![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/download-2-1.webp?resize=364%2C138&ssl=1\")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\nWhen the Lakeland Gazette last spoke with Polk Fire Rescue in February, county leaders had approved $9.2 million to help fund 75 new positions. Now, this new agreement with the Polk County Professional Firefighters I.A.F.F., Local 353, will give current and future employees a 4.1% pay raise and a paid day off for a certain number of hours worked \u2014 known as “Kelly Days.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Joe Halman, deputy county manager for public safety, says the Kelly Days will provide a better work-life balance for employees. Similar to other Florida fire departments, Polk County firefighters will get a paid day off for every seventh shift worked as part of a three-week cycle. Halman says the change comes after in-depth conversations with fire crews.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSo, we\u2019ve heard them. (We\u2019re) letting them know that we care about them. We\u2019re concerned about them because public safety is a very difficult job, and our folks do a great job day in and day out to make sure our citizens are taken care of,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Halman says the addition of Kelly Days and a pay increase will improve firefighters\u2019 performance. He also hopes it will help attract more recruits to the agency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The county\u2019s agreement with the International Association of Firefighters will take effect on Oct. 1, 2025. The Kelly Day schedule is expected to be implemented by Oct. 12, 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Polk County commissioners recently approved a three-year collective bargaining agreement with the local firefighters\u2019 union. The deal is expected to boost pay and reduce employee burnout. When the Lakeland Gazette… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":56942,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"14","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNVwvMDdcL2Rvd25sb2FkLTItMS53ZWJwP2ZpdD0zNjQlMkMxMzgmc3NsPTEiLCJ0eHQiOiJQb2xrIENvdW50eSByZWFjaGVzIDMteWVhciBhZ3JlZW1lbnQgd2l0aCBmaXJlIHVuaW9uLCAmIzgyMTY7S2VsbHkgRGF5cyYjODIxNzsgaW5jbHVkZWQiLCJ0ZW1wbGF0ZSI6ImhpZ2h3YXkiLCJibG9nX2lkIjoxNjMwNDA2NjF9.XMn3h6K4XXx9eUabu-GPilev8NgQjThZ2ZpGTGEWWtMMQ"},"version":2,"attached_media":[{"id":56942,"url":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/download-2-1.webp","type":"image\/jpeg"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[14],"tags":[11885,11884],"class_list":["post-56941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-kelly-days-included","tag-polk-county-reaches-3-year-agreement-with-fire-union"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56941","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56941"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56941\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56943,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56941\/revisions\/56943"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}