The Peachtree City Fire Department is asking for seven new positions in next year’s city budget, citing a need to meet national guidelines for the minimum number of fire personnel on a scene.

Meanwhile the city’s police department is asking for two positions: a new detective to specialize in white collar crimes, including identity fraud, and a staff assistant to handle increasing administrative workload and allow the department to be open until 9 at night.

The police department is currently open until 5 p.m. weekdays only for the public to pick up copies of accident and incident reports in addition to meeting with a police officer.

Fire Chief Ed Eiswerth said the goal is to get four firefighters on the scene in five minutes or less, and then a total of 15-19 firefighters there in nine minutes or less.

“A fire doubles in size every minute,” Eiswerth explained.

Eiswerth said a study of cities similar in size to Peachtree City showed that Peachtree City’s fire department had a lower per capita cost than all but one of the other cities. Also, he added, none of those other cities even provide EMS service like Peachtree City does.

“So we’re doing more with less,” Eiswerth said.

Fire officials are also asking for a fire lieutenant position that would coordinate safety programs with older members of the community and also work towards getting the department nationally accredited.

Police Capt. Mike Claman said in the past five years white-collar crime has increased 148 percent in the city, including cases of identity fraud, forgery, prescription fraud, internal financial theft, deposit account fraud and phony traveler’s checks and mail orders.

Last year police took 183 fraud reports, 103 of which were identity fraud reports. Claman said the entire Southeast has been hit by a traveling band of identity fraud criminals who often target banks in phony check schemes.

Claman also said that some identity theft groups have taken to using homeless people in Atlanta in such schemes, promising an easy payday if they’re not caught.

Police Capt. Stan Pye said the four-person administrative staff handles a myriad of duties in addition to handling public requests for reports. They also handle entries into the state and national crime databases, generation of auto accident reports, entries into the department’s community crime alert network and more, Pye said.

The accident report entries alone can take upwards of two to three hours each, Pye said. That staff has been at four for the past seven years, and meanwhile the volume of phone calls has increased significantly, Pye added.

In addition, Peachtree City fire officials are making plans to build two new fire stations to enhance coverage in the city.

One of the stations would be built on the northern edge of the city’s baseball and soccer complex off Ga. Highway 74 South, while the other would be built in the West Village, maybe on the former site of Comcast Cable at the intersection of Hwy. 74 and South Kedron Drive, said Fire Chief Ed Eiswerth.

Complicating matters is that CSX Railroad is hoping to close the railroad crossing to the old Comcast property, which will render the parcel useless. Eiswerth said he hopes the crossing could remain open for fire operations even if it was closed to the public overall.

Mayor Harold Logsdon said he hoped to keep the railroad crossing open to the public.

Staffing the south station will require four firefighters per shift for a total of 12 new positions, and the station might be built in 2010. The goal is to have the station at least partly funded by impact fees, which are blanket fees charged on each new home built.

The city is also studying a way to assess impact fees on commercial and industrial projects, but no decision has been made yet.

The south station, if approved, would become the EMS training center for the city, Eiswerth said. It would enhance coverage of the city’s industrial park and in essence cover the area that was previously considered for two separate fire stations, Eiswerth said.