Putting Out Fires

Photo by Anna Savoia

Since we all rely on the services of the Princeton Fire Department, we should know more about  how it operates.  So here’s a pop quiz:
(A) Are Princeton firefighters paid?
(B) What does it cost to run the Fire Department?
(C) How many Fire Companies does Princeton have?
(D) Which fire stations respond to emergency calls?

The answers -- (A) No; (B) Less than $400,000/yr.; (C) Three Fire Companies, in three fire stations; (D) All fire engines respond from a single station:  Mercer No. 3, on Witherspoon St. -- were all part of a presentation to a Joint Borough-Township meeting last night by Fire Service Consultant Bill Kramer, who was commissioned to do an in-depth study of the state of the Princeton Fire Department.  The full report can be viewed here.

Among the highlights of Kramer’s findings:
- The kind of person who is likely to volunteer as a fireman is less and less likely to live in Princeton.  “Over the years, Princeton has become less affordable for the blue-collar guy who would like to be a firefighter, like me," said Kramer.  “As the volunteers move further away, the ability to get timely response and response in numbers is becoming more challenging.”
- To guarantee satisfactory response time, Princeton will soon have to consider some kind of compensation to firefighters, whether it be per diem fees to existing volunteers, or the addition of paid staff.  
- When Princeton was using all three of its firehouses, there was a problem with not enough crew at each house.  Moving all of Princeton’s working fire trucks to a single response point at Mercer No. 3 station last year may have solved that problem, but it has not improved response time.
- A new, satellite fire station in the Princeton University grounds might help response time on campus, especially as several University employees volunteer as firefighters.

But the meeting failed to focus on the Fire Department’s proposal to tear down the old Valley Road School Building in order to expand the Mercer Co. 3 station next door.  That contentious issue brought two dozen supporters of the Save the Valley Road School Building to last night’s meeting, fully expecting a chance to present their own proposal to renovate the building into a community center.  While the issue was raised in public comments, the governing bodies only resolved to “accept” Kramer’s report, and put off discussion of the building to a later date.  The Save the Valley Road School group was asked to come back on June 28th to make their case.

Only Borough Councilman David Goldfarb was openly adamant about tearing down the old school.  “Clearly we must acquire the Valley Road School to meet this need for one location of the Fire Department and the Emergency Services and Corner House”, he said. “There  is no luxury of time to make this decision.”

All current tenants of the old portion of the Valley Road School have been asked to vacate the building later this year.  Last night Township Administrator Jim Pascale said the Board of Education might be asked to let the Corner House counseling agency stay in the building for another year, since it has yet to find another place to go.  Whether the other tenants -- including Princeton Community Television, an AllPrinceton media partner -- might also be granted an extension is still up in the air.  The ultimate decision on what to do with that portion of the building rests not with the Borough or Township, but with the Board of Education. At a meeting on Monday, the Facilities Committee of the Board of Education seemed undecided on whether to sell or lease the Valley Road property.  The next School Board meeting that is likely to deal with this issue is on July 19th.

You can view the entire meeting here:

Princeton Township and Borough Joint Municipal Meeting, June 14, 2011 from Princeton Community Television on Vimeo.

About the Author

Donna Liu

Founder, AllPrinceton

Donna Liu is a digital journalist who has lived in Princeton with her family since 2002.  She founded AllPrinceton in 2010 as an online hub for community news and information.  At Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, she built UChannel - an online archive of public affairs lectures in academia.  Before that she established and managed CNN International's Asia Production Center in Hong Kong.