‘Step in the right direction’: Iowa program offers funding for volunteer firefighters

Volunteer fire and EMS departments in Dubuque County have a new avenue to fund first responders — and possibly a helpful tool for recruitment and retention.

The state recently allocated $1.5 million to volunteer firefighters, emergency medical service providers and reserve peace officers through a program that requires a local match. First responders can receive an up-to-$500 benefit each, but the amount depends on how many departments apply.

“The Length of Service Award Program was designed as a way to enhance recruitment and retention of volunteer firefighters,” said Mike Lambert, director for the Key West Community Fire Department. “Once our firefighters realize that this could be a benefit, maybe it’ll increase participation from our volunteers. With any organization, we always want to increase the participation.”

Last month, Lambert asked the Dubuque County Board of Supervisors to pass a resolution that allows the Key West department to apply for the program. Because Key West is an unincorporated area of the county and not a municipality, the department had to go through the supervisors.

“I’m not currently looking for the supervisors to fund this for Dubuque County firefighters, but I sure would be in the future,” Lambert told the Telegraph Herald. “You know, I don’t want to scare those guys. They count every nickel and spend it like their grandmothers.”

The supervisors unanimously supported the idea of passing a resolution that would enable Key West to apply for the award. The next step for the department is submitting the application by the end of January, Lambert said.

“I can’t think of a downside for the county or for our volunteers,” Supervisor Ann McDonough said. “I want to go forward with this.”

The award program, which was signed into law in June, took 10 years to happen. The Iowa Firefighters Association worked on getting the program through the Legislature for a decade, President Kent Brix told the Telegraph Herald.

“It’s not going to be a whole lot, but it’s going to be something to say they did this,” said Brix, who is also chief of the volunteer fire department in Grand Mound, Iowa.

In Dubuque County, Lambert told the supervisors he believes other volunteer fire and EMS departments will apply for the program. Not all departments have to ask the county for support — those in smaller, established cities can go to their local city council, like the Epworth Fire Department.

“We’ve been looking to do something for the volunteers,” Epworth Fire Chief Tom Berger said. “We’ll definitely work with the mayor and city council in Epworth here to implement something.”

Berger said the department is considering applying for the Length of Service program for the next fiscal year. He has been chief of Epworth’s department for 37 years and also serves as Dubuque County’s emergency management director.

Anything volunteer-run departments can do to recruit new firefighters — and “more importantly, once we get them trained, to keep them” — is a help, Berger said.

“I think anything is a step in the right direction,” he said. “You’ve got to start somewhere.”

Recruitment and retention have long been a challenge for these departments. Younger people are so busy, it’s tough to get new firefighters in the door, Berger said. Finding the money to pay for necessary equipment — which is getting more costly — is a constant hurdle. In areas where tax dollars may be limited, volunteer-run agencies often rely heavily on donations, grants and fundraisers.

“It’s a lot more difficult to get volunteers now, and in the last three decades, the call volume that the volunteers are responding to has probably doubled, for sure — if not tripled,” Berger said. “I think (the) local elected officials understand the difficulty of that, as well as the state legislators.”

While a $500 award is more of a “little scratch on the head” or “pat on the back” for volunteers, Lambert said, “it surely can’t hurt anything.” The Key West department averages about 30 volunteer first responders at any given time, he said.

“Our department will run close to 300 calls for service this year,” Lambert told the TH. “These folks really aren’t getting much. They don’t do it (and) never start it for the little bit of contribution.”