By Lauren Wanko
Correspondent
Volunteer firefighters inspect their truck. The Avalon Fire Department wants to ensure the equipment is ready for the next emergency.
“Everyone’s having the same problem with volunteerism, let’s face it,” said AFD Chief Ed Dean. “Today’s economics families are working, both members of family are working, so volunteerism is really, really getting tough to maintain in this country.”
Dean says it’s an issue his seaside community has been working to combat for a number of years. There are plenty of volunteers nearby during the day because they work in town. The department’s greatest challenge? Getting enough firefighters at night.
“My volunteers are very dedicated and very loyal, but many of them — due to the economics of the town — had to move away. So they’re living offshore in the mainland, and therefore especially at night they’re not able to get into town fast enough to respond to fires,” Dean said.
Which is why the chief and other local officials launched a stipend incentive program for volunteer firefighters, says Dean.
“They put an ordinance together permitting the administration to create a memorandum of understanding with the fire department to put together this stipend program. The borough would fund it, we’d provide the firefighters,” he said.
The point of the stipend is to give them incentive to basically leave their families overnight. That is a tough thing to ask somebody to do.
Volunteers will be paid for each night they serve. The chief is hoping for a four-night commitment but it doesn’t have to be consecutive. He prefers that volunteers spread out that time throughout the month because he doesn’t want the firefighters to burn out.
The chief says, “The stipend is a maximum of $400 a month for the four-night commitment and it’s a tier system of payment.”
Firefighter Lisa Sasdelli is one of nearly 30 volunteers. She’s served for the past six years.
“The stipend program now is something to give back to us a little bit but is also a huge, huge thing for the community because we are able to respond so much quicker, ” Sasdelli said. “We’re here, we get right on the truck, we’re out to the call whatever it may be.”
The South Jersey seaside community isn’t the first to introduce a volunteer firefighter stipend program.
“You’re seeing it more and more in a lot of your municipalities,” said Frank Gunson, the president of the New Jersey State Firemen’s Association. “They’ll either go to a LOSAP Program which has to be passed by resolution and submitted to the state for approval or a stipend type based on alarms made.”
The Avalon Fire Department plans to launch a volunteer membership drive in January. The chief hopes to add at least another 10 members to the team.