![]() The Council's decision will keep our department solvent for several years to come. The leadership and members of IAFF Local 2000 thank the Council for their support, Howard County Executive Calvin Ball for his bold decision to propose the necessary increase, and Chief Uhlhorn for her continued push for minimum safe staffing levels to protect our members and the citizens we serve. Yesterday, the Howard County Council wrestled with that choice and ultimately decided to approve legislation to fund future initiatives of the Howard County Department of Fire & Rescue. It is a difficult choice to make - deciding whether to raise taxes to support a vital public service. The office space has also given our members a sense of identity in the community a feeling of belonging. In addition to housing office space for the elected Executive Board, at approximately 1,400 square feet the office is large enough to hold our monthly membership and Executive Board meetings, meetings with other IAFF locals, meetings with our department’s senior management staff, as well as the many member committees that meet from time-to-time. Our office is located in Columbia off Thunder Hill Road. In 2004 we purchased an office suite in Columbia to house our organization’s business operations. The only station that our members are not permanently assigned to is Lisbon (Station 4) though it is common to have two career firefighters/paramedics detailed there from day-to-day. Local 2000 has grown from a smattering of paid firefighters working in a handful of stations throughout the mostly rural county, to the predominant firefighting and EMS force in almost every area of the county directly serving nearly 200 of the 251 square miles making up HowardCounty. We are eternally grateful for the efforts of our “founding” brothers and sisters, as today we enjoy the fruits of their labors. They were successful in their efforts getting our original charter number reassigned (April, 1980) and winning collective bargaining in 1981. Ten years later, a renewed interest in workplace fairness and safety led a largely different group of firefighters to pursue re-affiliation with the IAFF and to lobby, once again, for collective bargaining rights. After an unsuccessful attempt to gain collective bargaining rights, we voluntarily forfeited our charter. ![]() The Howard County Professional Fire Fighters Association was chartered as the 2000 th Local of our parent organization – the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) – in August of 1970. About Howard County Professional Fire Fighters Association - IAFF Local 2000
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