News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
The Monterey Fire Department may begin housing select firemen within the station.
Alderman Nathan Walker said workers living in the station could better the department, but more regulations may need to be discussed.
“I mean on the surface there is obviously a lot of pros to it. As far as how that comes about happening, I don’t know,” Walker said. “I don’t know what is entailed in terms of setting up the living situation. Because we become responsible for that obviously. ”
The firemen would be on-call during the night. The firefighters would also provide their own furniture but will be housed at no cost.
Fire Chief Kevin Peters said Putnam County has utilized live-in firemen for approximately 3 years.
“The ISO is rated on our response time, so [the live-in fireman] would help out with that too.”
Peters said the living program would not fix Monterey’s need for more part-time firefighters. Peters said most part-time firefighters work day jobs and respond to fire calls primarily at night.
The Monterey Fire Department presented a budget request for hiring additional part-time and full-time crew members during a recent budget committee meeting.
