43
Canfield Fire adding vehicles while continuing third fire house talks
By ROBERT CONNELLY
CANFIELD
The Cardinal Joint Fire District is adding more vehicles while continuing to finish plans for a third fire station.
District Fire Chief Don Hutchison said the department has ordered two new pumpers at a cost of about $507,000 each.
One of its pumper trucks was damaged in a November crash on the Ohio Turnpike in which a Maryland woman was killed. The department received $400,000 through insurance.
Hutchison said the second truck was going to be replaced in 2014, but was put off until the third fire station, planned for Herbert Road in Canfield Township, is built. He said the trucks were ordered through Warren Fire Equipment and take about 10 to 12 months to deliver. After those two trucks arrive, the fire district will have a total of five.
“These are a different type of truck that we’ve never had before,” the fire chief noted. “It has a bigger compartment in the front. It has the Jaws of Life cutters and a firefighting hose in the front bumper.”
Canfield voters supported the fire district by passing a November levy to pay for operations. Canfield fire officials noted last year before the levy that they had the funding to build the station, but not to man it.
Hutchison and members of the fire board have said recently that they are working out the details of the location of the new firehouse. Both possible locations are on Herbert Road, and the fire district would own the property. That’s different from the current stations, on the third floor of the city building, 104 S. Lisbon St., and on Messerly Road in the township. Both of those are rented by the district for $1 a year as they are city- and township-owned properties.
“The decision has yet to be made [on the property],” said Andy Skrobola, fire-board member.
Balog, Steines, Hendricks and Manchester Architects Inc. of Youngstown continue negotiations with the fire board on the design for the third station.
“Once the architect is finished putting the drawings together and accepted by the board here, the job will be put out to bid, and we expect to get going,” said Skrobola.
Hutchison and Skrobola anticipate the land purchase and architectural drawings to be finished by the end of the month.
The department also purchased a 2002 ambulance from Beaver Township. The new ambulance will debut April 1. The department paid $10,000 for it, and it will cost about $9,500 to make repairs, paint and outfit the vehicle.
“We’ve got 23 paramedics working here and 18 EMTs, and they’re here on duty. If we need them, we will use them. Lane [ambulance] is still going to be our sole provider; We’re just going to be using this whenever they say they don’t have the ambulances to work it,” Hutchison said.