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Liberty trustees decline fire merger study after heated public meeting
By Sarah Lehr
LIBERTY
Liberty Township trustees declined to pursue a study exploring the possibility of a joint fire district with the city of Girard after a heated public meeting.
More than 100 people, including a large contingent of Liberty and Girard firefighters, attended the overflowing joint session in the Liberty administration building Wednesday night.
Of those who spoke, the majority opposed creating a joint fire district.
Officials from Liberty and Girard emphasized the meeting was preliminary and that any vote would be merely to commission a study on the pros and cons of a potential merger.
Officials had not yet decided who would complete such a study or what the cost would be. They had hoped to pay for the study with up to $50,000 available via a state Local Government Innovation Fund grant.
To form a district, Girard City Council and Liberty Township would need to approve a joint resolution outlining the district’s powers and governing structure. Additionally, at some point, voters would need to approve a levy to fund the fire district services.
Other local communities – Hubbard, Poland and Canfield – have joined forces with their neighbors for shared fire services.
Proponents of these districts cite the ability to share equipment, leverage economies of scale and apply more competitively for grant money.
Atty. Dave “Chip” Comstock, chief of the Western Reserve Joint Fire District in Poland, which serves the village of Poland and Poland Township, said a variety of factors determine whether a joint fire district saves money.
“If your sole purpose in creating a joint fire district is to save money – stop; the purpose of creating a joint fire is to provide better fire protection,” Comstock said. “The frustrating thing is that everyone wants the best, but nobody wants to spend the money.”
Members of the Girard and Liberty chapters of the International Association of Fire Fighters Union raised concerns about how a joint district could affect ambulance services, response times, insurance ratings for residents and the number and location of fire stations.
“We’re not against being good steward of the tax dollars,” Liberty Fire Lt. Chris Olson said. “Doing this for a living, we’re just not seeing how putting these two departments together is going to have any benefits.”
Liberty Trustee Jodi Stoyak has long advocated changing the fire department structure for the sake of efficiency. She drew a comparison between resistance to a joint fire district and the objections of police employees before Liberty joined the Trumbull County 911 system in 2012.
“We’re going to need to compromise,” she said. “This is the way of the future.”