http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/local/scn-sa-nor.fire5jun17,0,2946970.story?coll=stam-news-local-headlines
By Ryan Jockers
Staff Writer
June 17, 2004
NORWALK -- The city has chosen a consulting firm to develop a long-term plan for the Norwalk Fire Department.
The Fire Commission voted unanimously yesterday to approve a $55,000 contract with Matrix Consulting Group to conduct a four-month study of the department.
The firm will assess the department's role in responding to emergency medical calls and the condition of its fire stations. The city is considering renovating the main headquarters on Connecticut Avenue or relocating it to a former Norwalk Transit District facility on Fairfield Avenue.
The department's other stations, particularly the ones on Westport Avenue and Meadow Street, need rehabilitating as well, commission members said.
"They're victims of many years of neglected maintenance," said Mayor Alex Knopp, a member of the three-person Fire Commission.
The study also will examine whether a sixth fire station should be added in the northern section of the city, and whether changes to the department's organizational structure are needed.
The Common Council must vote on hiring Matrix Consulting Group, which has its headquarters in Palo Alto, Calif., and an office in Shrewsbury, Mass.
Commissioners said Matrix is a small firm that has completed similar studies of fire departments in dozens of municipalities, and made the lowest bid.
Knopp said the firm appeared interested in gathering insight from all the department's members -- a departure from the last comprehensive study of the fire department in the early 1990s. Marty O'Mara, president of the firefighters' union, said the previous firm did not talk with the firefighters.
That study showed the fire department was underutilized. Since then, it has been responding to emergency medical calls, and the number of calls to which it responds has doubled, fire Chief Sanford Anderson said.
Knopp said the Matrix study, expected to begin later this summer, is an attempt to modernize the department. An advisory group will oversee the study, which will be co-chaired by Tom Flaherty, a former fire commissioner, and Ed Schmidt, the mayor's assistant.
Former fire chief James Verda will lead the review of the department's facilities, which will be assisted by the city's facilities construction commission and its program manager, Gilbane Co.
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