Today was a good day. David Greene knows how rare that can be.
“I’ve had cancer, two different kinds of cancer…chemotherapy…been to the hospital a lot and had a heart attack last year,” he said.
In the last six years, he says Newark’s Fire Department and EMTs have paid him multiple visits.
“They saved my life a bunch of times,” he said.
Now he fears that service, very soon, might be closing its doors on chances to help.
According to Newark’s Director of Public Safety, Bill Spurgeon, the city needs to cut back on overtime. Right now, due to vacations, sick leaves, unpaid days off, personal days and injury leave, the city has paid out more than $211,000 in five months.
The city’s solution is to hire 20 part-time employees to help fill the void.
“My concern is if that kind of things goes on, I won’t be here,” Greene said. “I’ll die and I won’t get the service that I need.”
In a statement to 10TV, Newark Fire Chief Patrick Connor says “General fund revenues have been declining over several years and the ability to maintain adequate staffing levels of full-time fire fighters has become very difficult.”
“I think that people should be hired full-time for emergency services,” David’s wife, Janet, said.
Janet Greene says part-time offers send the wrong message to the workforce.
“So, if Newark moved to part-time fire fighters, we won’t be able to retain the people who have invested so much in their education,” she said. “They’re going to go somewhere else.”
A problem she says could ultimately affect her husband’s health.
“We’ve managed to keep you alive for the last six years,” she told her husband. “We can keep you alive for another six years.”
Newark City Councilman, Alex Rolletta talked with 10TV’s Bryant Somerville on the phone about the matter. He says “This is not an issue of staffing of part-timers. This is an issue of government mismanagement. City Council budgeted to hire more fire fighters six months ago, but the mayor’s administration has failed to do so. When there are not enough people to do the job it ends up costing tax payers even more in overtime.”
City Council is expected to take up the matter at the Monday, June 29, meeting. It will begin at 5:30 p.m. and is located at Newark’s City Hall at 40 W Main Street Newark, OH 43055.
