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New fire chief working to fill positions, relieve staffing shortage

News Photo by Steve Schulwitz Alpena Township firefighter Chris Wilson secures equipment in one of the fire rigs at the township’s north station on Monday. The township department currently has only four full-time employees, but is in the process of hiring more.

ALPENA — The effort to rebuild the Alpena Township Fire Department continues to move forward, but it isn’t going to happen overnight.

Staffing is still limited, but the hiring process continues, and more interviews are expected to take place soon, officials say, so the board of trustees can approve more employees.

Fire Chief Mark Hansen said on Monday, the department has four full-time employees that work with the paid-on-call first responders to staff both stations and respond to emergencies in the township.

A large pile of job applications are on Hansen’s desk and he said he is going through them, hoping there will be some applicants who are still interested in taking a job with the fire department.

The township has struggled with a staffing shortage for many months. It became so severe the board of trustees considered contracting with the Alpena Fire Department for response services.

In the end, the trustees voted to try to save and rebuild its department and not utilize the services offered by Alpena.

Hansen said the newest hire began training at the department about a month ago, and their first official day on the job was Monday. Hansen said the plan is to add more firefighters to the staff soon to help provide some needed time off for those who continue to work shorthanded.

“We put one on and in the process of getting another position filled,” Hansen said. “The staff we have has been great. We’ve been extremely busy and they have covered numerous shifts with no days off. It is critical we put a couple more positions on as quickly as we can to help give them some time off.”

The department depends heavily on its paid-on-call responders. The paid-on-call staff members often are the first on scene after a 911 call is made, and they secure the scene and begin emergency treatment until the full-time staff arrive.

Hansen, who was hired last month, said the paid-on-call has been imperative to township EMS response.

“We have had great participation,” he said. “They are doing a bang-up job and they are extremely important. They provide us an important way to get help to people more quickly, and that is huge.”

Hansen said he is starting to feel more at home in his new role as chief. He said he is establishing a good rapport with staff and beginning to implement policies he believes will help the department grow and prosper.

There have also been a few minor hiccups, but nothing major, Hansen said.

“I’ve been settling in and trying to get things streamlined and organized to fit my management style,” he said. “We had some small issues along the way, but any time you step into a place where somebody else has been, it takes a while to set up the process.”

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