A $338,125 grant of federal stimulus money is expected to keep at least two of Gloucester's three fire substations open through the rest of the fiscal year.
That's good news, on one level. Interim fire Chief Phil Dench said he thought the money would make it possible to keep the West Gloucester and Bayview stations open, though Magnolia would not be open full-time.
That's an improvement from the protection residents in those areas had received over the last two years, when firefighters' contract provisions over mandated staffing levels left city officials with no choice but to regularly close all three substations.
But nobody should think this will solve the financial problems plaguing the Fire Department and the entire city. All it does is put them off for seven months. For alleged "stimulus" money is not going to appear every year, even if a misguided Congress approves a second "economic stimulus" package.
The existing $780 billion package has done next to nothing to stimulate the economy. That's because most of the money has gone to government, as is the case with this grant. Meanwhile, private sector unemployment is still around 9 percent in Massachusetts and more than 10 percent nationally.
So, when the new fiscal year arrives, what will Gloucester officials do then?
To their credit, city officials have taken small steps to control the cost of the department. Firefighters' new contract mandates a minimum of 14 people on duty per shift, down from 18 in the previous contract. But it still imposes minimum manning "per piece" of equipment, and to allow the union to set any staffing levels is both costly and absurd. Why bother having a chief, if he can't manage the department?
The goal should be to provide as much fire protection as the city can afford, and the cost of the department structure is clearly unaffordable if the city needs a special federal grant to keep it afloat.
This department still needs to be significantly restructured — perhaps with a supplemental corps of part-time or even volunteer firefighters boosting staffing numbers at the outlying stations, perhaps under a different type of reform.
Yes, this "stimulus" grant, which might be far better spent on providing aid to private-sector projects that would bring real jobs, may give city leaders some breathing room.
But with even the new firefighters' contract expiring at the end of June, interim Chief Dench, Mayor Carolyn Kirk and other city officials should use the next seven months to truly reform this and other city departments as needed, not bank on some other taxpayer-funded bailout, federal or otherwise.
