DVFAPresident

by Ken Ryder, President, DVFA

We are midway through May and about a month out from our next DVFA Executive Meeting.

The date is Sunday, June 11, 2023, at the Fire School in Dover; as usual time flies! Of course, we may not even be having fun, but life and things in general are busy for everyone. It's no different trying to track and keep up with things going on in the Delaware Legislature that impact the Delaware Fire Service.

I'm going to jump in feet first with the Adequate Sustainable Funding issue facing the Delaware Fire Service. I've talked about this before and I'm going to repeat myself in order to make some valid points about what and how we have to operate to survive. Each year many of us run deficits to keep our doors open, to meet payroll expenses for our staff, pay our loans and keep our equipment operational. We are constantly planning and carrying out fundraisers or all sorts, many put on by our auxiliaries, to help us stay afloat. The funds raised are used to purchase the essential items that we need to perform the functions that government(s) and the general public expect us to do every day. Things like fuel for vehicles, our ambulances and fire trucks, electricity and fuel for the heating and air conditioning of our buildings. These are everyday expenses and we have to do fundraising to pay all or part of them since we don’t have an Adequate Sustainable Income stream that we know would be there year in and year out. Fundraisers should be for special needs or events and not to pay for basic operating expenses!

This is more of a problem today as costs for firefighting gear, trucks and ambulances, supplies and equipment continue to rise. Our funding received has never kept pace with our total operating expenses in any given year. Many of today’s operating expenses are almost in a runaway mode with the additional funding needed for our staff and their related expenses. Remember that our staff are not volunteers!! This for them is their living and we have to have them if we are going to respond properly when needed. Their expenses have become a very necessary part of doing business for us to survive. Therefore, it cuts both ways, paid staff have become a part of the solution and an additional part of the problem. They are absolutely necessary because we do not have the volunteers to do all that we are expected to do. The general public and our government entities expect us to get on the road while the sirens are still blaring. continued on page 21