At the December 9 Greenbelt City Council meeting, City Manager Josué Salmerón spoke about the city’s renewed legal efforts to challenge the removal of career firefighters from the Greenbelt Fire Department in June. Salmerón also shared the news that the city will now have a paramedic ambulance 24/7 effective December 29 (for more on the fire department staffing changes coming at the end of this month, see last week’s issue of the News Review).
“Our legal efforts are moving forward,” said Mayor Emmett Jordan. The city, along with Berwyn Heights and College Park, took legal action in June after learning of the planned removal of career staff. Their temporary restraining order was rejected on July 1 (see the July 4 issue) and a circuit court judge dismissed the larger case on October 21 (see the October 24 issue).
The city has now filed a Motion to Amend to include new evidence the city has been able to gather, said Salmerón. That new evidence includes the city providing funding to support incentivizing volunteers to cover shifts at the Greenbelt and Berwyn Heights stations. That’s resulted in improvements, said Salmerón, particularly in coverage at Berwyn Heights, where they’ve been able to increase staffing to respond to emergencies in Greenbelt. He added, “We’ve also filed a Motion for Reconsideration and an appeal to the state on the matter.”
Jordan said he wanted to meet with the leadership of the Greenbelt Fire Department before the holidays. Salmerón agreed that a meeting should take place, especially since the city has $70,000 of funding encumbered and not yet disbursed. Council previously approved $100,000 of American Rescue Plan Act funding to support the Greenbelt Volunteer Fire Department (GVFD) and Berwyn Heights Volunteer Fire Department (BHVFD), of which $30,000 has been spent. So far $10,000 has been disbursed to support GVFD and $15,000 to BHVFD and around $5,000 has been spent to improve and deep clean the Greenbelt station.
Beginning December 29, Greenbelt’s station will gain a round-the-clock paramedic ambulance and retain one of the emergency medical services units available from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m., the hours of peak activity, seven days a week (currently it has just two peak units). The change at the end of the month “is a welcome improvement,” said Salmerón, though, “obviously it’s not the full staffing we had hoped for.” He characterized the addition as an upgrade but expressed disappointment that the removal of career staff, which the city had been led to believe was a temporary summer staffing plan, continues into the winter season.
