PROGRESS 2021: Public safety departments growing with city

Feb. 27—Editor's Note: This article is part of an annual series by The News Courier called "Progress." This year, our team is returning to its roots with a classic Progress look at how far our county has come and what lies ahead for organizations, departments, officials and residents in the Athens-Limestone area.

The growth Athens has experienced over the past few years and future expansion beyond that has put a renewed emphasis on the importance of public safety.

More residents mean more people who Athens Police Department and Athens Fire & Rescue have to protect and serve.

This increased emphasis on public safety led Athens Mayor Ronnie Marks to bring a proposal before the City Council requesting a raise in base pay for the departments. Police Chief Floyd Johnson and Interim Fire Chief James Hand both told the Council that a raise in base pay was important for their departments, especially when it came to retaining employees.

A breakdown of what other departments in the area surrounding Limestone County pay their police officers or firefighters was provided to the Council while discussions were ongoing. The base annual salary for new members of Athens Police Department was $36,067.20, about $7,000 a year less than the starting base pay for Limestone County sheriff's deputies.

It was also less than several surrounding cities and counties, including Madison County ($40,747.20), troopers with the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency ($41,277.20), Madison ($42,964.48) and Huntsville ($46,675).

The base salary for new members of Athens Fire & Rescue was around $36,000, compared to Florence at $34,506.72, Hartselle at $35,971.20, Madison City at $36,489.44, Decatur at $37,285.87 and Huntsville at $38,979.20.

Ultimately, the City Council voted in October to increase base pay for Athens police officers by $6,000 and the base pay for city firefighters by $3,000. This increase was added to each step in the city's pay scale.

"It puts us in the range that is in the middle or above many of the surrounding cities," Marks said at the time. "I'm really proud of the action our City Council took for our first responders. We are one of the fastest-growing cities in the state of Alabama. We've got to pay our folks comparable pay. We can't be a training ground."

Recruitment, retainment

Before the pay raise, Johnson told the Council he was regularly losing officers to other departments in the area who paid more than Athens. He said he would often have recruits make it through the training academy just to move elsewhere.

Johnson said the raise will help APD in both recruiting new officers and retaining the ones it already employs.

"I haven't lost an officer since we got the pay raise," he said (when???). "I was losing them quite often. There were two or three people that were headed to another agency that haven't gone. Two of them have said they will stay, and the third might stay."

The Council also approved APD adding four officers to the department. The measure is to help cover the expanding area and population of Athens.

"We are still trying to add more officers," Johnson said. "The pay raise will help us on this. It gives us a lot better pull. If we can get the number of pay scale steps a little higher, that will make it even better. We appreciate what the Council and mayor has done to work with us. We would be hurting without it."

Hand told the Council during discussions that a pay increase was important for his department, but increasing the number of pay scale steps was more important to them because it would give those topped out on the scale a chance to work toward further raises in the future.

Future plans, changes

Growth in the city means changing how first responders cover it. Hand told the Council when the pay increase discussion was ongoing that he expected the need of a new fire station in the near future.

Likewise, Johnson told the Council he needs to split one or two coverage zones in order to better patrol them once more officers arrive.

Other changes may also be in the works for APD.

"I think we are going to have to look at our investigation division and increase it in time," Johnson said. "There are a number of things they look into. We may go with different options on code enforcement. Athens has one of the better code enforcement programs, and those guys stay busy. We may need to add to or rework that."

Johnson said the dispatch center will need to be adjusted due to the increased number of calls being handled.

"We are going to have to have more fire stations, more equipment and vehicles and more people," Johnson said of APD and the fire department. "With what we have, it is hard to maintain what we do now. We are going to have to have more stuff and continue to grow."

Protecting those who protect us

When the COVID-19 pandemic struck last year, one of the first groups to feel the effects was first responders. Departments were left to figure out how to continue to serve the public while keeping officers and firefighters safe.

Johnson said early on, APD had issues with staffing, obtaining personal protection equipment and even finding hand sanitizer.

"That was the first hurdle," he said. "We had some citizens donate us some homemade masks and surgical masks. That got us by until we could get some better masks in. We were taking hand sanitizer for granted, and then all of a sudden, we couldn't find it anywhere."

Eventually, supplies of necessary items were obtained, and now Johnson said levels are maintained through planning so officers have what they need.

Next came the issue of how and how often to sanitize the police station since so many people come and go each day. Sanitation plans for police cruisers also had to be put in place.

Johnson said things have "relaxed some" now that vaccines are available and people have become more accustomed to living in a world with coronavirus. However, some changes brought about by COVID-19 remain, such as the elimination of roll calls and retooling shift changes so that entire groups of officers are not together in the same place.

Some reports are now even being taken over the phone to minimize contact with the public.

"We are making sure we serve our community the best we can," Johnson said. "We try to make sure we meet the expectations of our citizens, our mayor and the City Council. I think we do good for our community, and I hope we can keep that up."