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Springfield trustees oppose joint district
By Mary Grzebieniak
NEW SPRINGFIELD
Springfield Township trustees are opposed to forming a Joint Fire District with the village of New Middletown and indicated they will consider a contract to provide fire and EMS service for the village instead.
A public meeting on the matter is set for 8 p.m. Wednesday at the township building.
The two municipalities have been talking for months about a joint fire district. But trustees made it clear at their regular meeting Wednesday that they are opposed to creating the district, which would be an entity independent from either the township or the village and would have its own funding.
The central concern was voiced by Trustee Robert Orr, who asked how the township would benefit from a joint district.
Firefighter Ted Mason replied, “The people of the village would be paying taxes instead of getting it for free like they are now.”
He was referring to the mutual aid provided to the village by the much larger township fire and EMS services.
Mason added that “the politicians would be out of it,” explaining that only one elected official would sit on the governing board of a joint district.
He also said that village residents “are in dire need” and asked whether the fire and EMS staffs had been asked for their opinions or whether the decision was just being made based on their leadership.
Trustee Gerald Guterba commented that “New Middletown doesn’t have much to bring out to us.”
He said that since the township and village are so unevenly matched in resources, a service agreement would make more sense than a fire district.
Trustee Rick Jones added that the head of the township EMS and fire services have indicated to him that “they don’t want anything to do with it.”
Karen Philibin heads the EMS, and Matt Gebhardt is fire chief.
Jones added that he gave his word to firefighters and EMS staff that “I wouldn’t throw them under the bus.”
Trustees indicated that a contract could be signed and the option left open for a joint district in the future.
There also were questions about why none of the trustees attended a May 3 informational meeting about the proposed joint district, called by village officials.
Orr and Jones both said that though they had both committed to attending that meeting, they did not because of last-minute concerns about whether the meeting had been properly advertised and whether they would be violating Ohio’s public meetings law by both attending.