Selectmen met with members of the Holliston Fire Department last night to discuss possible stipend increases.
Last night the Holliston Board of Selectmen stepped out of Town Hall and in to the Holliston Fire Department to discuss stipend increases with the town’s firefighters. The meeting had been in the works for several weeks but discussions recently came to a head when Fire Chief Michael Cassidy presented the stipend plan to the selectmen. While Selectman Jay Leary said he was unconvinced that the $214,000 amount was practical, the firefighters wanted to make sure they got their just deserts. “We’re going to look at the numbers and try to understand it and figure out if we can come up with the money,” Leary said. Leary said he was particularly concerned with carrying the cost down the road. Stipend increase talks with the firefighters began …
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Holliston Fire Department
59 Central St, Holliston, MA
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Last night the Selectmen had a discussion with Fire Chief Michael Cassidy about an increase to firefighter stipends.
Fire Chief Michael Cassidy presented the case for a stipend increase to the Board of Selectmen last night. His point was that for all of the time firefighters spend on call and in training they deserve a higher stipend amount. "In order to maintain our staffing model, we need a compensation package which reflects the sacrifices these professionals make throughout the year," Cassidy said. "Even with the proposed increase, our personnel costs would still be a fraction of the costs of other nearby departments, while providing many times more coverage and true surge capacity." The proposed increase he spoke about worked out to roughly $1 per hour each firefighter is on call, calculated out the chief said the total increase would be $214,000 …
Sean Irr
4:45 pm on Thursday, October 4, 2012
Jim, you should get your facts straight before you post. Holliston is NOT the only full call dept in the area. And as for academy trained. Most of the dept is academy trained!! more ›