A Tipp City Fire and Emergency Services Steering Committee met for the first time earlier this month to organize and to hear an overview of operations from Emergency Services Chief Cameron Haller.
Part of the initial stage is accepting applications from city and township residents to find three community members to assist in the review. Two will be from the city and one from the township.
Already on the committee are council representatives Mike McFarland, Ryan Liddy and Joanna Pittenger and township trustee Martin English.
City and Monroe Twp. officials last year participated in a series of discussions on services, the need to move from part-time and volunteer to part-time and full-time staffing, along with volunteers and funding options.
A staffing proposal for expanding the department over time from two full-time employees (chief and assistant chief) along with part-time equivalents and volunteers to a combination of 19 full-time, 21 part-time and 12 volunteers was a consensus among those gathered in 2021. Also proposed was an administrative secretary position.
Since then, the city council makeup changed this year, with five of seven members new to the council.
Monroe Twp. trustees, who contract with the city for services in the township’s unincorporated area, last fall reached out to township residents and secured approval of an increase in the township emergency services levy from 2 mills to 4 mills for five years.
Haller outlined the 2021 staffing plan at the first steering committee meeting. He noted that for both fire and EMS, the city is not meeting the national time and personnel staffing standards.
With response times, a structure fire response standard is to have 10 responders on scene in 10 minutes 80 percent of the time. This standard was not met at all in 2020 or 2021.
For EMS responses, the response time should be 6 minutes and 30 seconds 90 percent of the time, per the American Heart Association, Haller said. The 90th percentile for the whole township/city is 8 minutes 37 seconds, he said.
Among staffing issues, outlined by Haller:
- The department minimum staffing of three people on duty is being violated seven days per month on average.
- The operational consistency and readiness is not being accomplished as well as department leaders would like.
- There is not a lieutenant or supervisor on duty nearly 40 percent of the time. “This puts undue burden on personnel that aren’t trained up to that officer level to be able to make decisions and be helpful in implementing operational plans,” Haller said.
- Recruitment and retention have been difficult.
Liddy asked for information on how additional personnel would help improve response times. The information should help council decide on issues such as funding and pace of plan implementation, he said.
From an equipment perspective, the available equipment meets the need, Haller said. “We have all kinds of apparatus; we just don’t have all kinds of trained people to use them,” he said.
City Manager Tim Eggleston said the steering committee needs to gather all information it thinks it needs. “We don’t have to solve all this this year,” he said.
An application for residents interested in serving on the steering committee will be posted by the city on its website and social media.
“We want citizen input. We want to provide the best, timely service possible to the citizens of Tipp City with an efficient and effective model,” Haller said. “Our goal is service to citizens that is at a level that is expected and needed for a growing community that deserves to have good, quality services.”
Contact this contributing writer at nancykburr@aol.com
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