Downsizing of Fire Dept. in city merits careful study

Youngstown’s Board of Control made a fiscally responsible and strategic decision Thursday by agreeing to finance a $47,500 study on consolidation of fire stations in the city.

It also gave the green light to the fire department to enter into a professional services agreement with Strollo Architects for a preliminary design study for the construction of a new station to replace two existing firehouses.

If all goes well, that small-change expenditure by the board, which comprises the mayor, law director and finance director, could bring significant long-term savings to the financially strapped municipal budget without harming the quality of an essential safety service for residents and businesses.

According to Fire Chief John O’Neill, the study will determine whether the city should move forward on preliminary plans to downsize its operations by consolidating its main No. 1 Central Fire Station downtown with Station No. 7 on Madison Avenue on the North Side.

The study also will outline preliminary design proposals for the new station that also would serve as the new headquarters for the restructured department.

As we argued in this space earlier this month about a similar study on the feasibility of merging the Liberty Township and Girard City fire departments, the fiscal challenges confronting local governments in the Mahoning Valley require community leaders to look at all options for cutting costs without sacrificing the level of critical services to the residents.

Consolidation of government operations stands as one viable opportunity to do so.

The fire-station initiative also stands as a logical progression in the ongoing downsizing of “the incredible shrinking city of Youngstown,” so named by some national media outlets for its focus on managing municipal shrinkage that has endured a loss of 100,000 people over the past 50 years.

DOES City need 8 stations?

Chief O’Neill’s endorsement of a potential consolidation as a common-sense fiscal decision to stabilize funding for the department merits deeper study on its feasibility and possible implementation. Just as Youngstown no longer has or needs five high schools for its shrinking student base, one can likely deduce that the city no longer needs eight fire stations to serve its dwindling population base.

Studies of service areas of fire stations in cities across the nation at least suggest that Youngstown may have an excess of fire stations to meet the needs of a city with a population of about 65,000 and falling.

According to rankings compiled by the Uniformed Firefighters Officers Association based on 2010 U.S. Census data, many much larger cities maintain and operate far fewer firehouses per 50,000 population.

Cleveland, for example, with a population of 390,000 has three fire stations for each 50,000-segement of its population. Columbus (population 840,000) has two, and Miami (population 430,000) has one. Using that ratio, Youngstown has six stations to serve 50,000 of its total population.

Consolidation would bring a reduction in personnel needs as well, thereby saving the department and the city significant sums. O’Neill estimates the department could reduce staffing by seven firefighters via the streamlining without harming the quality of public service. Those staff reductions would occur relatively painlessly through attrition – not through layoffs, he added.

For now, however, the focus of the study and of Fire Department leaders should be squarely on whether the realignment would compromise in any way the department’s ability to guarantee speedy response times to fires and other emergencies. Public safety must remain priority No. 1.

Should the ultimate recommendation support consolidation, we’d hope also that city leaders take the pulse of the community on the proposal via public hearings and other mechanisms.

For now, we urge those conducting the study to work diligently and to properly balance fiscal realities against public safety. In the end, downsizing could well result in right-sizing the department.