In 2020, when short staffing levels began to cause periodic closures at Kalispell Fire Station 62, officials were working to fill multiple firefighter and paramedic vacancies after several employees retired.
Now after nearly two years, the Kalispell Fire Department filled its last openings, bringing the department to a full staff of 32, with seven hires since January of 2021.
“We are finally up to a full staff, but of course we are behind the eight ball again because the city’s growing so fast,” Fire Chief Dan Pearce said. “We’re still trying to play catchup.”
Between retirements, injuries and COVID-related sick leave, the fire department has struggled to keep a full staff in the past few years and a lack of housing inventory has made recruitment difficult.
“Years ago, when housing was realistic, it wasn’t uncommon to have 100 people apply for one or two jobs,” Pearce said. “Now, folks crunch the numbers and they look at the cost of living in the Flathead and the hourly wage in comparison to other cities – it doesn’t pencil out. It’s tough to find candidates.”
City officials recently hired four employees who relocated from out of state and half of them are temporarily living in travel trailers. Pearce, who is also living in a travel trailer, said there are other city employees in similar living situations while they search for permanent housing.
Despite the lower wages and lack of housing, Pearce says the new firefighter/paramedics are willing to sacrifice amenities for a better quality of life in Montana.
According to Kalispell city officials, probationary firefighter/paramedics are hired at an annual wage of $56,228. Nationwide, firefighters earned a median wage of $52,500 in 2020 and firefighters in the 90th percentile earned $93,790, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics.
Despite a full staff, Pearce says Kalispell’s growth is outpacing available resources as call volume increases 10% annually.
To address the rising call volume, the City of Kalispell is conducting a growth study and plans to propose a bond in the fall of 2023 to pay for an additional fire station, which would be located on the corner of Mountain Vista Way and Farm to Market Road.
The city would need to hire 12 to 15 additional firefighter/paramedics to staff the new fire station, and Pearce says he’s already working on recruitment with the Flathead Valley Community College’s paramedic program.
“The police chief and I have talked about this and we feel it’s going to be just as difficult in the future to hire and we are not out of this situation yet,” Pearce said.
Flathead County Sheriff Brian Heino is also struggling to recruit after 12 deputies retired or quit in the last year-and-a-half.
Next month, the sheriff’s office will reach a full staff with 63 sworn-in deputies, but Heino says it’s not enough with call volume rising 17.5% from 2018 to 2021.
Last year, Flathead County had 47,000 calls compared to 40,000 in 2018. Heino estimates 2022 will likely see 50,000 calls.
Heino hopes to add more law enforcement positions in the future as the county continues to grow, but he, too, says housing availability has made recruitment difficult.
“The most striking challenge for any organization is housing,” Heino said.
The sheriff’s office has also started adding more flexibility to recruit employees like allowing them to live in neighboring counties and administration has sped up its hiring processes to create quicker turnarounds.