Amador County – The Amador Fire Protection District today (Thursday, October 28th) marks the second week of paid fire personnel across their ranks, and the district board plans to make it official with a badge pinning ceremony November 9th.
The new personnel started working October 14th at Plymouth’s Battalion 20, Pioneer’s Battalion 10, and the Sutter Creek Fire Station, said AFPD District Administrator Dominic Moreno.
Of the new personnel, “5 of the 12 are former volunteers from Amador County.” The rest are from outside the county. Some are former volunteers from El Dorado and San Joaquin Counties. They were immersed in training to learn the AFPD protocols, in a four-day session earlier this month.
There were no certifications given after the training, Moreno said, because the personnel “had requirements coming into the training,” and had to possess certain levels of skill and certifications to qualify for their respective jobs.
AFPD did written tests for the engineers, and practical tests in the field, with oral interviews, he said. Fire fighters also had entry skills and certification requirements, with written and practical tests and the interviews.
Moreno said: “It took us a long time to get to that point,” and he thought the individuals enjoyed the process, which wasn’t designed to “trip up” the candidates, but only to “try to get the best qualified people for Amador County.”
The long time it took to get to the point of hiring and paying fire fighting personnel included two county-wide voter initiative campaigns to enact a quarter-cent sales tax for police and fire services.
One, Measure L, in November 2006, failed when 61 percent of voters said “yes,” narrowly missing the 2/3rd vote needed. The latest, Measure M, passed in 2008, with 69 percent voting yes. Both were championed by municipalities, whose city managers gave out information on the paid staffing, while councils talked about the merits of the plan.
Across the county, the Ione Fire Department was the first to hire full-time employees. Plymouth, a nearly 20-year member of the AFPD, looked at starting its own department before recently renewing a contract with the district.
Sutter Creek has also contracted with AFPD, while Ione has a partnership with Jackson Valley Fire. Jackson has also supplemented its volunteer fire department with paid staff, after passage of Measure M.
Thursday will be their second week on the job for the nine AFPD engineers and three fire fighters, who will work in Sutter Creek, Plymouth, and Pioneer. The 11 men and one woman will receive their badges in a badge pinning ceremony set for 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, November 9th at the Supervisors chambers, during the AFPD board meeting.
Story by Jim Reece. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
