Putnam Fire Wants 3 New Firefighters, Improve Western Coverage

The Putnam County Fire Department wants to add three new firefighters to help strengthen service in the western part of the county.

Fire Chief Tom Brown said he wants to place fulltime firefighters at the Bloomington Springs Station. Currently, Brown said most of the nighttime service for that area comes from station 11 in Cookeville.

“We have a part-time man there, nine to five, so what it equates to is Station Eleven is covering those calls,” Brown said. “Our average response time is 16 minutes to 20 minutes for a call in the west end of the county if the main station has to cover the call. And what that equates to is Station Eleven, the main station, being out of their zone a total 110 hours last year. So they were in the west end of the county covering a call that a lot of times one truck could have covered in the west end of the county.”

The fire department currently employs ten, including the chief. Brown said getting volunteer firefighters gets tougher every day.

“We’ve got a really dedicated group, but they’re dwindling,” Brown said. “They have jobs, they have family. We try to encourage them to take care of their jobs and their family and do what they can for us. So a lot of times full time people will come in on calls, overtime, work events on overtime.”

Brown said volunteer firefighters are easier to recruit in and around Cookeville and Algood versus the eastern and western ends of the county.

The plan includes additional part time hours to help cover vacations for the new full-time staff. It also includes a $2,000 raise for each captain in addition to step raises already in place countywide. Brown said that is the result of more administrative duties.

Brown said the call volume continues to increase as the county grows.

“We ask for three people every year,” Brown said. “Here we are asking for three people again, wouldn’t ask for them if we didn’t need them.”

“I see the growth, I see the new people moving in out there,” Commissioner Jonathan Williams said. “The need is there.”

All told, county agencies want to add at least 93 employees this year, with the majority being for the new Justice Center expansion. The county budget committee meets again Thursday to continue its work on the budget.