LYNN — According to the Pew Research Center, 26 percent of Americans are Baby Boomers with many retiring each day. Even in Lynn the effects are beginning to show.
In the last four months, Fire Chief Dennis Carmody, who is set to retire Jan. 19, has hired 19 new firefighters and hopes to hire another 10. That translates to a significant drop in the department’s median age, Carmody noted.
“In the last three years we’ve had a lot of retirements,” he said.
Couple that with the nearly 20 firefighters who went out in 2003 when the city offered employees an early retirement package and Carmody said he’s been playing catchup for nearly a decade.
“Before we would hire six recruits but 10 guys would retire,” he said.
At least seven more firefighters will retire in the first six months of 2013 but he expects it will slow down soon after.
In the mid-1990’s the department was able to hire about 35 firefighters.
“Right now that is the meat of the department,” he said. “A lot of those guys are making lieutenant and captain.”
What the retirements also signify is that for the first time in many years, most of the firehouses are staffed with a higher number of younger firefighters rather than seasoned veterans. For Carmody, however, the age gap doesn’t necessarily equal a skills gap.
He said better, more intensive training helps close the experience gap.
“Since 2000 everyone goes to the academy,” he said, referring to the Firefighter Academy in Stowe.
The recruits also go through intensive in-house training, he said.
Carmody noted that many new hires in both police and fire departments are also combat veterans who have dealt with pressure situations. Being able to parlay that experience into firefighting or police work, “It adds a maturity level you can’t touch,” Carmody said.
Police Chief Kevin Coppinger isn’t seeing quite the turnover that Carmody is experiencing yet, but it’s coming.
When Proposition 21/2 went into effect in 1982 Coppinger said there was a five-year hiring freeze. In 1985, 25 officers were hired and another 15 in 1986, he said.
“We had big classes in ’86, ’87, ’88, ’91, ’93 and ’95,” he said. “We’re talking 10 or 20 at a pop.”
He said the median age of the department today is probably around 55, which is his age. He has a number of officers nearing retirement but there isn’t as significant an age gap as in the Fire Department he said.
“We have kind of a happy medium.”
Coppinger said the School Resource Officers are veteran officers and the Community Liaison Team is a mix of seasoned and younger faces.
His concern is more about what could happen over the next decade when the veterans do retire.
“Let’s just say 15 retire next year, if that repeats with another 15, our average age will drop,” he said.
That’s if his ability to hire holds. Otherwise he will be faced with an increasingly aging department with no young blood coming in, he said.
While Lynn is seeing the change in its public safety departments, Mark Whitmore, executive director of North Shore Career Center, said a recent study show a similar effect happening everywhere.
According a study conducted jointly by the Commonwealth Corporation and New England Public Policy Center of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, the North Shore faces the demographic challenges of an aging population. The study states that in 2008 to 2010 nearly 45 percent of the areas civilian labor force was 45 years of age or older and 30 percent were under 35.
“This suggests that the region’s businesses may face a shortage of younger workers to replace baby boomers as they near retirement age,” the study states.
Chris Stevens can be reached at [email protected].
