Discussions about Parkman Township Fire Department staffing and an agreement for automatic mutual aid with Troy Township dominated the trustees meeting Jan. 17.
Discussions about Parkman Township Fire Department staffing and an agreement for automatic mutual aid with Troy Township dominated the trustees meeting Jan. 17.
Parkman Fire Chief Mike Komandt and Trustee Joyce Peters debated the necessity of a formal agreement between Parkman and Troy trustees.
“What it means is dispatch will automatically dispatch Troy (Fire Department) to any Parkman calls unless Parkman Fire Department calls them off because we are staffed,” she said, adding Troy Township Trustee Leonard Barcikoski indicated he was in favor of the document.
Komandt said automatic mutual aid is currently practiced between the departments and he noted there are times Troy doesn’t have staffing, but Peters said the agreement between the boards is an interim step while Parkman attempts to resolve its staffing problems.
“I feel our staffing is so minimal, I want to do everything we can to make sure our residents are safe,” she said.
The two fire departments had automatic mutual aid several years ago before 24/7 staffing of the station began, but it lapsed when both departments were able to answer calls reliably, Peters said.
Recent staffing shortages have made coverage a problem, she said.
Komandt said automatic mutual aid was in effect when both departments were well-staffed, but it stopped at one point.
“While I was on my last deployment, (automatic mutual aid) was stopped,” Komandt said. “You don’t have to make a motion — automatic mutual aid is already here. Automatic aid agreements are between fire chiefs. You could have come to me instead of having six different signatures. (Troy Township Fire Chief) Eric (Mathews) and I could have worked this out in minutes.”
Peters said trustees need to submit the agreement document to the Geauga County Sheriff’s Office dispatch department.
“Nothing requires us to tell you everything we are doing. Our purpose is to do everything we can to help the community. Dispatch has requested we do this,” she said.
In addition, Peters said the shortage of firefighters/emergency medical service personnel means the station is not being effectively staffed 24/7.
“The likelihood we have any staff here is one in four,” she said. “We’re going to vote on this.”
The vote to approve an automatic mutual aid agreement with Troy Township passed unanimously.
Peters said in a phone conversation Jan. 23 she understood Troy Township Trustees want to review the agreement before signing it.
A little later in the Jan. 17 meeting, Peters revisited the staffing issues.
“I’m wondering if we should rethink 24/7 (staffing),” she said, adding it might be possible to change staffing to 12 hours a day, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
“You can’t really count one person as coverage,” Peters said.
Also, most calls come between the hours of 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., so paying one person to staff the station may not be fiscally responsible, she said.
She asked Komandt if the response to calls was significantly better when the department began staffing 24/7 as opposed to 12/7.
Komandt said he would look into it, but the department didn’t have the software to keep track of those figures until the end of 2021. He added some of the personnel have taken full-time jobs elsewhere, so they aren’t available as often as they used to be.
In other business, trustees agreed to consider increasing the stipend for volunteers and to provide a uniform allowance of $150 for fire department personnel who log more than 480 hours per year.
Trustees said they would discuss in February Komandt’s request to pay more than $1,000 for the chief and officers to attend four meetings between May and October at the Columbus Fire Training Academy, including mileage for round trips of about 200 miles.
“It seems like a lot of money to spend for you to get a certification that we don’t require,” Peters said.
