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By Landon Olson
PARADISE -- Firefighters are proud to be unpaid volunteers -- and want things to stay that way. If the firefighters were offered $1,000 in pay, Fire Chief Troy Fredrickson told the Town Council, "I'll bet 95 percent of them would tell you to take that $1,000 and put it back in the budget." Councilwoman Margaret Obray brought up the topic of the firefighters being paid after funding efforts were discussed at Wednesday's council meeting. Obray asked Fredrickson if firefighters in other Cache Valley towns were paid. He told her some of them are paid for the time they spend on calls and also on the time they spend doing drills. "If you're asking whether we should get paid, I daresay most of them would rather have the money go to the budget," Fredrickson said to reiterate his position. In an attempt to secure funding, Fredrickson said the department applied for a $27,000 grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The grant would cover equipment, including facemasks, hepatitis vaccinations and self-contained breathing apparatuses. If the town were to receive the grant, it would pay 10 percent while FEMA would cover the other 90 percent. Currently, the fire department gets much of its money through fundraising efforts, although Fredrickson said he would like to reduce the number of fundraisers due to the time commitments required of the firefighters. Traditionally, the department has held a couple of breakfasts and a trap shoot every year. Councilwoman Nancy Lauritzen doesn't want to see the breakfasts go, though. "We don't care if you put out fires, but you absolutely have to put on a pancake breakfast," she said, laughing. The breakfast is traditionally held over the Memorial Day weekend, but Fredrickson said he feels the firefighters already give a lot of time and he wants them to be able to spend their time doing other things. He said the firefighters spend approximately two to four hours per week at the station, but also must spend 120 hours to get their firefighting certification, 120 hours to get an emergency medical certification and 40 hours to get a wildlands firefighting certification. "I really hate asking people to give of their time, but if people do have the time, I'd like to see it spent on wildlands certification." The council didn't make any decisions on what to do about the fundraisers, but will discuss the situation at its next meeting. In other business, the council discussed plans for filling potholes. The town has about $2,500 budgeted for filling the holes and the council must decide what areas need to have holes filled and what areas need greater repair. One of the problems with filling the holes, Mayor Lee Atwood said, is that when winter begins, the filler material expands due to the cold and is knocked out by the snowplows. "As soon as it freezes, they all pop," Atwood said. "We've had years where every single one we had popped out." Another concern was when the hole would be filled, because the temperature has an effect on how well the holes seal, Councilman Dave Anderson said. "The longer you wait, the hotter it is, the better they seal," he said. The council decided to prepare a list of areas needing repairs and will discuss it at the next meeting.
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