Julius Leone notes: “Our average age is up, and the number of new members is down.”

As David Hazelton brought up to the Brocton Village Board during April’s meeting, the age of the Brocton Volunteer Fire Department is rising, while recruitment of new members is dropping. This is not an isolated incident to Brocton, as Fire Departments all across Chautauqua County and the entire county experience similar problems. The Fredonia Volunteer Fire Department is one of those departments experiencing the same issues.

“We only brought in two new members last year,” said Julius Leone, president of the Fredonia Volunteer Fire Department.

“For a department our size, that’s a lot of trouble if it continues. What Dave said to the Brocton Board is 100 percent accurate. Our average age is up, and the number of new members is down. We’re all bald and graying, and we’re still doing this. We need some new help, because at some point, we can’t do this anymore.”

Leone thinks that part of the problems for recruitment in the past year are related to the COVID-19 pandemic, which the Fredonia Fire Department is understanding of. But now that the vaccine is becoming more accessible, he’s hoping recruitment for Departments all over see the increase they need.

“Now that COVID is moving in a direction to seeing the light at the end of the tunnel,” Leone said. “We’re going to make a push for new members.”

Kurt Maytum, the Acting Chief of the Fredonia Fire Department, added that volunteerism is down across the country for everything, not just Fire Departments, whether that be the VFW, the American Legion, or Church Organizations.

“The funny part is that it’s not just Fire Departments,” Maytum said. “Every agency that has volunteers is experiencing a decline in volunteerism. I wish I had the answers.”

While the Fredonia Fire Department is actively looking for new recruits to serve as EMTs and to actually fight fires, the jobs at the station go beyond putting on the gear. There are many positions at the office that can be filled, and help of any kind will be appreciated by the Fire Department.

“Somebody can join and not be a firefighter,” Leone said. “There’s a lot of jobs here. We actively want to find people to work in the office, we have a treasurer and secretary. They’re not firefighters per say, but they provide essential functions.”

The Fredonia Fire Department is in the process of recruiting and retaining new members, and is interested in getting new people who are interested in finding out what they do there, whether that be for boots on the ground, or for jobs in the office. And some of their newest, most valuable members are those who have already retired.

“Some of our best new members have retired from their career and come here,” Leone said. “They can use a paint brush, do cleanup, or direct traffic. We need firefighters, don’t get me wrong, but we have so many jobs to fill. You can join and never go to fire school, but we have other jobs that are essential.”