The Township 5

Drew Bacik, one of five firefighters losing their jobs effective April 1st.

Emergencies don't care about manpower at the fire station before they tear into your lives like a size 21 scalpel. Emergencies don't care that your Board of Trustees in your small township just cut 5 firefighters from your fire department in addition to the 2 vacancies that exist before they burn your house down at 2 in the morning while Miss Smith across down is in full cardiac arrest. Emergencies don't pick a good time to happen; they just do and when you find yourself as the main character in the horror movie of life, you expect someone to come help you when you pick up the phone and call 911. 

In Olmsted Township there's a very dangerous situation happening. The fire department is facing cuts as the Board of Trustees try and balance the books. If you ask the fire department you'll hear that the Board of Trustees are being unreasonable and are raging war on public safety. If you listen to the Board of Trustees you'll hear that this is just a cut to balance their budget and the fire department has forced them to do this because they will not make certain concessions. 

I'm not here to argue one side or the other, but just give you the facts. The only part of the Township that is facing cuts to balance the budget is the fire department and police department. Thankfully the police department and the board of trustees have been able to work something out to stave off their cuts to the end of the year, but the fire department hasn't been so lucky. 

The fire department has lost a chief and letters have gone out to 5 firefighters that they will also lose their jobs. But what does this mean? This means that for 10 sqaure miles, there could only be 3 guys on average at the station to help nearly 13,000 residents without a leader filling the white hat. As far as call volume, at an annual rate of 2200 calls a year, that is an average of 6 calls a day. So there is a very real possibility that the 3 guys covering the station will have to choose which call is most important to respond to; and who knows how fast another fire station from another community could respond, and if they are even available.  

This is a very potentially dangerous situation for not only the residents, but also the fire department. Hopefully 11th hour negotiations will be fruitful and are able to save these 5 firefighter's jobs, because if they don't, staffing levels will drop to a very dangerous level.  We all know emergencies don't care about staffing levels before they ruin your day.

Update 3/28/2013 8:30am: Olmsted Township Board of Trustees, last night, announced that they are rescinding the resolution for layoffs in the fire department. Trustee member Scott Ross read the statement before a large crowd of community members and area firefighters. The statement said, "Negotiations with the Firefighters Local 2845 have made progress and they are on the verge of an agreement."

Let's hope that this is the start of a healing process for the community of Olmsted Township and a pathway to bring Olmsted Township Fire Department to full staffing very very soon.