LE CLAIRE, Iowa — Faced with a dwindling volunteer staff, LeClaire is proposing adding two career fire personnel to its fire department. The city's proposed annual budget includes salaries for a paid fire chief and captain.
The suggestion comes from Mercer Group, Inc., a government employment agency based in Georgia. Mayor Dennis Gerard said the city contracted the group to help them find solutions to the staffing shortages.
In the last five years, the city's all-volunteer fire department's ranks have fallen almost 50%. In 2016, there were 31 firefighters, compared to the current 18. Only about four to six of the 31 firefighters in 2016 remain on the department today, according to Mercer's report.
The decreasing staff comes while LeClaire's population continues to grow. The city's total population was last marked by the 2020 U.S. Census at 4,710, marking a growth of over 900 people since 2010.
Fire service calls are also slightly increasing. In 2015, the department responded to 415 calls and 427 in 2020. More than half of the calls are coming from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. during the weekday.
"We all carry pagers, radios, we get a call, if we can respond we respond," current volunteer chief Jim Bradley said. "Most of my guys, this is a bed and breakfast community, and so they work out of town … it does get very difficult to cover the calls during the daytime."
Mercer said hiring a paid fire chief and captain would allow them to focus on recruiting more volunteer staff, in addition to focusing on other administrative and strategic strategies.
"We're hoping that these two positions will sustain us now for several years, and that we can rebuild our volunteer group," Gerard said. "We don't anticipate moving away from a volunteer fire department. It's served us extremely well over the years, we have a really dedicated group with a lot of enthusiasm. We just need to go find some more folks."
Bradley, who's been with the department for more than 30 years, said he's excited about the change.
"It's gonna be a lot of stress off my shoulders … just knowing that there's gonna be a couple people around during the day," he said. "A lot of these people I went to school with, I know their parents, I know their grandparents. You get to know addresses and faces and you just want to give them the best care you can."
However, he's not sure the department's staff numbers will ever increase to what they used to be, citing how busy people with kids have gotten these days.
"I think what you see today is what you get, I hate to say," Bradley said. "We can survive with what we have, and we will survive. We got a bunch of great people up here."
The city will be voting to approve the annual budget during a meeting in March, Gerard said. Currently, the fire chief position is budgeted for an annual salary of $77,671 ($149,613 with benefits). The fire captain position salary is $64,760 ($128,574 with benefits).
LeClaire applied for a SAFER grant that would help cover the salaries for three years, Gerard said.
He added, within the next few weeks, the city will also have to restructure part of its code to allow for paid firemen because it currently references volunteer firemen.
From there, the city will look to recruit for the position, both within and outside the current department staff.
"We'll probably look for Mercer to help us understand where best to go recruit and how to do that, so that's all kind of still in front of us," Gerard said. "We'd like to try to get somebody in place by June, if possible. So we've got a little bit of time."