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Friday article from Brian Shane at delmarvanow.com:
Elected officials are starkly divided on how to deal with the Ocean City Volunteer Fire Company’s planned departure from the resort and what might be its immediate consequences.
“This is a black day for Ocean City,” said Town Councilman James Hall. “In my 21 years on the council, we have never said ‘no’ to the fire company. We have broken trust with the fire company and we’ve broken their spirit. This is a very sad day for Ocean City if we cannot rectify this problem soon.”
The volunteer fire company announced Wednesday plans to pull out of Ocean City and relocate its operations to its West Ocean City station on Keyser Point Road. The move, according to fire company leadership, is a direct retaliation by volunteers against the council’s decision to not appoint Chief Chris Larmore as head of all Ocean City fire and EMS operations.
The council wants to bring in one person to oversee both Ocean City’s paid and volunteer firefighters, a position for which Larmore petitioned before and during a council work session Tuesday.
Council members voted 3-3-1 on a motion to appoint Larmore to the job. Council members Hall, Jay Hancock and Margaret Pillas voted for, and Nancy Howard, Mary Knight and Joe Mitrecic voted against it. Councilman Lloyd Martin abstained.
Larmore announced the plan to move in a news release in which he criticized the council’s vote as “an unacceptable safety practice” that will “maintain … a divided fire service.”
James Jester, president of the fire company, said their departure plans were not premeditated, but instead came out of a three-and-a-half hour meeting initiated by the volunteers following the city’s vote. It was not a decision they took lightly.
“That is what the membership decided,” he said.
The fire company has 72 active members on a roster of 237 and four stations within the resort’s corporate limits, including its headquarters at 1409 Coastal Highway.
Jester said volunteers will stay on duty in Ocean City until the town can provide its own group of first responders.
“No way, no how are we going to close buildings and pull apparatus until the city has what they need,” Jester said, “and that’s going to be for them to decide.”
Joe Theobald, Ocean City’s emergency services director, said while he hopes the volunteers will reconsider their decision, any services provided by the town’s paid firefighters and EMS workers won’t be negatively affected.
“I believe the community would see it as transparent, a seamless change,” he said. “The public will be served as they are served every day. There will be no issue with public safety. Their safety will not be compromised.”
Ocean City employs 75 full- and part-time fire/EMS workers, Theobald said.
Some Town Council members said they understand why the fire company wants to leave town. Others say it is a mistake.
Council President Mitrecic, who voted down the motion, said he doesn’t believe there was ample time for the best decision and that many of his questions still have yet to be answered.
“This is a monumental decision,” he said. “To make a decision like that cold, in one day, I had expressed to the fire chief that I thought it would be difficult for the council. He was of the opinion that it had to get done that day. At the time, I had to say no.”
He hopes the fire company reconsiders its course of action, and hopes to work with them in the next 10 to 12 months to find a full-time fire chief.
Howard also voted down the motion. She said all the council wanted to do was continue to work with volunteers until a new chief can be hired. She called the volunteers’ decision to leave town “a power play.”
“Our goal is to protect citizens and visitors, and I thought that was their goal,” she said. “How can you pull out and uphold that position? I hope the people in the (volunteer) fire company will reconsider this, and recommit to what their stated goal is.”
“We are anxious to get together to work with the fire company and work out any kinks in the system. I still don’t understand, to quote Chris Larmore, ‘where the wheels came off the wagon,’ ” Howard said.
Councilman Hall said he hopes the council members who voted no will reverse their decision, and the council can negotiate with the fire company to keep them from leaving.
“I have done everything I can — ask, cajole, plead, beg — with my fellow council members,” Hall said. “This is an issue of respect, of safety, of organization. I believe the time-honored years they’ve protected this town deserve it, and on a temporary basis, we should grant this to the fire company.”
The fire company would move into the Sinepuxent District of unincorporated Worcester County represented by District 3 Commissioner Bud Church.
Church said he adamantly supports the fire company. He also said “a lot of very prominent businessmen” say they also support the volunteers.
“I think it would be an absolute travesty to let this happen,” he said. “To be honest with you, I’m sick about it. It’s something that should have never happened.
“The mayor and some of the council think it’s an idle threat. I can tell you, it’s not. They’re not fooling around. They’re giving the city notice — get your ducks in a row, and get ready,” he said.
Wednesday article Brian Shane at delmarvanow.com:
The Ocean City Volunteer Fire Company plans to relocate from the resort’s corporate limits to West Ocean City because town leaders did not name their fire chief as head of all fire company operations.
The volunteer fire company plans to relinquish fire and rescue services to Ocean City’s paid firefighters and move its personnel and equipment to its West Ocean City station on Keyser Point Road. The date for this move has yet to be determined, and fire chief Chris Larmore said the fire company will “continue to do our best to provide service to the city” until such a move is complete. The release also said town leaders have been notified.
“I appreciate the opportunity to have served you faithfully over the years, and regret this final outcome,” said OCVFD Chief Christopher Larmore in a press release Wednesday.
The deci
sion to move is an immediate result of a Feb. 12 Ocean City Town Council meeting with OCVFD leadership. At the meeting, Larmore expressed a desire to be named interim fire chief for both paid and volunteer firefighters, with the goal of unifying fire service under a single operational and administrative leader.
In a 3-3-1 vote, council members did not support the measure.
Larmore called the town’s decision to continue with two leaders, one for the career firefighters and another for the volunteers, “an unacceptable safety practice” that will maintain “a divided fire service.” He also said by not getting the job as a full-time chief overseeing both units, he would be “forced to return to an unsound and dual command structure where truth is alien and duplicity rules.”
The decision to make plans to secede from Ocean City came in a meeting of the OCVFC membership at 7 p.m. Tuesday night, hours after the town council meeting.
OCVFD spokesman Steve Price said available members met for three and a half hours before voting.
“It’s not something that the Fire Company took lightly,” he said. “We were disappointed. The membership was very frustrated with what had happened. We have provided a service to the community for more than 100 years. We didn’t think what the chief was asking for was unreasonable,” Price said.
Volunteers expect Ocean City employees to fill in the service gap and will leave the town when that happens, Price said. The volunteers own their equipment and their buildings.
“We think we provide a very efficient service to the community, and we provide that service at a minimum cost. Someway, somehow, that manpower issue will have to be made up,” he said.
According to its website the Ocean City Volunteer Fire Company has 237 active members and five stations, including its headquarters at 1409 Coastal Highway and its West Ocean City facility.
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