For the first time ever, Dalton Township will have full-time firefighters starting April 1.
The township board approved the hire of three firefighters at its Monday meeting, and Anthony Cooley, Michael Colborn and Drue Bouwman took their oaths to serve. Each of the three was already working for the fire department as part of a 14-person part-time staff.
The addition of three staffers was made possible by the passage of a millage request last August. Dalton voters approved an additional 0.85 mills for the fire department with 58 percent of the vote. Previously, chief Alan Styles was the only full-time employee.
The trio will man the firehouse 24 hours a day. Each will stay there for two full days before being relieved by the next firefighter - Styles called it a “48/96” schedule, with 48 hours (two days) on and four days off.
“It gets very tiring with 14 people trying to cover this service to guarantee someone will show up,” Styles said. “As the calls have gotten more and more (frequent) - we’re sitting in the 800 to 1,000 range (annually) - it’s getting challenging to staff for me, being the only full-time person, doing what a chief has to do and then doing all of this besides.”
Styles said five of the 14 part-timers applied. He said he’d have happily hired any of the applicants, but to limit any bias in the proceedings, the process was outsourced to an outside company. The four applicants who ultimately participated in the process were graded on written, practical and scenario exams, as well as an oral interview, and those with the top three scores were offered the positions.
“That’s how you typically do a testing process,” Styles said. “We followed big-city programs and just catered it to Dalton specifically.”
The opportunity to bump up to full-time was an enticing one for those who applied, maybe none more so than Cooley, who said he is a third-generation Michigan firefighter. Prior to his service to the fire department, Cooley spent 20 years in the U.S. Navy; for the past five years, his day job was as a truck driver for a local lumberyard.
“My grandpa and my dad were both firefighters in Muskegon County,” Cooley said. “Growing up, that was life, visiting Grandpa or Dad on a shift. It always stuck with me that someday, that was the goal, to become a full-time firefighter and live that life.”
Cooley said he and his colleagues will be able to do a much better job now that they’ll be staffing the firehouse full-time.
“Now that we’re at the station 24 hours a day, our call response times will greatly improve,” Cooley said. “The ability for someone to be there when someone from the public wants to stop in and look at the fire truck with their grandson or granddaughter. We’ll be there to give that tour and show them the fire trucks and the gear we use every single day. How much more public interaction we’ll have within our community, that will increase greatly.”
While Cooley, Colborn and Bouwman will staff the firehouse for two days at a time, they will still be able to see their families during that time if they visit. Styles said he welcomes that as a way to help maintain a home-work balance, which can be a difficult task for a first responder.
“This is a lifestyle change,” Styles said. “Being away from your family is hard. It can be hard for spouses and families to understand. We invite families to come have dinner with them if they want. It’s a huge lifestyle change if you haven’t been exposed to it. My wife is a pro at understanding it.
“We believe you have to have a great home life to have a great work life. It’s beneficial for agencies my size.”
