Miami County has 14 departments offering fire and/or EMS services with a mix of staffing from full time, hybrid of full and part time, and volunteer.
The county commissioners Thursday met with leaders of cities, villages and a number of the county’s fire and EMS departments to discuss a request for commissioners to pay for a study using county American Rescue Plan Act, or ARPA, money.
The study proposal was outlined by Jeff Busch, director of the countywide Communication Center, from which all emergency services in the county are dispatched.
The request for the county to use its ARPA funds was based on the fact the county is receiving some $20 million over two years, while smaller governments including cities, villages and townships were given “watered down” amounts, said Patrick Titterington, Troy service and safety director.
The commissioners again said they would work with local jurisdictions and pay one-half of the estimated $60,000 cost.
“I think county-wide people need to have skin in the game,” said Commission President Ted Mercer. Commissioners Wade Westfall and Greg Simmons agreed. An informally discussed proposal for the commission to pay $30,000; Troy and Piqua $7,500 each; Tipp City, $5,000; and the county 911 Communication Center Fund $10,000 would be “fair,” Simmons said.
The commissioners also noted the county earlier set aside $25,000 for each fire/EMS department in the county from the ARPA funding. All agencies applied for that money.
Proposed study components include:
** Review of past studies and other research material;
** Analyze and map call volume, response times, mutual aid occurrences and other related data by fire station;
** Inventory and depreciate vehicles, equipment, etc.;
** Highlight areas of redundancy and overlap;
** Submit financial impact statements where appropriate;
** Potentially provide recommendations for shared services, redeployment of equipment, station relocations and changes to dispatching protocols, among others.
Representatives of all sizes of departments attended the discussion.
Chief Robert Hoey’s Christiansburg Fire Company is near Miami County but in Champaign County. The department, though, provides service in areas of eastern Miami County.
“We are facing a struggle for people,” Hoey said “I don’t know how to tell you, but we need to share. The system (including volunteers in many smaller departments) worked years ago … but isn’t working now.”
More collaboration would be beneficial, he said, mentioning sharing of equipment.
The next steps for a study would include the Communication Center support of funding and a request for proposals for the study. Formation of an oversight committee was proposed, to be led by Busch. The makeup of that committee wasn’t finalized.
Once a firm is selected, a study should take around two or three months, Busch said.
Contact this contributing writer at nancykburr@aol.com.
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