External Stakeholder Input

The members who responded to the survey saw opportunities for improvement in the areas of communication, accountability, training, staffing, and the coordination between career and volunteer firefighters. Additionally, calls for keeping town politics out of the fire service in Southington were many and repeated. ESCI factored this input as well as the rest of that which was submitted in the survey when designing recommendations for the Recommendations and Strategies Section of this report.

The Internal Survey has been included in this report as Appendix A: Southington Fire Department Internal Survey.

External Stakeholder Input

Due to Covid-19 Restrictions, instead of holding community forums, ESCI team members conducted an electronic survey for the residents and business owners within the Town of Southington to determine internal, external, and policy-maker expectations of the Southington Fire Department.

To solicit input from the Southington Community, ESCI created a nine-question online survey. The resident and business surveys were both open for participation from March 15, 2021 through April 15, 2021. The Southington Fire Department posted the link to this survey on the department website and shared information about the survey through its other normal communication channels. A total of 220 residents participated in the online surveys.

The people who participated in the Southington Fire Department Community Feedback Surveys were, in general, very pleased with the services offered by the fire department. This is a credit to the men and women of the Southington Fire Department who provide a consistently high levels of service to the community every day.

When asked to rank the following priorities, Resource Deployment – arriving in less than five minutes was the community’s highest priority. Cost containment was the lowest priority. The following table illustrates the weighted average of the survey responses on a scale of 1 to 6 with 6 being the highest priority.

Figure 6. Community Priorities

Resource Deployment—arriving in less than 5 minutes

Staffing—Succession Planning, Career Development, and Training

Specialty Services—Hazardous Materials, Rescue, Emergency Medical Services, Community Risk Reduction, etc.

Recruitment and Retention of Volunteer Firefighters

Community Outreach and Education 2.55 4.28

3.54

3.37 5.39

Cost Containment and Financial Sustainability/Grant Acquisition 2.34

0 1 2 3 4 5 6

When asked to prioritize services as a Critical Priority, Important Priority, or Low Priority, 86% of the survey participants identified Fire Suppression as their Critical Priority, followed close behind by Emergency Medical Response at 63%. The citizen feedback repeatedly inquired about and, in many cases, outright requested, more fire department involvement in Emergency Medical Responses within the Town of Southington.

Figure 7. Critical, Important, and Low Priorities

Fire Prevention and Code Enforcement Services

Disaster Preparedness

Technical Rescue

Fire Suppression

23%

14%

26%

15%

6%

0% 14% 63%

59%

48% 46%

86%

Emergency Medical Response

11% 26% 63%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90%

Critical Priority Important Priority Low Priority

In general, the people who participated in the Community Feedback Survey valued the service that is offered by the fire department. The theme that emerged through the feedback that was submitted was a desire by the community for assurance that their fire department is adequately staffed. Comments from the community indicated support to both bolster the ranks of both volunteer firefighters and career firefighters. ESCI factored this input as well as the rest of that which was submitted in the survey when designing recommendations for the Recommendations and Strategies Section of this report.

The survey of the Southington Residents and a detailed breakdown of the results for each question are included in this report as Appendix B: Southington Fire Department Citizen Feedback Survey.