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Professional Fire Fighters of Paducah Local 168 |
Approved, after almost 25 minutes of discussion, allowing the Paducah Fire Department to accept donations from members of the river coalition and a major retailer. The money would be used to buy a new rescue boat that the city would use primarily to back up the fire barge and eventually for rescue operations.
Buz Smith voted no, saying the department is trying to take on too much responsibility.
Adding rescue operations, he said, "will make it more and more difficult to manage the fire department."
Smith said he would first want to see consolidation in the fire department so there aren't as many stations,
which he said makes them harder to maintain. He also said that Station 1 may not be where it is in a few years, and that's where the boat will be stationed, bringing it closer to the river than the county Disaster and Emergency Services' boats.Smith was also concerned that the department will have to pay firefighters overtime to be trained to operate the boat.
Montgomery pointed out that three crews would have to trained because firefighters work every third day, but she wanted the commission to support the river industry and said the boat helps do that.Commissioner Robert Coleman said the "life-saving potential of it ... makes it worthwhile."
Paxton, though supportive of accepting the funds for the boat, said that "every time we take on something new like this, we don't want something else to stop ... or to neglect something else we should be taking care of."
