Last summer, the Niles City Council approved a budget allowing for the addition of two full-time firefighters to the city’s force.

Captain Don Wise, of the Niles Fire Department, said the department started a part-time program instead of hiring two full time people.

One of the reasons they went that route, he said, is that they can have more people on staff with a part-time program than with the addition of two full-timers.

To explain this, Wise said the department uses a three-shift platoon with three full-time firefighters working together in 24-hour shifts. If they hired two new full-timers, they would have only been able to use them in two of the three shifts.

With the part-time program, the department can have three full-timers and one part-timer in each shift.

“Having that extra person around allows us to go to work a lot faster than if we were waiting either for off-duty or on-call responders,” Wise said. “It really helps us having that extra pair of hands.”

Wise said the department has about 15 people available to work part-time at a maximum of 29 hours a week. More than half of the part-time firefighters were members of the department’s on-call program.

While Wise believes they made the right decision, he said it wasn’t an easy one to make.

“We really struggled with it because we could’ve provided two families with an income and insurance,” Wise said. “But we also had to look at the flipside of how do we provide the best protection for our citizens? We have to always look at the customer first and then our people and what we can provide for them.”

In addition to running fire and medical calls, Wise said each part-time employee is able to assist with code enforcement, including rental inspections and junk and trash complaints.

The Niles Fire Department employs nine full-time firefighters and a fire chief. They respond to approximately 1,200 calls a year.

The part-time program started late last year.

Wise praised the council for freeing up funds for the part-time program.

“I give credit to the city council who provide the best level of protection by far to anyone around us at a very reasonable cost,” he said. “It’s a tough spot they are in with a tight budget, but I think they are doing a wonderful job at it.”