Maine Fire Departments Discuss Pooling Resources

Fire chiefs and town officials from across Franklin County have scheduled a second meeting to discuss ways to work more closely together.

The Morning Sentinel reports that the meeting scheduled for Oct. 29 is a follow-up to an April meeting at which the Maine county’s fire departments discussed ideas for sharing resources as well as possible obstacles.

Chiefs were told following that meeting to come up with a list of their department’s strengths, weaknesses, and other issues.

At the first meeting, nearly 80 officials talked about problems including aging firefighters, decreasing volunteerism, declining budgets and increasing training time.

Some ways departments could possibly work together include combining purchasing power, sharing a station and pooling resources to create a fire district that could cover several towns.

___