Paradise will pay firefighters $400 per year

By Brooke Nelson

December 6, 2004 | PARADISE -- The Town Council approved recommendations by the fire chief to compensate the volunteer department's officers and began revision of the town's general plan at their meeting Wednesday night.

Troy Fredrickson, chief of the Paradise fire department, recommended that $2,000 of the recent funding allocated to the fire deparment be approved for the compensating of officers. Each officer, elected within the fire department and appointed by the council, will receive $400 compensation per year, to be paid Dec. 1 of each year.

Fredrickson recommended the Dec. 1 date. "We can tell them that we hope that this helps with Christmas and appreciate what they do," he said.

Blake Pulsipher, also from the fire department, said, "We are are paying them for work already done and time already served."

Lee Atwood, the town's mayor, asked for feedback from the council about restricting the position of fire department officers to the boundaries of the local fire district now that the positions are being compensated.

Members of the council expressed a desire allow the fire department to continue to select its officers, regardless of where they live.

"We're certainly not paying them enough for people to come from Smithfield just to get the money," said Councilman Gerald Winn.

Pulsipher also reported the recent success of the fire department's annual Thanksgiving trapshoot. Around 1,460 tickets were sold, bring in a total of $2,600 net profit to aid the fire department in purchase of equipment, he said. Ticket sales for this year's event were about 225 more than other years, he said.

The council also began revision of the town's general plan. Members of the council unanimously agreed to leave the town's restriction of wells within the city boundaries as it is. The current general objective and goal of the town to preserve open space and agriculture was also unanimously supported.

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