Pooling resources between public safety departments could save money and improve services, according to town officials from Casco, Raymond and Naples.

At a meeting in Casco Tuesday night, selectmen and town managers from all three towns discussed the possibility of regionalization.

The selectmen present came to a general consensus that it was a worthy avenue to pursue, citing the advantages of sharing staffing and equipment. The towns’ fire chiefs agreed, and a workshop exploring the consolidation idea will be held Aug. 26 in Raymond.

“It’s going to be the way that we can survive,” Naples Fire Chief Chris Pond said Wednesday, citing difficulty finding volunteers and rising call volume.

Casco Fire Chief John Small said regionalization could provide a better level of service and savings by not duplicating equipment and having better buying power. “I’ve been pushing for it for 10 years,” Small said.

“A benefit of the whole thing would be more bang for your buck,” said Raymond’s Assistant Fire Chief Bruce Tupper Wednesday.

“There’s so many pieces of this,” Tupper said. “Can we improve services? Can we get a bigger value for our money? In the future will this save us some money?” Tupper said he thinks the answer to these questions is yes.

“It has been years of work trying to get to this point,” said Tupper, adding that he was very hopeful after Tuesday’s meeting.

Raymond Selectman Joe Bruno said sharing equipment could save money and Raymond Town Manager Don Willard agreed, saying he thought the towns probably had more ambulances than they needed for the population. The towns have two ambulances each.

“It’s not just monetary resources we’re talking about, it’s people,” Casco Town Manager Dave Morton said.

“As we look forward, one of the hardest parts is the decline in volunteers,” said Raymond Selectman Mike Reynolds, adding that in Raymond volunteerism in the fire department has dropped by a third over the past several years. With regionalization, Reynolds said, the towns could share volunteers.

Raymond has 25 paid members of its fire and rescue department as well as four full-time staff and two part-time staff. Tupper said they started paying members around 10 years ago to hold on to staff.

Casco has 25 active members on its fire department, who are paid a stipend per call but volunteer for training and meetings. The town has additional rescue personnel.

Naples has between 22 and 25 firefighters who receive a small stipend for each call. The town also has a roster of 20 who split the job of staffing the rescue department 24 hours a day seven days a week. These staff members take on other jobs besides rescue, Pond said.

“The times have changed,” Naples Selectman Bob Caron said, pointing to the fact that the Naples Public Safety department used to be all volunteers, but now they have paid paramedics. Caron said one of the barriers for volunteers is the large amount of training required to learn new technology.

“It’s harder and harder to get those volunteers,” Willard said, adding that a number of communities in southern Maine have moved to paying their fire departments.

Pond says Naples gets around 900 calls a year for fire and rescue, adding that the number of calls is about the same in Casco and Raymond.

Casco Selectman Carroll Morton expressed some apprehension. “There are a lot of people in Casco who don’t want any more expenses,” Morton said. “There’s nothing to prove it’s going to be cheaper.”

Paraschak acknowledged that maybe it wouldn’t be cheaper, but said at least it might not be more expensive. Collectively it would be less expensive than all three towns buying the same equipment separately, Paraschak said.

“Regionalization isn’t always the best medicine,” said Caron, who said working on the School Administrative District 61 regionalization committee was an eye-opener because combining with other school districts would have cost SAD 61 a lot of money.

Morton and others acknowledged that combining the departments would be a lot of work.

“Each of the three towns do it a little different, but we all get the job done,” Pond said Wednesday. He believes that to make the regionalization work, they would need to staff a fire engine in each of the three towns because volunteers won’t be able to go to two times as many calls.

Several of those present brought up the importance of involving the public safety departments in the discussion.

“They’re a valuable resource,” Morton said, adding that volunteer fire services have traditionally been strong political entities in small towns.

Suggestions from selectmen were not contained to regionalization of public safety services. Caron and others suggested also looking at regionalizing other town services such as tax collection and public works.

Bruno cautioned the group not to bite off more than they could chew in the beginning.

Morton suggested the first focus be on public safety, and the towns could use that as a stepping stone to other efforts. Morton said public safety would be a good first step because the departments work together closely already.

“When you go to a fire scene, it looks like you have one big fire department,” Morton said.

For next steps, Willard suggested a straw poll at the November election, adding that they could use the interim time to make a substantive plan to post for the public to review.

Each board of selectmen pledged to put the idea of public safety regionalization on the agenda for their next regular meeting for a formal vote and plans were made to set a meeting to gather input from the public safety departments.

Following those meetings, the group of town managers and selectmen planned to hold another workshop, this time in Raymond so it can be televised throughout the region. They set the date of the workshop for Aug. 26 at 7 p.m. at the broadcast studio in Raymond.

“If any of us start worrying about stepping on peoples’ toes, this will never go forward,” Bruno said, adding that different people will have varying opinions, but efficient government should be the goal.