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Springfield rescinds request to pay firefighters at fair
By MARY GRZEBIENIAK
NEW SPRINGFIELD
After listening to angry township firefighters and EMS workers Wednesday, Springfield Township trustees backed down on their request that the Mahoning County Fair Board pay the emergency workers $4,010 to stand by at the Canfield Fair this year.
For at least 50 years, the township has provided personnel to the fair.
In recent years, this has included a firetruck and pumper and four to 12 firefighters, as well as a paramedic and another EMS worker on assigned days at the annual event. The firefighters stand by, ready to respond to if a fire would occur. The EMS workers provide medical assistance to fairgoers when needed and transport them if necessary on fair golf carts to a private ambulance stationed at the fair.
Other townships, including Green, Beaver and Austintown, also provide workers.
At a special meeting July 7, however, for the first time, trustees asked the fair board to pay the firefighters $10 per hour and EMS workers $15, as well as a $25 per hour fee for equipment taken to the fair, for a total of $4,010. Fair Board President Jim Brown Jr. responded in a letter that the board declined to pay the hourly rates, released the fire department from their fair service and thanked them for their past service.
After listening to the criticisms, trustees unanimously rescinded their July 7 motion, and Trustee Rick Jones said he would talk to Fair Board Manager Bev Fisher today and ask that the township fire and EMS workers be allowed to work at the fair as in previous years.
Trustee Robert Orr said the request for money came about after questions from residents last fall about the legality of having township equipment stand by at events in other jurisdictions. Although the township workers were not paid on an hourly basis to be at the fair, the Fair Board gave about a $350 stipend to each of the township’s three fire stations’ associations each year. The associations are auxiliary groups independent of the township and do fund-raising and charitable work.