Liberty Township's station closure brings OT in line

LIBERTY

The Liberty Township Fire Department has been keeping overtime costs down since the closing and reopening of its Belmont Avenue fire station, the township’s fiscal officer says.

“Yes, it appears the overtime has been kept at a minimum for the first couple of months, and that helped significantly since when we started this process in May,” Steve Shelton said Thursday.

In May, Shelton told township administrators and trustees that the township was looking at a projected deficit of $225,000 in the fire department’s budget by the end of 2015 if the department didn’t get overtime costs under control.

Overtime is necessary because of minimum staffing requirements under the union contract, so to save money, the department closed one of its two fire stations in July.

The station closure saved about $2,500 a month in utility costs as well.

Read more about the plan in Saturday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.