ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, March 16, 1997 TAG: 9703170094
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAN CASEY THE ROANOKE TIMES
To buy the "quint" firetruck or not? That's the question Roanoke City Council will decide Monday.
Dueling press conferences. Leafleting in neighborhoods. Alleged scare tactics. Behind-the-scenes lobbying. Political arm-twisting. A city "hot line."
Look around and you'll see the signs of a full-scale battle taking shape between the city administration and the Roanoke Professional Firefighters.
The action will climax Monday afternoon, probably in a sharply divided vote by City Council over whether to purchase "quints" - combined ladder trucks and pumper engines -for the city Fire Department.
The city says it's all about firefighting effectiveness, and that the quint will give the department a better tool to save houses and lives. On Monday, Fire Chief Jim Grigsby will ask council to buy two of the huge machines at a cost of almost $900,000.
The firefighters say the question is jobs, and that the quint is merely the first step in Grigsby's plan to eliminate 20 to 30 firefighting positions and at least two fire stations in coming years.
Whichever way it goes, the council vote is likely to be close - probably 4-3.
"I've been lobbied by both the administration and those who are opposed to it," Mayor David Bowers said Wednesday. "It's going to be a very tough decision. I feel like I'm acting more like a judge than a mayor. There are good arguments on both sides."
Debate over the machines has simmered for months in the Fire Department and city administration. On at least one occasion, a vote on purchasing quints has been yanked from council's agenda.
Similar battles have been fought across the country. In some cities, firefighters have embraced the dual-use equipment. In others, quints were mothballed soon after they were put in service.
The most recent action began unfolding Thursday. Grigsby called a news conference that upstaged one the firefighters' association had slated for Friday morning.
At it, the chief laid out his case for quints:
First, the city needs two ladder trucks to replace aging ones that are unsafe.
Second, since the Fire and Emergency Medical Service merger last year, fire engines have been responding to an increasing number of medical calls - taking them out of service for fires. That increases the likelihood that a ladder truck with no water might be the first to arrive at a fire.
The solution, Grigsby reasons, is to buy ladder trucks that carry water - quints.
"The question we must ask is, 'Should the first piece of fire apparatus that arrives on a scene of a fire be able to begin putting [it] out?''' the chief said. A bit later, he added: "This is not a staffing issue, this is an equipment issue, period. Nothing more, nothing less. ... This has nothing to do with staffing of any kind."
The firefighters responded Friday. The chief, they said, needs to buy quints to advance another controversial idea he's talked about in the past: consolidating several fire stations. It's an emotional subject in many Roanoke neighborhoods.
"The purchase of quints is the first step in a plan to shut down two fire stations," said Richard Sarver, president of the 260-members firefighters' association. "This is the first step to reducing staffing by 20 to 30 people."
At the same time Friday, off-duty firefighters fanned out door-to-door across the city, distributing leaflets titled: "Roanoke! Your Public Safety Is in Jeopardy!"
Meanwhile, the city administration announced plans to broadcast Grigsby's news conference - but not the firefighters' - Saturday and Sunday afternoon and evening on Cox Cable Channel 3, the government access channel.
The administration also set up a Saturday afternoon hot line to deal with residents' questions about the pamphlet, which city spokeswoman Michelle Bono called "very misleading" and "scare tactics." It fielded 20 calls.
In the public relations battle, however, both sides seemed to undercut some of their own arguments.
For example, the firefighters' pamphlet calls the quint an "expensive, ungainly machine that just plain doesn't work."
"It's like trying to cut down on the amount of silverware you need by combining a knife and fork in one piece. You replace two items with one, but it's useless if you want to eat something," the pamphlet states.
But Sarver said his association wouldn't be opposed to quints if the city administration guarantees there will be no job cuts.
And although Grigsby maintains that the quint issue has absolutely nothing to do with staffing, he declined to give the firefighters any sort of guarantee.
"We have more [firefighters] per capita than any other city in the state of Virginia," the chief said. "We have to look at that - 93 percent of our costs are in labor. That'll all be up for review with the neighborhoods, with City Council. It's not been a secret that I think we should make our department more efficient and more effective."
In fact, money for one new fire station was approved in the 1994 bond referendum; it will be built after the Peters Creek Road extension is open. And the city administration has included $2.4 million for two new fire stations on a "short list" of recommended capital projects.
One administration official said new stations got the highest ranking of all potential capital projects because they pay for themselves through staff reductions. Four stations could be consolidated into them.
And Grigsby last year said that with equipment changes, the city could get by with 10 fire stations instead of the 14 it has now with no increase in response times or reductions in service.
Caught somewhere in the middle are council members and the general public.
Bob Martin, of Raleigh Court, said he called the city with questions after getting the pamphlet. It incorrectly implies a decision on consolidating stations is imminent.
"This is not accurate," he said after talking to city officials. "I think [the pamphlet] is very misleading. There's a lot of misinformation here."
Joe Nash, chairman of the Wasena Crimewatch neighborhood organization and an unsuccessful council candidate last year, says the city ought to hold a public hearing on the issue Monday night, rather than schedule the vote for Monday afternoon, when most people will be at work.
"To be perfectly honest, I don't know where the truth lies," Nash said. "I know that the firefighters are very concerned with public safety. I'm sure the chief is, too."
Bono said the issue would go on the afternoon agenda, just like any other equipment purchase.
At least three council members - Nelson Harris, Jim Trout and Linda Wyatt - are dead set against purchasing quints. They were the three candidates endorsed by the firefighters' association in elections last spring.
"I have very strong feeling about if you give someone a job and you say they're a professional, then part of that professionalism and respect is letting them choose the equipment they think is best for them," Wyatt said. Firefighters "know what they want and what they need. It seems simple to me: you buy what they want to use."
In private, firefighters say this is a litmus test issue for them, and they'll work against the re-election of any council member who votes for quints.
They count Bowers as a vote for quints - but he isn't saying which way he'll go. On the issue of fire stations, however, the mayor is clear:
"I do not foresee the closing of any firehouses while I'm mayor, with the exception of combining No.4 and No.12. We've been talking about combining those for years, after the Peters Creek extension is opened. I would say to anyone who wants to close [other] firehouses, try to close the one in South Roanoke first. That's not going to happen."
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