Sussex County’s report on its fire services nears completion.
All three Delaware counties commissioned studies looking into fire services.
FACETS Consulting is revising its draft now and presented initial findings to Sussex County Councilmembers at its latest meeting.
Kevin Roche with FACETS said the report focuses on the fire houses’ finances and health. They met with 22 of the 23 fire companies and found that volunteer numbers are down dramatically throughout the county.
“We heard a description that there's sort of a donut in membership,” Roche said. “There's a large number of fairly young members, there's a large number of fairly old members, but there's that donut hole in the middle while people pursue their careers, pursue growing their families and so on. So they're worried about that.”
There are also funding concerns county-wide. The Lewes Fire Department asked for more funding to keep its EMS operational last month.
The 544-page report covered fire services facing a variety of issues, Roche said.
“There are departments that have no debt, significant reserves,” Roche said. “And then there are companies that are really living hand to mouth. The leadership of the companies in general – without pointing out any specific company – is aging, and they're concerned about what the next generation is going to be, who's going to follow them in the volunteer service.”
Roche said fire companies nationwide have seen dramatic decreases in the number of volunteers, and Sussex County’s firehouses are no different.
Councilmember Steve McCaron was president of a fire company 10 years ago and said the report does a good job showing the health of fire companies is dependent on local, county and state government funding.
“There's a lot of different people that should have skin in the game and [should be] supporting the fire service and [making] sure it's healthy,” McCaron said. “I think from what I've seen, the report does a good job of pointing some of that out. But also, one thing that I've heard while, we have this topic, is maybe a revolving loan fund the state of Delaware.”
FACETS will send the revised draft to Councilmembers by May 1, with the final presentation planned for late May or June.
