By Richard A. Todd, Herald Democrat
Herald Democrat, Sherman, Texas
SHERMAN, Texas — While Denison Fire Rescue employment woes are expected to receive some relief in the near future as the department looks to hire more firefighters, there will still be some time before the department employees will see the fruits of the efforts.
It was announced July 3 that the department will be working with hiring firm, Life Net Inc., to fill employment gaps in the department, but Denison Fire Rescue Chief Gregg Loyd is finally speaking out on the timeline to bring more workers into the department.
A press conference was held Monday about the private company that will be assisting Denison Fire with temporary staffing.
Loyd said Monday that it will be between 30-45 days for the new agency the city contracted to bring on emergency medical technicians because the firm will need time to hire and train its employees before they can begin taking calls for the city.
He also said hiring the firm was necessary to provide relief for the firefighters who are working overtime, and the firefighters will also need time to train the Denison Fire new hires and the private firm will help with some of that.
Loyd said the city is not expecting there to be much overlap in the employees seeking to hire on with the private firm because there will be individuals who want to serve as EMT’s who don’t have or won’t want the firefighter certification.
This all comes after the city began talking about hiring a private firm to outsource the city’s emergency services at its budget workshop in April. At that time, the department was down a number of individuals and Denison Fire Rescue Chief Gregg Loyd said the plan was to outsource EMS in order to reduce the number of staff on the department’s payroll.
Loyd said that the fire department should be back to full employment in less than a year.
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©2019 the Herald Democrat (Sherman, Texas)