(Photo by Loozrboy - CC BY 2.0)

With a fire department that’s already understaffed, the City of Prescott faces a tough budget choice for the upcoming fiscal year-- hire more firefighters or potentially cut services.

A tight budget kept the fire department from filling open positions at the beginning of this year, and other firefighters recently left Prescott for higher-paying jobs, Chief Dennis Light said.

To keep all five of its stations open, the department reduced the number of firefighters at one. But that means it’s manned by a crew using a smaller vehicle, instead of a fire engine.

With personnel losses because of attrition and medical leave, the department has been forced to ask remaining staff to volunteer for overtime.

The department is rotating firefighters to keep them from working too many hours. But Chief Light still has to consider the skills needed to cover a shift, and he’s concerned about burnout. 

“I hate to say it,” Light said, but “we’re one strike of a match away from a very dangerous situation.”

With the financial outlook for the next fiscal year looking bleak, the mayor and council will decide whether to fill the open positions or raise wages to prevent brain drain.

Firefighters got a 2.5 percent raise a couple years ago.

“Other than that, there’s been no raises or anything done on the compensation package since probably pre-dating 2008 and the economic downturn,” Light said.

Paying higher salaries would likely force the department to cut services, and Light thinks that would hurt the community. For that reason, he favors hiring more people.