BUDGET CUTS MAY AFFECT FIRE TRAINING

Training for volunteer and some paid firefighters in the state may be reduced sharply because of state budget cuts, state and local fire service officials said.

The budget cuts would mainly affect small-town and rural fire departments in Southeast Missouri who have limited budgets, and depend on trained, volunteer firefighters to protect residential and commercial property.

The cuts may also affect future attendance at the Southeast Missouri Regional Fire School, held in October in Cape Girardeau County. Fire service officials say the school here is one of the largest regional fire-training schools in the state.

The Cape Girardeau County school is sponsored by the Cape County Firefighters Association, in cooperation with the Missouri Fire and Rescue Training Institute, situated on the University of Missouri-Columbia campus.

The institute was created 58 years ago to provide training for out-state and rural firefighters.

Last year, the institute, managed by the University of Missouri's Extension Division, trained 13,000 firefighters throughout the state in techniques ranging from basic firefighter training to advanced, specialized training courses in fire suppression and rescue.

But the institute's training program is facing a 50 percent funding cut because of the state budget crisis. Eighty-five percent of the state's 22,000 firefighters are unpaid volunteers.

In a letter to its training instructors around the state, institute Director Bruce Piringer warned that the upcoming cuts will result in drastic increases in costs that must be passed on to firefighters and fire department sponsors.

Piringer said the institute began the current fiscal year with a 5 percent reduction in university funding and a 13 percent cutback in "House Bill 230" funding from the Division of Fire Safety.

"We accommodated these reductions by freezing wages and cutting operating expenses," said Piringer. "I was recently notified to expect a further $20,000 reduction in the House Bill 230 contract allocation. This will reduce funding for free (firefighter) training by almost 30 percent compared to last year.

"This latest hit, following on the heels of (previous funding cuts) is not survivable without dramatic changes in (the institute's) mission, staff and programming. All will be reduced," he added.

Piringer said the Fire and Rescue Training Institute gets about 15 percent of its base operating budget from University of Missouri funds, and nearly the same amount from the State Fire Marshal's office through House Bill 230.

Piringer said that since 1986, the institute has been able to use these dollars and leverage them into a three-quarter-million dollar fire training program that provided almost 600 courses to 13,321 firefighters in 1990.

But the budget cuts have nearly eliminated funding for the tuition-free training courses, he said.

Jim Bollinger, a member of the Bollinger County Civil Defense Fire Department at Marble Hill and an associate instructor with the institute, said the budget cuts mean smaller fire departments with limited funds must choose between allocating a part of their meager budget for new equipment, or firefighter training.

"Unfortunately, many of them will choose new equipment over training, and that's not good," said Bollinger. "To me, training is vital. You can make do with what you have as far as equipment is concerned. A trained firefighter is a safe firefighter. It means he's getting a course of standardized training that's taught the same throughout the state.

"The State Fire Marshal's office is very much concerned about standardized fire training in the out-state area because of statewide mutual aid and local and regional mutual aid pacts between departments and fire districts."

Fruitland Fire Chief Marty Schuessler said the budget cuts will force the Cape County Firefighters Association to increase tuition rates for some regional fire-training courses that are now offered free to firefighters, except for a nominal fee for classroom facilities.

Schuessler is an associate instructor with the institute.

"If it were not for the House Bill 230 money the institute receives, the tuition fees for some of our classes would go up to $25, plus the $10 fee for classroom facilities," said Schuessler.

"Right now, the state of Missouri offers one of the lowest tuition costs for firefighter training in the United States," he continued. "In other states, the same courses we offer for free, or a tuition fee of $10 would cost about $100.

"You can see what an impact the cutback will have on a fire department that sends 20 men to a regional fire school $200 vs. $2,000 for training."

Because of earlier cuts, Schuessler said, this year's regional fire school will only offer two, tuition-free courses. Last year, three were offered.

"We'll have six classes, but only two of them will be free. There will be a tuition charge on the other four," he said.

Bollinger said a bill that will be prefiled in the General Assembly later this year would resolve the money crunch by switching funding from state general revenue to a 4 percent tax on commercial and residential fire insurance premiums.

He said a similar bill got out of committee last year, but did not pass because of time constraints.

Bollinger said money collected under the proposed bill would go to the Division of Fire Safety, which would allocate a portion for fire training, hiring additional investigators for the fire marshal's office and establishing a series of permanent regional fire training centers around the state.

"The remainder of the monies would go to individual fire departments or agencies as grants, based on needs. They would have to apply for the funds," Bollinger said.