Cedar Rapids consultants: Add firefighters, consider moving fire station

CEDAR RAPIDS — A study of the organization and functionality of the Cedar Rapids Fire Department -- recommending among other things adding firefighters and possibly moving a fire station -- has been completed and will provide guidance to fire department leaders as they plan how to use funds in the coming years.

The Cedar Rapids City Council in June 2022 approved a $57,500 contract with Raftelis, a Charlotte, N.C.-based company that advises local government and utility leaders, to review the overall organization of the fire department and firefighter health and safety.

The study also looked at the locations and functionality of the department’s nine fire stations with the goal of optimizing response times to fires and other emergencies, according to Cedar Rapids Fire Chief Greg Smith.

The last time the Cedar Rapids Fire Department relocated a fire station was in 2013, when the new Central Fire Station, 713 First Ave. SE, opened after the old one was damaged in the 2008 flood. The city also moved Station 3 at that time from the Coe College area to the northwest quadrant off Edgewood Road NW.

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The fire department had been looking into completing a department review for several years, and had planned to complete it in 2020. But it was delayed because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Smith said.

Raftelis consultants completed the study and delivered a report in May. Smith has presented the report to the city’s public safety and youth services committee, and will be presenting it to City Council in the next couple of months.

The research for the study involved touring each of the fire stations and interviewing staff members of various levels throughout the department, as well as other city stakeholders like the city finance director, the real estate manager and members of the human resources staff. The consultants also reviewed department data, including staffing information, budget reports and workload data.

The report outlined 17 recommendations in seven categories — staffing and structure, training, fire prevention and inspections, equipment and person protection, technology, organization and staffing and station location and condition.

According to Smith, some of the suggestions were needs the fire department was aware of and already had been worked into the budget — like a recommendation to supply all firefighters with ballistic protective equipment and to supply all firefighters with a second set of fire gear.

Suggestions related to staffing included a recommendation to add up to six more firefighters to the authorized number of staff to reduce overtime in the department, and recommendations to create three new positions within the department — a special projects captain, an administrative captain and a plans examiner under the fire marshal. The plans examiner position already has been created, Smith said.

The fire department currently is authorized to have staffing equivalent to 149 full-time employees, and has about 146, according to Smith.

Firefighters work on a schedule of 24 hours on and 48 hours off, and can legally work up to 53 hours in a week before being paid overtime since they spend some of their on-time sleeping. Overtime usually only comes up when a firefighter is on vacation or on another form of leave and someone else has to cover the shift.

In fiscal 2023, the fire department clocked 16,600 hours of overtime. In the previous fiscal year, the department clocked 13,600 overtime hours. The study recommended adding enough firefighters to have one or two more on each shift so that if someone is out on leave, others firefighters don’t have to step in to work overtime.

The starting salary for a firefighter in Cedar Rapids is $60,800, or $63,700 if the firefighter is a qualified paramedic.

Training-related suggestions from Raftelis included recommendations to adjust schedules to have more departmentwide trainings each year and to make sure citywide training courses about things like anti-harassment and family medical leave — which are currently being done as online modules — can be conducted in-person.

The recommended departmentwide trainings would require having firefighters work overtime to cover those who are in the trainings on a rotating basis, which Reftalis estimates would cost the city $48,000 in overtime if the trainings are done quarterly, and $24,000 if the trainings are done biannually.

Raftelis also recommended the city procure consistent access to a live fire training facility, either by creating a contract with Kirkwood Community College to have consistent access to its training facility — used for Kirkwood’s Fire Science Technology program — or by building a new, city-owned, multi-department facility.

The fire department currently runs training at the old central fire station, at 222 Third St. NW, but can’t use this property for live burns because it is right next to Interstate 380. This property may also be demolished soon as part of the city’s new flood mitigation system. The fire department has previously done live burn trainings at Kirkwood’s facilities or at structures already scheduled to be demolished, but these opportunities are not always consistent, according to the Raftelis report.

Because Cedar Rapids is home to a lot of production industries that use or create as a byproduct various hazardous materials, the Raftelis consultants also recommended the fire department work individually with each of the major industries in the city to develop fire prevention plans and hazardous materials training programs.

In reviewing the Cedar Rapids fire stations, the consultants determined most of the stations are in prime locations to respond to the majority of calls in their district. Station 2, at 442 50th Ave. Court SW, could be moved farther south to plan for possible growth in the southern part of the city, the report states.

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The report also recommended structural updates in several of the fire stations. The oldest fire stations were built in the 1950s, several were built in the 1980s and two were built in 2013. In the stations from the ‘50s, the consultants noted structural deficiencies like foundational cracks that allow water leakage into the building. The stations from the ‘80s could be expanded to account for equipment that takes up more space than it did 40 years ago, the report states.

Chief Smith said he is hoping to further review necessary fire station improvements and work with the city to budget for those renovations in the next several years.

“I can’t give a timeline, but I can tell you that we’re already starting to do some of the preliminary work that’s associated with that. We’re just starting the conversations toward that,” Smith said.

Many of the suggestions in the report will take several years to fully implement, Smith said. He plans to use the report as a resource to refer back to during future budget and improvement planning sessions.

“I really look at this as a continuous improvement model,” Smith said. “There is no finish line. It’s just continuous improvement.”

Comments: (319) 398-8328; emily.andersen@thegazette.com