Chardon Fire Chief Justin Geiss touched on department activities, improvements and future goals during the April 11 Chardon City Council meeting.
Chardon Fire Chief Justin Geiss touched on department activities, improvements and future goals during the April 11 Chardon City Council meeting.
Over the past three years, the 1964 Jeep that served as the fire department’s brush vehicle was replaced, a third ambulance was added to the fleet and a full-time member was added to the duty crew, as well as a sixth position during the day, Geiss said.
A grant was also secured to replace the department’s radio systems — which were scheduled to be unserviceable by 2025 — and new software was adopted to streamline fire prevention.
“Over the last three years, we’ve received over $354,000 in grants that have gone toward equipment, training and various other items that we’ve needed,” he said.
The department is currently staffed by six personnel from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. and five personnel at night, with a minimum of four personnel present 24/7, including at least three paramedics. There are two full-time members on A and C shift, and three on B shift, he said.
In 2020 the department responded to 1,872 calls — a number Geiss noted as an anomaly and unusually low. In 2023, 2,326 calls were responded to.
With eyes toward the future, Geiss highlighted the department’s goals for the coming years.
“We would like to add an addition of two full-time members, giving us three full-time members per shift; increase staffing from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. from five members to six; increase wages to assist with employee retention and recruitment; and continue with replacement schedules that we have for vehicles, equipment and modernization of some of our outdated equipment,” he said.
As the conversation turned to the department’s contract, Geiss explained areas they cover and how the contract amount is split.
The department covers Chardon City, Chardon Township, half of Claridon Township and Aquilla Village, he said.
A formula is used to calculate the percentage of the contract amount each entity is responsible for, taking the exempt and non-exempt property values and total run values over a five-year average. That number is taken and averaged out between entities. Chardon City’s contract percentage is 54.55% for this cycle, he said.
The department is proposing an 8% increase per year for three years.
“This would allow us to increase the staffing that we need to, and to get us up into a little bit better position,” Geiss said.
The budget as proposed to the Chardon Safety Committee shows the department going into a negative, he said.
“The reason for that (is) we applied for and are knocking on every piece of wood we can find for an employee retention credit, which was some COVID money that was out there,” he said. “In the event that money is received, we would be able to utilize those funds to make the increase in improvements in year one rather than how we’ve traditionally done them, spread it out over three to five years.”
The department’s 21-year-old ladder truck is also in need of replacement.
“We currently have a grant (request) into the Capital Budget Committee. It is in the (Ohio) Senate right now and still knocking on wood on that one,” Geiss said. “We’ve asked for $1.1 million towards that vehicle.”
Fire trucks are suggested to be pulled from service after 20 years, though there is no penalty for running a vehicle longer, he added.
“The vehicle is currently passing all its testing, ladder testing, pump testing, but, bottom line is it’s going to be a 25-year-old vehicle in Northeast Ohio salt, and it’s time to consider replacing it,” Geiss said.
With the truck, the department has an Insurance Services Office Rating of three. Without the truck, the ISO Rating would jump to four, causing a 5-15% increase in homeowners’ and businesses’ insurance rates, he explained.
Council member Andrew Blackley brought up comparing the costs of Geiss’ personnel with municipal fire departments around the area and asked about the difference in training between Geiss’ staff and volunteer firefighters.
Geiss responded the department is too busy for volunteer firefighting to work.
“I don’t think there’s an employer that would allow their employee to leave five to six times a day and go on a call,” he said.
The training and certification requirements on the department have also increased, he said, noting the department only has one part-time employee who works a regular job outside of fire and EMS.
Geiss noted when it came to compensation levels, the department is a private company and not municipal.
“We are not able to offer a pension program to our employees. We try to be as competitive as possible, and the fire service as a whole has become incredibly competitive,” he said.
Chardon’s compensation sits in the middle range of what is offered, Blackley said.
“I think we’re getting a real bargain because it’s not a municipal fire department, as far as our costs to the taxpayer,” he said. “I think we’re getting much bigger bang for the buck with the Chardon Fire Department the way it’s structured right now.”
Geiss said he and the previous fire chief, Larry Gaspar, have gone through the budget line by line to save money and have managed to increase the full-time base pay.
Geiss has also recommended the contract for the fire prevention officer be rolled into the three-year contract, rather than remaining two separate contracts, City Manager Randy Sharpe said.
While historically, fire prevention has been a separate item, when rolled into the overall budget, it becomes subject to the percentage division, Geiss added.
The safety committee recommends the contract increase be incorporated into the new contract and Geiss hopes to have it on the agenda for the May meeting.
