Cottage Grove budget would bulk up emergency staffing
August 9, 2012 at 8:44 am in South Washington County Bulletin
Among the city of Cottage Grove’s proposed 2013 spending increases is a public safety measure approved in principle by the City Council last month that officials say will help improve already better-than-average response times to overnight medical emergencies. Continue Reading
Way to screw over your firefighters and emt’s CG. Getting full time work out of part time on call personnel, for low pay and zero benefits. I’m usually not pro union, but I think its time for them to seriously look into that.
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Cottage Grove could also consider “live-in” EMT’s who are on duty during evening hours and attend college during the day. Hundreds of fire departments in 25 states are now using live-in firefighters and EMT’s to keep costs low and provide a needed susbidy for college students. A search for “live-in firefighters” will return a lot of department names. There is also a web site that lists departments at http://www.fdlivein.com.
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Not a practical idea for CG with the cost of training and gear for such a short return on investment. Plus it would cost many thousands of dollars to rehab the fire stations. They currently do not have living quarters in them and this was also not addressed in the new P.S. building.
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There are several ways to implement live-in programs while minimizing startup costs. The use of college student firefighters/EMT’s is increasing because it is cost-effective.
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