GREENFIELD — The Greenfield Fire Territory’s budget is strapped for cash, and finding a solution for any staffing issue could take some time, city leaders say.
Members of the Hancock County Professional Firefighters, the union organization representing local career firefighters, have asked the Greenfield City Council to find a way to hire 16 additional firefighters to staff the Greenfield Fire Territory.
The department, the union’s leaders said, needs the additional personnel to keep up with the industry standards outlined by the National Fire Protection Agency, or NFPA.
A minimum of 14 firefighters are needed to respond to a fire in a single-family home, according to the NFPA. At least 28 are needed to adequately respond to a fire in larger structures, like strip malls and shopping centers.
[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]Click here to purchase photos from this gallery
In Greenfield, it’s common to have just 10 firefighters at a time protecting all of the Greenfield Fire Territory, officials said. They often ride with two firefighters on a truck, when the NFPA recommends a minimum team of four.
Greenfield Mayor Chuck Fewell and Greenfield City Council President Kerry Grass say they and other city leaders are committed to finding a solution to any staffing issue that might exist. They are interested in perhaps working with a consultant, who could come in and study staffing needs and craft a way of correcting them.
They estimate each new firefighter position would cost about $129,000 annually. And right now funding like that isn’t available.
The fire territory — which was formed to provide fire and emergency medical services to both Greenfield and Center Township residents at the same tax rate — operates with a roughly $5.7 million budget, and more than half of that funding comes from property taxes collected from home and business owners in the territory, said clerk-treasurer Lori Elmore.
Those taxes are being collected at the highest rate the state will allow the city to utilize, records show.
Currently, the city’s maximum levy — the amount that can be collected in taxes — for the fire department is $2.896 million, Elmore said. Annually, the city collects all but $1,000 — $2.895 million — in order to fund the fire department and keep within what the Department of Local Government Finance allows.
The Department of Local Government Finance, or the DLGF, is a state agency responsible for ensuring property tax assessment and local government budgeting meets state requirements. Each year it approves the tax rates and levies — and subsequent budgets — of all counties, towns, cities, school corporations, townships and libraries in the state.
In order to raise its levy and collect more revenue, the city would have to petition the DLGF or push for legislation from local lawmakers to raise tax levies for public safety costs, Fewell said.
The city is doing what it can currently to find revenue to bolster its budget.
For example, the fire department has a partnerships with a handful of Hancock County townships surrounding Center Township — Brandywine, Green, Jackson, Blue River and Brown – to provide ambulance service to those areas, said fire chief James Roberts.
Each township pays a fee for the services, and Roberts recently increased those fees to help offset department costs, he said. Currently, each township pays the fire territory $15,000 to provide EMS services; in 2019, those fees are rising to $18,000.
Those fees will generate about $90,000 in 2019.
The remainder of the fire territory’s current budget is made up of Local Option Income Tax, or LOIT, money, as well as other city revenue funds, like Medicaid reimbursements and vehicle excise taxes, officials said.
The city has historically been at odds with the DLGF over how the fire department is funded. The legal woes started in 2011 when the DLGF ruled that the fire department should not be allowed to collect so much in taxes from local residents.
In 2015, the disagreements resulted in a delay in hiring three new firefighter/paramedics in 2015 because the DLGF unexpectedly cut the fire territory’s budget by $500,000.
City leaders think enlisting the help of an outside consultant could go a long way to help them better understand the fire department’s needs and the solutions available to them.
But right now, they’re doing the best they can with what they have, Grass said.
“We do a good job of using every dime we’re allowed,” he said “All the costs go up, but revenue doesn’t always.”