CANFIELD — The Cardinal Joint Fire District has a new firefighter/paramedic with the swearing in Monday of full-time hire Austin Gebhardt.

He will now bring his skills to serve the Canfield community.

Gebhardt is from Springfield and is a graduate of Springfield High School. He went on to obtain his fire training at the Mahoning County Career and Technical Center and went to work with Boardman Fire Department for three years. He then applied to Cardinal Joint Fire District, but the position had been filled, so he went to the Champion Fire Department in Trumbull County for six months.

As his six months neared an end, he got the call and was accepted for a full-time position when the district lost a full-time person. Chief Don Hutchison said his department still has 17 full-time and 21 part-time personnel.

“We could use 45 to be in good shape,” Hutchison said. “If we can pass the levy [on May 3] we could hire more.”

According to the levy web site, it’s a 1.63-mill continuous levy to raise $1,054,920 annually, to add nine additional full-time firefighter-paramedics / EMTs to comply with the National Fire Protection Agency standards, and to fully staff ambulances. This will give the district three full-time firefighter-paramedics and one part-time firefighter-EMT per 24-hour shift. It also would provide for purchasing ambulance equipment and to provide ambulance, paramedic, or other emergency medical services.

Having a lower-than-needed number of personnel doesn’t help when calls are on the rise. Hutchison said his department responded to 189 calls in March of which 100 were ambulance transports. On a bright note, Hutchison said there were no COVID-19 transports.

“On Saturday we had nine calls before 4 p.m.,” he said.

As for Gebhardt, he said Canfield is a lot closer to home than Champion, and he is glad the opportunity came his way.

“I plan to make my career out here,” he said.

Following his ceremonial pinning by his fiance Lauren Kelly, all in attendance enjoyed some cupcakes and cookies.