MONTICELLO —  Sullivan County Fire Coordinator John Hauschild urged for the deadline for the new Emergency Response Standard of Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) regulations to be pushed back from July to September during the Public Safety Committee of the Sullivan County Legislature on Thursday, July 18.

The deadline has been pushed back once already, but Hauschild said that they hope for more time to review the regulations and urge for changes. Last Tuesday, July 16, the Sullivan County Bureau of Fire held an OSHA update seminar, which Hauschild said was very well attended. 

“I want to personally thank every legislator there that night and you for the support on OSHA,” said Hauschild. 

The Fire Coordinator said that they are currently working diligently with all parties involved, Fire and EMS in getting an extension on the OSHA regulations.  

“We have to work hard together, which we are doing,” Hauschild said. “Unfortunately, OSHA is there and it’s not going away. We just have to make it work for us right now.”

Hauschild noted that as written right now, the regulations would require every fire district to increase its budget by 42 percent. 

“That is a huge burden,” Hauschild echoed. 

He also said that while physicals for each firefighter is currently about $200, the proposed regulations would increase them to over $1,300. 

“That’s a huge increase for all these departments,” said Hauschild. “Whether you have a big budget or a small budget, that’s huge. 

The comment period for this issue with OSHA was open until Monday, July 22 but the Legislature hoped to get that period extended by sending a letter to OSHA. 

“If these OSHA regulations go through as written right now, we are looking at volunteer fire departments shutting down,” said District 5 Legislator Cat Scott. “We’re looking at budgetary increases and it’s going to affect everybody’s taxes. Not to mention the fact that our community thrives because we have volunteer firefighters who are there when we need them.”

Chair of the Legislature Nadia Rajsz agreed. 

“If we don’t do something now, our volunteers are going to disappear and we’re going to be in a world of trouble,” Rajsz said.

The Legislators also noted that this is an unfunded mandate and it is not only the volunteer fire departments but also the EMS that is included in the regulations.

“It was estimated that in order to catch up with this, once it starts to be implemented,” said District 6 Legislator and Chair of the Public Safety Committee Luis Alvarez, “it will take us two years just to get the funds necessary to do so. And that will shut down our regular fire department.”

Whether or not the comment period is to be extended again is not known as of press time. OSHA will also be hosting a public hearing on a date yet to be determined, with remote access available.