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Show NSL Considering Standby Fire Program By MARK FOTHERINGHAM NORTH SALT LAKE -The North Salt Lake City Council will decide on whether or not to continue or modify its current "stand by fire personnel person-nel system" next council meeting. After reviewing the results of the experimental system, the council usked Fire Chief Earl Littlewood to formulate for-mulate some recommendations recommenda-tions on the program by Nov. 1. THE COUNCIL authorized the program on a trial basis about ab-out four months ago as an alternative to hiring a full time fire chief. The program consisted con-sisted of manning the fire station sta-tion with three standby fire-, men during what are considered consi-dered "high risk" fire hours. During the summer months, the standby hours were from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. Between the dates ofJuly 1 and Sept. 30, the NSL fire department received a total of 57 fire calls. Twenty of the calls came in during the stand-by hours, while 37 calls came in during the non-standby non-standby hours. ONLY 13 of the 104 ambu lance calls that were received however, came in during standby hours. Assistant Chief Bob Carter reported that the response time to the calls that came in was trimmed by about 10 minutes during the standby hours over the non-standby response re-sponse time. "Most of the men want to keep standby program," said the chief, "but I think that it might be a waste during the winter months since it is a slower fire period." Headded, however, that he would not like to see the program completely com-pletely cut off, for fear that it would not be resurrected next summer. "We really do need the program in the summer." CHIEF Littlewood added that even with the standby program, the city was still lacking in the need for a full time administrator to handle the fire records and to conduct annual fire inspections on businesses. Mayor Pro-Tern John Graves recommended that the chief and city manager work cooperatively to put together some specific suggestions as to the needs for such a program during the remainder of the year and possible modifications modifica-tions to clear up some administrative adminis-trative problems. IN THE meantime, the council voted to continue funding the program until the recommendations are presented pre-sented to the council early next month. |