La Salle approves new firefighter hire

The city of La Salle will be gaining a firefighter after the La Salle City Council recently approved a new hire.

La Salle Fire Chief Jerry Janick said the reason for the hiring of additional personnel stems from staffing shortages over the past year.

At the Dec. 9 meeting, the City Council voted to approve a memorandum of agreement between the city and La Salle Professional Firefighters Local 4760.

The contents of the MOA included full-time firefighters agreeing to move from a 24 on/72 off shift to a 24 on/48 off shift.

Janick said he will transition to a 40-hour Monday through Friday position, and the city then will hire three additional full-time firefighters.

These new hires will be required to be certified emergency medical technicians-paramedics within a reasonable amount of time as a condition of employment.

“Our current firefighter eligibility list has one qualified candidate remaining,” Janick said.

Janick said the conditions for a candidate will include having successfully completed the Candidate Physical Ability Test (a standard-based physical test for firefighters), a thorough background check, and psychological and physical screenings.

“I expect this process to take at least several weeks depending on the backlog for the screenings,” he said.

Janick said the current ideal daily staffing consists of one full-time firefighter/EMT basic, two contract EMT-paramedics (currently contracted through Stark County Ambulance Service) and one part-time EMT basic.

“The EMT-basic slot has been difficult to fill consistently for most of the year,” he said. “In the summer, we also experienced a loss of several contract EMT-paramedics.”

In August, the council terminated the city’s contract with the Paramedic Services of Illinois because of staffing issues and agreed to contract with Stark County Ambulance Service beginning Oct. 1.

Janick said the city has taken the position that it would be in its best interest to have cross-trained firefighter/EMT-paramedics who can serve in a dual role.

“The future staffing will consist of two firefighters (at least one will be an EMT-paramedic and the other will be an EMT-basic or paramedic) and two contract EMT-paramedics,” he said.

Janick said that at this point, the city’s current eligibility list is exhausted, and the department will have to begin another examination cycle to fill the remaining two openings, which may take about four to six months to complete.