by Jeff Saunders
Reporter
Nordonia Hills -- Officials from four area towns may form a task force to decide whether their communities should form a fire district.
Trustees from Sagamore Hills and Northfield Center, with representatives from Northfield Village and Boston Heights, met Nov. 17 to consider the issue.
Township officials, who have said they intend to form a district of their own, said the purpose of the meeting was to see if the villages would be interested in joining as well.
"I think Sagamore Hills and Northfield Center are ready to move forward with this," said Northfield Center Trustee Paul Buescher.
After the meeting, Northfield Village Mayor Victor Milani and Boston Heights Mayor Bill Goncy said they would meet with their perspective village councils to see if they are interested in taking part in an exploratory committee to look at a district.
A tentative meeting is planned for Dec. 15 to continue discussions among interested communities.
Milani said that his biggest hope is that a district could give the fastest service possible, something that does not always happen when communities have their own fire departments.
"I walked in here with an open mind," said Milani. "What I heard here tonight is what I wanted to hear, that who gets there first the fastest is what matters. The boundaries come down and it's about what's best for the residents."
Milani said he plans on giving a report to Village Council at its Nov. 24 meeting. Goncy said Boston Heights Village Council would discuss the issue at its Nov. 25 finance committee meeting.
"I think it's a positive thing," said Goncy. "I think we need to look at it with an open mind."
He added that a lot still needs to be done.
"We need to crunch all the numbers," said Goncy.
Sagamore Hills township attorney Jeff Snell, who has been researching fire districts, said that a district would be governed by its own board of trustees appointed by the member communities and it would have its own taxing authority.
In October, officials of the two townships considered the possibility of placing a 2-mill property tax levy before the voters as early as September 2009. Snell estimated that such a levy would generate about $977,000 a year. If a levy passed, the townships would then cease collecting under their current fire levies.
Northfield Center Fire Chief Robert Derrit said the levy, along with the $300,000 the townships collect each year in ambulance billings, should be enough to fund a township district through 2013.
Snell said Nov. 17 that a different millage would have to be calculated for a fire district that also included one or both villages. He also said the issue of forming a district with the villages would be more complicated than with Northfield Center and Sagamore Hills alone.
"It's a little easier for us to get a handle on it because we've had a contractual agreement since the 1950s," said Snell.
The purpose of forming a committee, Snell said, would be to look at the equipment, facilities, and personnel each department has, as well as each department's costs to get an idea of how much it would cost to run a fire district. Also to be considered would be each department's fire and EMS calls, and how fire department operations might evolve over a five- or 10-year period.
Though he said it was an "ambitious" timeline, Snell said he believes the committee could come up with a plan in about six months. After that, the communities would decide if they want to pursue a levy, he said.
According to Snell, if a levy to support a fire district is approved by voters, fire levies from each member community would be retired.
E-mail: jsaunders@recordpub.com
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