increasing this to six has resulted in a more efficient operation with a 60 percent reduction in the need for mutual aid assistance from other departments.

In analyzing the numbers with a five-person crew from Sept. 10, 2018, through Sept. 9, 2019, the Fire Department received 2,754 calls.

During this period, the Department had 4,257 hours of overtime totaling $353,326.

In the same period with a six-member crew, the Department had 2,972 hours of overtime totaling $289,816, a 12 percent savings of $63,510.

“The additional personnel here during peak hours not only assists us in taking care of Avon Lake residents, but it allows us to have time for other ancillary work that is time consuming,” Betsa said. “Some of these tasks include, but are not limited to, hydrant testing, hose testing, normal daily and weekly vehicle checks, station tasks, public education and training.”

The Fire Department will continue studying the initiative to see if it makes sense to expand it.