Pender County asst. fire chief calls for $900K incentives package after mass resignations

BURGAW, NC (WWAY-TV) — Since March, nearly 40 employees have resigned from Pender County EMS and Fire including four firefighters now seeking jobs with other agencies. The department has also seen its board of director’s dissolve and is set to merge under county operations in July.

Assistant Fire Chief Mark Haraway presented a nearly $900,000 incentives package to county commissioners Monday night which is aimed at retaining staff before the merger.

“This was a good opportunity to simple come and educate you guys on the fact that we’re losing people and if we don’t do something you are not going to have anything to absorb July 1,” Haraway said during the meeting.

The salary proposal includes longevity pay of $95,959; holiday pay of more $524,290; sign-on bonuses of $20,000; a salary increase for current employees and $57,000 to fund advanced EMT classes.

Haraway said the staffing shortage is having an impact.

“It’s also affecting service delivery, we’re down to minimum staffing on fire apparatus,” Haraway said during the meeting.

Pender County board commissioner Jimmy Tate said something must be done.

“If they are having that many people leave we have got do something make sure our fire coverage,” Tate said. “I’ve heard from people in Topsail Beach and I’ve heard from people in Pender Lee on days that there was not coverage and they got to have coverage.”

Tate said he hopes the board and Pender EMS can come to an agreement before they lose more staff.

“None of us want to spend the tax dollars wastefully at all, while I was not in agreement with being able to provide all that they were asking,” Tate said. “I do believe we need to do something, look at our sign on bonuses to be able to bring them on in Pender County.”

The board voted to table the proposal until their next meeting on Oct. 20 which gives both board commissioners and the Pender EMS and Fire board time to clarify the details.