Volunteer firefighter: Loss of scholarship may hurt recruiting
The expiration of a state-funded scholarship program may thin the ranks of New York’s volunteer first responders, a veteran firefighter warned Friday.
Each year, the Volunteer Recruitment Service Scholarship covered tuition costs for 70-80 students who volunteered as ambulance personnel or firefighters while attending eligible colleges, according to the Division of Budget. When the program sunset on June 30, deficit-minded lawmakers did not renew it: a move that will save about $400,000 this fiscal year at the expense of a volunteer perk.
“Our companies struggle each year trying to get new members,” said Lenny Brown, a fire police captain in the Lebanon Valley Protective Association -- whose son had twice received the scholarship. “That program was one of the beautiful incentives that the state did offer for young people to be able to become members, and we did pick-up a few kids because of that.”
A shrinking number of volunteers recently forced New Lebanon to hire a paid ambulance service, Brown said. If the town were to hire paid firefighters as well, taxpayers would have to foot an estimated $2.5 million bill.
"Down the road, there's going to be a real problem in regards to not having our volunteers, and then it's going to cost these communities to pay professional firefighters to be on staff,” Brown said.
State Senator Steve Saland (R – Poughkeepsie), who represents New Lebanon, said he is not optimistic about reinstating the scholarship. The legislature is controlled by Democrats from New York City – which does not rely on volunteer first responders.
It was unclear Friday whether the state’s Higher Education Services Corporation (HESC) had notified any families of the scholarship’s discontinuation. A spokeswoman did not return a CBS 6 phone call.
Brown – whose son had been banking on the scholarship for his junior year of college – said he only learned of the program’s discontinuation when the school came looking for its money two weeks before classes began.
