Peachtree City volunteer firefighters may get a small financial incentive to respond to incidents on a trial basis, if the proposal is approved by the City Council at its regular meeting Thursday night.

Volunteers would receive a payment for each incident they respond to when summoned, ranging from $5.42 to $13.54 depending on the volunteer’s level of experience.

In a memo to council, Assistant FIre Chief Ed Eiswerth noted that the goal is to have three to four volunteers responding to each call, but the average firefighter response last year was 1.36 per call, down from 1.89 in 2004.

Each volunteer’s stipend would be capped at $750 for the six-month period.

If all volunteers hit that cap, the cost would be $34,000 to the city while increasing the manpower to each call by two persons, Eiswerth said in the memo to council.

In contract, it costs the city $344,000 to add two firefighters to each shift, Eiswerth wrote.

The lowest qualified volunteer firefighter would earn $5.42 per incident, while the second and third most qualified levels would earn $8.12 and $10.83 per incident, according to the plan.

The most qualified firefighter, serving as a fire officer I or as a national professionally qualified firefighter and Georgia certified paramedic, would get $13.54 per incident.

None of the volunteer firefighters would be eligible for the stipend unless they complete the national qualification or achieve Georgia firefighter certification.

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