It may not have been the birthday party Springfield Fire Chief Brandon Blough was dreaming of, but the Citizens Club of Springfield held a get together Friday morning to process the implications of a recent Fire Department Analysis Report.
City Budget Director, Bill McCarty, was quick to note that the 200+ page report is in no way a criticism of the Springfield Fire Department.
“The study does talk about a couple of categories of EMS that the firemen shouldn’t even be going to,” said Citizens Club President Bob Gray. “So it just needs some community input, some serious discussion. The city can’t afford to keep spending in the hundred million dollar range for fire and police or there’ll be no money for anything else.”
Mayor Jim Langfelder gave his take on the report.
“I think overall it affirmed the quality fire protection that we have,” Langfelder said, “and the emergency response that we have, but how do we move forward with regards to keeping that level of service as best as possible and that’s the challenging thing because costs keep escalating. Right now we’re in pretty good shape financially, but as we know with inflation costs going up and the work force environment . . . it’s very challenging, and how do you move toward the future to sustain it.”
Much of the discussion revolved around the larger role a public-private partnership might play on the emergency services side.
Springfield is currently in the process of relocating some fire houses and building a new one to maintain the less-than-four-minute response time to calls.