VILLAGE OF MINOA – On the back of Minoa’s ballot this March, there will be a proposition relating to the Minoa Fire Department’s service award program.
The service award program, which has been in effect since 1991, is a retirement program provided by the Village of Minoa to the volunteer members of the village’s fire department.
The wording of the proposition reads as follows: “Shall the Village of Minoa amend its Service Award Program for the volunteer fire members of the Village of Minoa, providing that in the event an active or active life member opts to commit to a 12-hour Duty Crew schedule (12 hours per week, minimum of 44 shifts or 528 hours annually), it shall not be mandatory for that member to fulfill the requirements of the Mandatory Participation in the Department Responses section of the Point System Guidelines?”
The department stated that voting “Yes” to the ballot proposal would not lead to a financial increase to the village taxpayers.
The program awards credits to responders that end up going toward retirement savings. Traditionally the point system for receiving those credits has been based on how many meetings and training exercises the personnel respond to and the amount of emergency call responses they make.
The credits are accrued throughout each year and over the years, and the credits earned are invested in the responder’s name to count toward the sum of money put into their account by the village every year, thus creating a nest egg.
With duty nights, the fire department members are scheduled to stay at the North Main Street station or the Manlius Center Road station so they’re ready to respond when emergencies occur and the whistle sounds.
“As it is now, normally you don’t get credits unless you go out on a call,” Mayor Bill Brazill said. “You’d never get credits for just standing by in the station, but that’s what we wanted to change. With this amendment, they’ll get the credits for staying back and being there for the 12-hour commitment.”
The firefighters would also be allowed to respond from home to emergencies when they’re not fulfilling scheduled stand-by hours in the stations, the department stated in a social media post.
Brazill said the modification to the service program would make the requirements for obtaining benefits better reflect the time and dedication put in by the fire department’s volunteers. He said it also creates more flexibility as the members get married and start having kids or encounter busier stages in life outside of their commitment to the department.
The volunteers have to hit at least 7.5% to 10% of the total calls the department responds to apart from emergency rescue and first aid squad calls for the year in order to obtain a certain amount of credits, or else 10% of the total calls responded to by emergency rescue and first aid squad.
If the number of total calls is 500 or fewer for the year and a member responds to 10% of those, they receive the 25 maximum credit points. If the total is 501 to 1,000 calls and the member responds to 7.5% of that number, they will receive 25 points. They also receive 25 points if they go on 5% of anywhere between 1,001 and 1,500 calls or 2.5% of 1,500-plus calls.
If a member selects for their plan year the minimum of 12 hours per week duty crew or completes 44 full duty crew shifts or accumulates 528 hours annually on duty crew, the mandatory participation in those percentages of calls is not required to be eligible for annual contributions toward the retirement program.
