Staff photo / J.T. Whitehouse Ellsworth firefighter / EMT Joe Stubbs uses Assistant Chief Zach Williams as a patient to practice the one-person loading method using advanced ambulance equipment. Observing from the side is Assistant Chief Jillian Smith.

ELLSWORTH — The Ellsworth Township Fire Department continues to provide trail-blazing service to its residents, while doing its best to deal with staffing problems all local fire departments are experiencing.

However, the department has been subjected to negative comments on social media, which the department responded to last month.

On March 25, the department released a letter to residents that read, “In the past, these posts have largely been ignored because we at Ellsworth Fire believe the outstanding service provided by the men and women of this department far outweighs the ugliness of a few.”

Some of the posts targeted ambulance service and slow response times.

“Last year, those response times averaged 8 minutes and that includes mutual aid calls (outside Ellsworth),” said Ellsworth Assistant Chief Zach Williams. “It includes trips to Newton Falls, Berlin and Canfield. We have mutual aid agreements with those communities and roughly 30% of our calls are mutual aid.”

He said for Ellsworth Township responses, the average response time is closer to 5.6 minutes.

Ambulance service at the Ellsworth Fire Department is fairly young. Before 2018, transports were handled by Lane Ambulance service. Ellsworth had trained emergency medical responders, but did not transport patients to the hospital. That, coupled with an all-volunteer department, made for a challenging time for Ted Smith in 2018, when he took on the role of fire chief.

Assistant Chief Jillian Smith said Ted Smith was able to steer Ellsworth down a new path in 2019.

“We were the first (local department) to do 24-hour part-time staffing,” Jillian Smith said. “A levy passed in November of 2022 for 5.77 mills helped us transition from an all-volunteer department to part-time 24/7 staffing.”

The levy generated $414,764 per year. The prior fire department operating budget was $130,000 and included an equipment levy passed in 1994 and a 1.5-mill operating levy in 2002.

The funds the 2022 levy provided enabled Ellsworth to purchase two ambulances and provide pay for the part timers who staff the station on state Route 45 on a full-time basis.

To staff the station 24 / 7 meant being creative with the schedule. Like most local fire departments, the firefighters, EMTs and paramedics often work at one or more other departments. One good example is Ellsworth’s Lt. Bill Opsitnik.

“I am a lieutenant in Ellsworth and a captain in Liberty,” he said. “I’ll work a 24-hour shift in Liberty, go home and sleep, then come here to Ellsworth for an eight-hour shift.”

Opsitnik’s situation has become common among area fire departments. Having personnel who work multiple departments helps solve staffing needs while giving firefighters a good income doing what they love.

Jillian said the passage of the levy helped greatly in providing a competitive wage. She said departments that can’t be competitive find it hard to keep staff.

Ellsworth has 33 part timers, of which 18 are paramedics. The rest have medical certification except the four junior members.

“We have four junior firefighters,” Jillian said. “All four are seniors in high school and all four are taking an EMT class at MCCTC. They train with us once a week and once they turn 18 and obtain their certification, they can become active members of the department.”

She said the junior firefighters are a great way to deal with staffing shortages and encourage more young people to serve.

“When I first joined the fire service, it was a fight to get in,” she said. “Now a candidate can pick and choose where they want to go.”

She said post-COVID, the number who wanted to join a fire department dropped drastically. It continues as departments struggle to fill rosters, making the competitive wage a necessity.

On top of the staffing issue are equipment needs. Ambulances aren’t cheap, as was evident with the Cardinal Joint Fire District’s new ambulances that came in close to $369,000 each. In Ellsworth, Chief Ted Smith found a way to keep up to date with ambulances while keeping costs down.

“We use remounting,” Williams said. “We use Myers Equipment. They take the box off the chassis and put it on a new chassis with a new engine.”

He said the cost is half of an all-new one. The department has a 2022 and a 2009 ambulance. The older one is on a list to be remounted in 2027.

When the department promised taxpayers outstanding service, it included the mutual aid agreements. Jillian said Ellsworth soft-bills its residents for ambulance service. She said that means submitting the bill to the patient’s insurance and accepting what they pay. Any co-pay or leftover balance is forgiven for residents since they already are paying through their taxes.

Jillian Smith said Ellsworth has made agreements with Berlin and Canfield townships to soft-bill as well. Should an Ellsworth resident need an ambulance in Berlin Township or Canfield Township, they won’t have to pay out-of-pocket. The same goes for Berlin and Canfield residents who need the Ellsworth ambulance.

Ellsworth responded to 530 calls last year of which 211 were for mutual aid in a neighboring township. Mutual aid received was at 75.

Jillian Smith said one problem with ambulance service is the wait time at a hospital. She said when a patient is brought to a hospital, they have to wait until the hospital admits the person and finds a room. Some waits can take several hours, which ties up the ambulance.

“When we are tied up, we try to have people standing by at the station until we return to quarters,” Williams said. “We also notify our mutual aid partners.”

He said Ellsworth is probably better situated than most, but the administration continues to look at the future.

“We are presently looking into what a possible joint district would be like with Milton and Jackson townships,” Jillian Smith said. “We looked at Canfield too, but their levy is higher than ours.”

In the end, all members of the Ellsworth Fire Department are proud of the effort they make every day to insure residents’ safety and peace of mind. Jillian Smith said no one is going to let negative comments on social media undermine those efforts and Ellsworth Fire will continue to give quality service to its residents.