Trustees from 3 townships discuss uniting safety forces

A combined ambulance service appealed to trustees representing the three townships.
By JEANNE STARMACK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
CANFIELD -- What they do know is this: They don't want their townships' police and fire services to suffer in quality, but they want to hold the line on rising costs.
How to get to that point? That's what they don't yet know for sure.
Three township trustees met Wednesday at Canfield Township Hall to take the first exploratory steps toward regionalizing safety forces.
David Ditzler of Austintown, Robyn Gallitto of Boardman and Bill Reese of Canfield talked about problems they might face trying to combine the forces of three townships.
And when it came to what's important in maintaining a good police force, they weren't always in agreement.
Reese, who says he's proud his township pays only $218,000 for police patrols under a contract with the county sheriff's department, encouraged Ditzler and Gallitto to consider using the department.
"The sheriff has better facilities than Boardman has to investigate crime and access to better forensics," Reese said. Why not use it?"
Gallitto disagreed. "Why does it have better resources than Boardman?" She said. "We're not Mayberry."
Ditzler said he believes Austintown's police "are the community."
"Our officers know people and businesses," he said. "They are on a beat."
"That doesn't have to change with regionalization," Reese said.
"But I don't agree with eliminating our departments and letting the sheriff become bigger," Ditzler said. "I'm not in favor of reducing police officers. But I want to stall the increasing costs."
Where they agreed
When it came to talk of the fire departments, though, all three agreed.
Revamping fire services to create a combined ambulance service might be an easier sell to the communities, a money-saver and even a moneymaker.
As first responders, firefighters in their townships are usually doing anything but what their job title suggests, Gallitto and Ditzler said. They respond to accidents and situations that much of the time don't merit a ladder truck at the scene.
The bulk of the calls in Boardman and Austintown are medical, they said.
Gallitto said people don't always understand why a firetruck is needed when there's no fire.
Reese suggested working on that issue. "People don't want to see the big red truck coming if someone fell down the steps," he said.
Private ambulance companies serve the townships now. Ditzler said an ambulance service would eliminate the need for the big trucks at medical calls.
Ditzler said that creating the ambulance service wouldn't eliminate personnel. It's possible that some firefighters, most of whom have the necessary medical training, could work for the ambulance service.
But, he said, it might eliminate the need to hire more personnel. He said the state recommends how many police and firefighters a township should have based on the number of calls their departments get. With medical calls swelling that number in Austintown's fire department, an arbitrator in contract talks could say the township needs to hire more firefighters.
Because people would be billed for using the ambulance service, it would be self-funded, Ditzler and Gallitto said, and might even make money.
The three planned another meeting for March 21.