Two Mahoning County fire departments are looking for new money from voters Nov. 4. Jackson Township Fire Department and Springfield Township Fire Department will each have an issue before voters on Nov. 4.

The Springfield Fire Department will have a 3.5-mill additional levy for a continuous period of time. The levy would raise $851,668 annually and would help support payroll to maintain the department’s part-time force and the staffing needed to meet the growing demand for ambulance service.

Springfield fire Chief Mike Wright said, “The levy is essential to continue our current level of operations. In June of 2023, the department transitioned from an all-volunteer model to a staffed two-person duty crew. All former volunteer members were reclassified as part-time employees, eligible to work shifts as long as they hold at least EMT certification or higher. This change was made using departmental savings so we could first confirm that the model was both effective and how much it would cost before asking residents to fund it.”

He said call volume in Springfield has increased dramatically, while volunteerism has declined. Springfield has operated an ambulance since 1950. At that time the calls were about one per week. Today, the department runs between five and 10 calls daily, according to Wright.

Personnel is another concern as volunteer departments are quickly becoming a thing of the past and most former volunteer-only departments have or are making the switch to part-time staffing, which comes at a cost. Wright said 80% of the levy proceeds will support payroll for the part-time staffing program to keep ambulances manned. The remaining 20% will go toward offsetting the cost of operations.

“The primary focus of this levy is maintaining our ability to keep ambulances staffed and ready,” Wright said. “This levy will allow us to add one crew member so that we can better handle multiple medical emergencies. We currently run a 35 to 55% overlapping call rate, so having another member on duty in town to respond rather than waiting for someone from home to get the ambulance or waiting for someone from another town to do the first compression is huge. With critical calls, having a third person allows two providers to ride in the back on the way to the hospital. With critical patients requiring multiple simultaneous lifesaving interventions, an extra set of hands in the back is a huge contributing factor to a positive patient outcome.”

He said as an all-volunteer department, it took 9 minutes for volunteers to respond and get an ambulance rolling. With the staffed duty crews, the ambulance is on the road within two minutes.

“That 7-minute improvement may not seem huge, but If you call because your loved one has a cardiac arrest, the American Heart Association preaches that the chance of survival drops by 10%per minute,” Wright said. “So, if your loved one’s ambulance goes en route in 2 minutes instead of 9 minutes after being called it can be a huge deal, and we have personally seen the lives impacted by this several times over.”

JACKSON TOWNSHIP

The Jackson Township Fire Department levy is a 4.9-mill additional and will collect $725,981 annually.

“This levy is vital,” said Jackson fire Chief Mike Mortimer. “We are still an all volunteer department and we are starting to staff with part-time people.”

He said as a volunteer department, the average response time was 18.5 minutes. Since starting the part-time staffing, that number has been cut in half to around 9 minutes.

The Jackson Fire Department has 20 firefighters, of which 12 are EMS certified. Mortimer said the ultimate goal is to have all the staff trained in fire and EMS to help with ambulance service.

“It has been forced on fire departments to provide emergency medical service,” Mortimer said. “EMS is 60% of our call volume.”

Jackson got its ambulance in 2020 and is trying to work toward eventual 24 / 7 staffing in about three years.

The levy will help with the staffing, but Mortimer also mentioned the need to replace an aging 1992 fire truck before the department goes 24 / 7.

Mortimer said the levy is a must to continue to grow the department and meet the needs of the community.

“If it doesn’t pass, we will have to go back to being a full volunteer department,” he said.

He did check into the average home in Jackson Township, which he said is valued at approximately $260,000. For that amount of value, the levy would cost $446 per year.

“I just want to be straight forward with what it will cost,” he said.