Salt Lake Tribune | 1919-03-13 | Page 22 | Two-Platoon Plan Asked by Firemen

TWO-PLATOON PUN - JISKEDDYFIREMEN Alternate Nights at Home Sought From Commission by Department. Fifteen New Men Needed ( for System; Plea Is Being Be-ing Considered. Meeting in budget committee session! the city commission yesterday afternoon ' heard from a representative delegation the plea of the city firemen for establishment estab-lishment of a two-platoon system In the fire department. The matter was taken j under advisement. An opportunity to participate In thf I home life of their families, to get ac- ' quaii) ted with their wives and children, is -what the new order would mean to : them, the firemen say. i l,'nder the present arra nsement, each fl rcma n mu?t be .a way from home both day and night for five days every week. With establishment of the proposed two-platoon two-platoon system, fach man would work either a night shift of ten hours or a day shift nf fourteen hours. Alternately every two weeks, the men would have to take the night shift, giving each man his , nights at home two weeks of every four. ; Increase of the department force by : fifteen men would be necessary to inaug- : urate the new system. This would mean : an Increase of $20,000 in the annual main- ' tenance and operation costs of the de- i partment. . Offsetting this, Commissioner I Karl A. Scheid, head of the public safety t department, says that investigation has ! proved the expense of Salt Lake's fire department to the city to be far below the average for the United States. Per Capita Cost Low. Mr. Scheid said yesterday that, with possibly one exception, no other city of a population between 100,000 and 300,000 has a per capita cost' as low as that of Salt Lake, 97 cents. Establishment of the ' two-platoon system would increase the per capita cost by 19 cents. , or to 91.16. which he says then would be lower than 75 per cent of the cities of a population popu-lation ranging between 100,000 and 300.000. The delegation of firemen before the commission yesterday received assurance from the commissioners of their sympathy sympa-thy with the cause of the firemen, the explanation being offered that only neces- ally of avoiding a raise irv the tax levy would occasion denial of the petition of , thA mpn The firemen, however, argue, and ace supported in their contention by Mr. Scheid, that increase of the tax levy could not properly be chargeable to establishment es-tablishment of the proposed system. They point out that since the per capita cost to the city would still be lower than the Average the responsibility for Increase of the levy must rest with some other department getting relatively a larger tUlce of the revenues than the fire department. de-partment. Scheid Supports Plan. Mr. Scheid points out that but $25,000 of the $2,000,000 to be raised by the bond Issue is to be spent for the fire department. depart-ment. ' This will go to installation of a new. fire alarm system and building a new fire station on the west side. "My support of the firemen In their position has been given after exhaustive investigation into the merits of what they ask." Mr. Scheid stated. "The two-platoon svstem has been adopted by many cities in the United States with uniformly uni-formly reported good results. No city has abandoned it permanently after adopting it, and only one city, Buffalo, N. Y.. temporarily, during the period of the war, re-establishing the system since the war ended. "The men have been patient. I do not believe there is consistent ground upon which they can be asked to wait longer. If the system is established as asked, it will afford opportunity to take back into the department men who quit to go to war to give perhaps a few other soldiers good employment, but. best of all, it will give the fireman what is the right of every man, a part in. the home life of his family."