Communities moving closer toward fire/EMS consolidation

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by Jeff Saunders

Reporter

Nordonia Hills -- After two meetings since September, area elected and fire department officials say they are making progress toward consolidating fire and Emergency Medical Service coverage.

Macedonia Fire Chief Tim Black said he and the chiefs of the three other fire departments involved, Boston Heights, Northfield Center and Northfield Village, have begun meeting as an administrative committee. Among the committee's first acts, so far, is to form three subcommittees comprised of firefighters from all the departments except Boston Heights. The subcommittees will deal respectively with issues involving training, operations and EMS, said Black.

Boston Heights Fire Chief James Robinson said the village's department is hampered by a money issues.

"Funding is a problem," he said. "We don't have anyone on the committees because we don't have the funding for the firefighters to participate."

The formation of the steering committee and subcommittees were among the recommendations in a study examining consolidation of fire services commissioned by the five communities last year.

Black said the departments are working on a number of other recommendations, including:

* Recommendations on upgrading computer systems and data collection;

* Developing a plan to have the closest fire department, regardless of community boundaries, act as first responder in an emergency;

* Have all police cars equipped with automatic electronic defibrillators and train police in their use; and

* Expand staffing at all three departments.

On this last point, Black said the Nov. 6 failure of a 1-mill levy replacement has stymied the city's plan to go from four to five firefighters on staff during all three shifts.

"Our levy did not pass so we won't be increasing staffing," said Black.

Northfield Center Fire Chief Robert Derrit said the township's fire department increased staffing this year from three firefighters from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and two at all other times.

"We now have three on staff around the clock," said Derrit.

Northfield Village Fire Chief Gary Vojtush said the department is planning to add 10 firefighters to its roster of 13 active members, which Mayor Victor Milani said is expected to lead to increase staffing from 73 hours a week to full-time.

"The amount of calls has just gone beyond the part-time operation," said Milani.

Robinson said that despite the lack of funding he is hopeful that the village will be able achieve at least one recommendation in the not too distant future: The expansion its fire station, possibly as early as 2008.

E-mail: jsaunders@recordpub.com

Phone: 330-688-0088 ext. 3169