Town looks to hire safety clerk

Moorcroft's town council has been considering the advantages of creating a position of public safety clerk to work between the clerk's office and the volunteer fire and EMS departments, to seek and apply for grants under supervision of the governing body.

The latter department is in need of personal protection equipment and vehicles.

At a workshop last week, Clerk/Treasurer Cheryl Schneider, Fire Chief Dan Swaney and members of the council came together to discuss responsibilities of the position.

The question of authority was brought to the fore by Swaney.

"Who's directing them? Who tells them what their day-to-day activities are? Without somebody providing some form of oversight on this, it doesn't feel like it's going to be very effective," he said.

"The capacity they're working in is on their own, then it really come down to the integrity of that individual – whether driven or undriven. If they're directed by somebody who knows what the goals are, they wouldn't have to be quite so driven, but they would have to set a certain amount of product or standard every day, every week so it feels like it's probably really important to talk about who directs them."

Mayor Ben Glenn responded, saying the day-to-day activities will not change significantly, "But if there are things they need to go look after, it will probably fall somewhere under the clerk...The vision we have for this public safety to go get grants, to try to do everything they can to fund that position."

Councilman Dale Petersen sent his thoughts on the matter with the mayor: "He did want that position to be an EMT and a firefighter 1 within a year."

"That's where Dale and I do differ a little in our thoughts," Glenn said. "I see this position as more of a clerical – monetary [position]. I don't see them running on an ambulance call three times a day because the trade-off is too great. That person is maybe going to bring in $100, when they can be over here getting grants, they can get $100,000."

Swaney agreed with Glenn's perspective, saying, "Where should their focus be? Should it be on training, on getting funding? That's the big question to me. What is the best value for the money spent for this position. Would it be to have someone maybe more trained and available, which is real, or somebody who has the ability to bring in a lot of money?"

"To put a firefighter 1 and an EMT there," he continued, "Clearly, the service to the town of Moorcroft is enhanced, but then we trade somebody who provides a lot of monetary value...We need hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of updated equipment in the fire hall."

Councilman Rob Stewart also advocated the position and shared his idea of a qualified candidate: "I would like to see somebody in there who doesn't have to have their hand held and also has the knowledge of what fire fighters and EMTs need. I don't feel that we need to put any more on Cheryl's plate. I would really love to see somebody in there [whom] you trust wholeheartedly, who will get the grants and stuff you need...where we can work together and we don't need to 100% oversee and tell them what we need to do."

The individual hired would start as part time, but Swaney expressed his hope of possibly moving the position into full time in the future.

"It feels like there's more than enough work. I would like to see somebody there for 30 hours a week...EMS and fire just become busier and busier and the needs become greater and greater," he said.

"All you have to do is add on the other components that Cheryl need or some other department and say that it is full time."

Clerk/Treasurer Cheryl Schneider, who is responsible for the town's grants, was able to add with authority, "Writing grants and managing them – I think there's a premise that you're just writing grants, but there's a big piece that's managing them as well."

"This position is very valid," Swaney advocated, "I have heard over and over again that there is lots of money available for municipalities and that and this is probably the only way we're going to be able to acquire some of the equipment we need."

The chief spoke candidly regarding the department's lack of follow up regarding donations committed over the years, "That's the reason I feel we need to be able to encourage this person and say 'this is where I think you should spend today's efforts' and not have them confused about who's directing them. I like what I see here. Hopefully, this position will be filled fairly soon."

Glenn suggested to his council the institution of a grant committee of three to oversee and liaison the work of this newly conceived office with one committee member from EMS, fire and the clerk's office.

The mayor finished, "The position will be approved for advertising at the next meeting "and we'll see what candidates we can get".