Another full-time employee could be added to the Oxford Fire Department later this year, but first, township officials want to make sure they can afford it.
At last week’s township board meeting, Fire Chief Pete Scholz proposed changing Assistant Chief Dave Creech’s employment status from paid-on-call to full-time.
‘The management requirements of the department continue to increase every year,? wrote Scholz in a Jan. 7 memo to the township board. ‘The multiple meetings, trainings, personnel, call volume, administrative duties and additional new development are making it difficult to be in multiple places at the same time.?
Creech has been a paid-on-call member of the department since March 1986. He was promoted to assistant chief in 1996.
‘Currently, he is employed at GM (General Motors) and is retiring this spring,? Scholz said.
Scholz proposed Creech’s position become full-time on July 1 and not be part of the firefighters union.
Currently, the department has 15 full-time firefighters including the chief. Two firefighters were added on Jan. 1.
In response to the chief’s request, township officials indicated they want to make sure there’s enough money available to do this.
?(It’s) not that we’re not going to have this hire, but I think it’s our responsibility to see some budgetary information,? said township Supervisor Bill Dunn. ‘I’d like to delay it for a month.?
‘I would be willing to postpone it till the February meeting and come back with some harder numbers for everybody and also put a full spreadsheet together for it,? the chief replied.