Lincoln FD staffed seven days a week; assistant chief wants more
LINCOLN, Ark. (KNWA/KFTA) — The Lincoln Fire Department is now staffed seven days a week, according to Assistant Chief Tyler Franks.
The new schedule is helping cut down on response times, according to part-time firefighter Trevor Snider, but the assistant chief doesn’t want it to stop there.
“I want someone here — at least one person — 24/7/365,” Franks said.
Lincoln residents accused of stabbing neighbor’s dog
Lincoln Fire Department was staffed 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday to Friday, but Franks said that “wasn’t enough.”
“The thought process was: your volunteers get home after work, after 4 (p.m.) or 5 (p.m.), and then you count on them,” Franks said. “On the weekends, there was no full-time employee here. You count on your volunteers because they’re off, but that’s not working anymore.”
Franks said the city implemented a 1% sales tax for first responders with 51% of that going to the police department and 49% going to the fire department. That provided enough funding for the department to hire enough for 80 part-time hours each week.
In addition to Franks — the department’s only full-time employee — and Chief Brian Bradley, there are 31 volunteers and 14 part-time employees.
One of those part-time employees is Trevor Snider, who also volunteers with the Maysville Fire Department.
“Here at Lincoln, we just have all of our open shifts,” Snider said. “And, when you can, you put in for those shifts.”
Snider said having someone at the station every day takes some of the daily pressure off of the firefighters. He said it has also improved response times to calls.
“Having people here to just jump on it right away is a lot better than having someone have to respond probably five to 10 minutes from their house here to grab a truck,” Franks said.
With the staffing increase, Franks said there are still some issues fielding overnight calls. Of the 947 calls Lincoln Fire Department received last year, Franks said there was about a 10% no-response rate to them. Some of those overnight calls included alarms going off, medical calls and a couple of fires.
“There’s calls at night that aren’t getting answered,” Franks said. “There’s calls when volunteers are not available or I’m not available. They’re just not getting answered. We got to do that for our community and our city. We have to provide that service.”
He believes the only way that’s possible is through more funding.
“The city’s going to have to find it in the budget,” Franks said. “If we can work together as a team — Lincoln, the city, and Lincoln rural — we can make that happen.”
Franks hopes to be staffed 24 hours a day by January 2025.
For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KNWA FOX24.
