Plainsboro Township Committee on Wednesday, September 14, is expected to appoint a Public Safety Task Force to study the possibility of merging the township’s fire and emergency services departments.##M:[more]##
Currently, the township employs two paid firefighters to supplement the services of the Plainsboro Volunteer Fire Company, and three paid emergency services technicians who work with the volunteer rescue squad.
Earlier this year, the township assembled a Public Safety Facilitation Committee (PSFC) to study the future for the provision of public safety services in the township. The group was comprised of business and citizen volunteers as well as representatives from the volunteer fire department, volunteer rescue squad, the Plainsboro Fire Commission, the police department, and paid emergency services technicians.
After weighing several alternatives, the group recommended the consolidation of the departments, hiring personnel that are trained as both firefighters and emergency services technicians. Volunteers would be given the option of deciding whether they want to be cross trained.
According to a memo issued to the township committee by Cliff Maurer, public safety director, the PSFC’s study “has apparently evoked internal discussion within each volunteer group, and there is a need to meet with each volunteer group to allay any fears in reference to any monumental short or long term changes without an appropriate study.
According to Maurer, the PSFC ultimately agreed that the selected alternative “is not cast in stone. It is a starting point for members of the fire company and the rescue squad… to further examine and explore.”
Maurer recommended the appointment of the Public Safety Task Force to conduct further studies on the consolidation.
“There is no current crisis in Plainsboro in regard to the delivery of emergency services,” Maurer says in his memo. “The question is, ‘what does the future hold for emergency services and shouldn’t we in good conscience look to the future today?’”
Mayor Peter Cantu says he supports the creation of the task force. “There has always been a provision (in the township code) for the appointment of a Public Safety Task Force,” says Cantu. The Public Safety Facilitation Committee “laid out a path and items to be reviewed in greater detail, and the creation of this task force is the way to do it.”
