By Vicky Wedig
SLN Staff
For the first time in 2013, motorists involved in accidents in the town or village of Darien will be charged for services from the Darien Fire Department.
Charging for fire runs is expected to generate an additional $10,150 in revenue for the fire department next year.
The department also plans to begin charging businesses for conducting their annual fire department inspections next year. Those charges are expected to generate an additional $3,700 for the department.
The department’s total proposed budget for 2013 is $165,503. The Town of Darien will contribute $67,048 to the budget, and the Village of Darien’s share is $47,706.
Assistant Fire Chief Dustin Ransom said the department already charges fees to respond to accidents in the Town of Richmond under its contract with that municipality. The Darien Fire Department covers the southern half of Richmond Township, and the Whitewater Fire Department covers the northern portion. The Town of Richmond will pay $8,500 for Darien’s fire services.
Ransom said the department decided to begin charging for responding to accidents in the town and village of Darien rather than funding those services with taxpayer dollars because most of the motorists involved in accidents in Darien are not Darien residents.
Motorists will be charged a flat fee for the department’s initial response to an accident and a set fee for other additional services such as extricating someone from a vehicle, controlling leaking fluids or containing a spill, Ransom said.
He said accident calls far outnumber fire calls the department makes, and by state statute, the fire department must have control of an accident scene.
The department will not charge a flat fee for calls for structure fires but will continue to bill for water usage beyond a certain amount, materials that is uses and damage to equipment, Ransom said.
The department’s 2013 budget calls for an additional $8,000 in training costs – a 133 percent increase over the 2012 budget of $6,000.
“We’re doubling up on our training hours,” said Ransom.
He said the department has gotten much more aggressive with training and is working with Gateway Technical College to meet International Organization for Standardization criteria. He said the department had been lax on training and needs to get all firefighters up to speed.
“We stepped up the training considerably,” he said.
The budget also includes an additional $956 in call payroll, which Ransom said is for pay for additional firefighters. The department budgeted $12,500 for call payroll and $8,500 for officer payroll for 2013.
