The township has been operating with an interim chief.

By Mary Grzebieniak

The township has been operating with an interim chief.

NEW SPRINGFIELD — Trustees fielded questions about when they will pick a new fire chief and the hiring process for four unpaid fire department positions that were filled last month.

At Wednesday’s meeting, fire Capt. Chuck Gossard asked trustees whether they were making progress toward naming a chief.

Trustee Rick Jones replied, “We are working on it,” then added, “We have a couple of final decisions to make.”

He would not be more specific.

Resident Don Ridzon asked whether they have decided if they will seek another full-time chief. Trustee Robert Orr replied that it hasn’t been decided yet. “From my point of view, I’m not interested in hiring a full-time fire chief.”

Gossard told trustees, “After what the fire department has been through in the last five years, you really need a game plan. We owe it to the taxpayers.”

Ted Mason, who is EMS Second Captain, a paramedic and a firefighter, asked why the four newly created fire positions filled last month were posted, taken down before the full 14 days they were to be posted, then posted a second time. The positions included assistant chief, two battalion chiefs and a fire prevention officer. He also asked why the standard was lowered in the second posting.

Interim Fire Chief Matt Gebhardt said he took the first posting down after only three people submitted applications after 131‚Ñ2 days and that one additional applicant phoned within the time limit after the posting was taken down. He said those four applicants applied again during the second posting, which drew 10 applicants. He said he was disappointed the first posting had drawn so few responses and lowered the requirement in the second posting from Level 2 to Level 1 firefighter. Level 1 has 120 hours of training, and a Level 2 has 240 hours.

The township has been operating with Gebhardt as interim part-time fire chief since the resignation of the township’s first full-time chief, Brian Hughes, in February. Hughes resigned after a three-month unpaid suspension imposed by trustees after they found him guilty of several charges stemming from a 2005 training exercise at a Garfield Road barn fire. The charges included willful neglect of duties, giving false statements to a township police officer, unauthorized use of township property, failure to obtain Environment Protection Agency burn permits, violating EPA law, failure to supervise subordinates and unnecessarily endangering the public.

Also Wednesday, Orr announced the Petersburg sewer line is “ready to go” and the Mahoning County Board of Health will soon be sending letters to residents about connecting to the line. He said bids will not be accepted on construction of the waterline from the intersection of Unity and Garfield Roads to Petersburg until late in the year. Orr explained that county Sanitary Engineer Joe Warino said he can’t apply for additional funding for the line until the sewer project is completed. The Petersburg portion of the waterline has already been constructed, but there can be no hook-ups until the entire line is complete.

Trustees also accepted Dustin Walkama and Walter Heckathorn as volunteer firefighters and accepted the resignation of Philip Schaper from the police department.

They appointed certified fire safety inspectors, including Matt Gebhardt, Jim Rice, Scott Rice, Chuck Gossard, Rich McMurray, Jeff Martin, Luke Ricketts and Dave Snyder. They also amended last month’s motion to change the appointment of Jeff Martin from fire prevention officer to lead fire safety inspector. Gebhardt said this is to comply with Ohio law.

They also passed a resolution requesting that a special street lighting assessment be reinstated to the tax bills. Fiscal Officer Patti Gibson said the assessment has not been charged for years because there was excess money in the fund and a previous board suspended the assessment until the money was used up. She said the money is now almost gone and residents who have street lights will be assessed in the future.