Lewes Fire Department seeks $400K from city

Lewes Fire Department officials are asking the city to consider a major increase in its annual donation, increasing it from $43,000 to more than $400,000.

Gordon Davis, chair of the department’s financial planning committee, made the request at mayor and city council’s Feb. 21 budget meeting, saying the large request is a result of continued growth in the area.

“From a short-term perspective, we’d like you to at least look at an immediate increase in this budget year,” Davis said. “In terms of long term, we’re asking you to look into a fund or revenue source to specifically support fire and EMS in the city of Lewes. We realize it’s not something that will happen overnight.”

Davis said the city accounts for 16 percent of the department’s coverage area and 16 percent of the department’s calls for service. Davis said 16 percent of the budget is about $416,000.

“We do want you to know that long term, we’re going to be struggling financially,” Davis said. “You can see it in the increase in demand for service. We feel we’ve done a very good job of keeping up with demand, but at some point our expenses will outweigh our revenue and our system will fail. If our system fails, who will do it?”

Davis said 35 percent of department revenue is received via ambulance billing, while 30 percent comes from state funds. Local fundraising accounts for 20 percent, county funds are 12 percent and the donation from Lewes and the Board of Public Works is just 3 percent of the revenue. In addition to the city’s donation, the BPW also provides the department with $25,000 annually.

Davis said EMS staff accounts for 41 percent of the fire department’s budget, and capital expenses for vehicles and buildings account for 23 percent. EMS payroll in 2018 was just over $1 million, Davis said. They employ 17 full-time and 12 part-time staff members. 

He said EMS staff responds to an average of 11.7 calls per day. In 2018, the highest number of calls in one day was 25 calls on one day in July. Not including Dover and Wilmington, which use private EMS companies, Davis said, Lewes is the fifth-busiest municipality-based EMS service in Delaware. The department averaged 4,000 EMS calls annually the last three years.

“We’re projecting almost 7,000 EMS incidents by 2024,” Davis said. “Sad but it’s true. We feel that is going to be pretty accurate. We’re predicting a large spike because of the amount of people here. A decade ago, we were nowhere close to No. 5 in the state.”

The department has an apparatus replacement plan in place over the next eight years, in which it plans to spend $4.75 million to replace older vehicles. Of the three trucks at Station 1 on Savannah Road, Davis said, the newest truck is 15 years old. The oldest is 25 years old, he said. The department has 27 pieces of apparatus.

“There’s a lot of expenses on our horizon for replacement of these vehicles,” Davis said.

When the department replaces its ladder truck, planned for 2022, it’s expected to cost at least $1 million. The existing ladder truck cost $750,000 in 2002.

Other future expenses include training and outfitting new firefighters, an expense of more than $10,000 per firefighter.

Davis said the department runs a robust fundraising campaign each year. They sent out 16,000 requests for public donations last year. They received 4,200 donations for the fire department in the amount of $244,000 and 3,500 donations for the ambulance service in the amount of $203,000.

Davis said it’s not unprecedented for municipalities to provide significant funding to their volunteer fire departments. Seaford budgets $400,000, Milford provides $140,000 and Dover gives more than $1 million, Davis said.

Other municipalities add to fire department budgets by earmarking a portion of revenue received from building permit fees or impact fees, Davis said. 

City council did not discuss amending its current draft budget for fiscal year 2020, which begins April 1. Budget meetings are ongoing, and city officials will likely make a decision on the annual donation in upcoming weeks. City council and staff are still trying to work toward a balanced budget. Following the Feb. 21 meeting, staff estimated the city would need to use $70,000 in prior year reserves to balance the budget. The next budget meeting is set for 9 a.m., Tuesday, Feb. 26, at city hall. 

The Lewes Fire Department covers 54 square miles and a population that fluctuates from 17,000 to 34,000.