Published: June 22, 2009 09:16 pm      

Future of township fire protection unclear

Mayor, fire chief tout fire territory to raise more money, improve service.

The Logansport Fire Department has answered calls in the neighboring townships of Eel, Clay, Noble and Washington for more than 50 years.

When the alarm sounds, the fire department acts. No questions asked.

But with an anticipated budget reduction of $1 million in 2010 and $900,000 in 2011, the city is considering the viability of continuing fire service in these areas.

Mayor Mike Fincher said during a League of Women’s Voters meeting last week that the department was facing the stark reality of either looking at increasing revenue from sources outside the city or cutting back its existing services.

He referred to budget shortfalls in Kokomo’s fire department, which recently lost 16 firefighters, and Muncie, which lost 40, as a scenario that is likely to be repeated in Logansport if the existing arrangement does not change.

“As the city looks at that lost local revenue and budget cuts, it is going to be very difficult not to cut fire departments,” Fincher said. “No decisions have been made yet, and we are still looking at everywhere else, but the reality of the situation is, and the chief knows this, if we don’t change how we fund this, we are going to have to lay off firefighters and maybe even close one or two of the city’s fire stations.”

At stake is fire protection for 7,000 people who live in townships without their own volunteer fire departments. This includes 431 people in Eel township on the fringe of the Logansport city limits such as the Malton Hills area on the east side of the city, and any property on Cliff Drive near Logansport State Hospital.

Logansport Fire Chief Bob McMinn said that without guaranteed protection it was unlikely that any insurance company would insure those homes.

“If you live five miles from a fire district, insurance companies don’t want to insure you,” McMinn said. “We don’t want that to happen so we are going to have to come up with some kind of idea or we will be like Kokomo.”

McMinn points to the existing contracts with the townships, which are scheduled to be renewed next year, as a potential area to raise more funds.

In the 2007 contract, Clay Township contributed $66,396, Noble $44,363, Eel $40,732 and Washington $43,949, for a total of $195,440 across a population of 6,935.

Fincher argues that with an annual budget of $2.2 million and a population of 19,684, the city of Logansport’s contribution is significantly more than the share paid by the townships.

He estimates that it costs the city of Logansport $7,000 each time a fire truck goes on a call, and he says the townships are picking up $1,500 of that.

“It is very inexpensive fire protection for those three area townships,” Fincher said. “If we go to Boone Township to respond to a fire and a truck blows up, it is Logansport’s responsibility to repair the truck. I hate to put public safety in that vein, but if fire rescue rests only on the city, it puts it in that vein.”

Fincher and McMinn say there is a solution to the problem.

They both tout the establishment of a fire territory covering the city and neighboring townships to raise funds to pay for fire protection.

A fire territory works by pooling the resources allocated by the individual districts into a single fund. Instead of the city’s general fund paying for the fire department, the department would become its own taxing entity with the property tax rate based on the assessed value of the entire territory.

To qualify for a fire territory, the participating units must share geographic boundaries. They would also have the freedom to leave a territory at any time.

Indiana law stipulates that for its first three years of existence a fire territory is exempt from property tax controls as the participating units levy a tax to support the territory. At the end of this three-year period, the Department of Local Government Finance calculates a maximum levy using the fire territory’s third-year levy as a starting point.

Fincher says the idea could save the city anything from $1 million to $1.9 million, freeing up more resources for other city services.

While costing residents of the neighboring townships more, McMinn said that in return they will receive better fire protection, pointing to the success of a territory formed between the city of Peru and Peru township.

The trustees, however, are unconvinced that a territory is a viable solution.

Eel Township Trustee Tom Knepper questioned why Fincher was looking to the fire department as an area to cut rather than the street department, police department or even the deputy mayor’s office.

“Right now I am not convinced that it is the right thing to do,” Knepper said. “The chief is telling everyone that by going to a fire territory that it is going to save the city so much money, but I don’t believe that is right. He is telling everybody that it is all political, and I don’t think that is the right thing to do.”

A past 21-year veteran of the Logansport Fire Department, Knepper said that Eel Township had contributed a significant amount to LFD including recently buying the fire chief’s truck, a grass truck and five air packs.

He said Eel Township would be willing to commit more funds to the fire department, but he asked for one guarantee.

“If the mayor can guarantee me that they won’t lay anyone off if we do this, I would sign something,” Knepper said. “But I need to see the mayor sign something first saying that he won’t lay anyone off.”

Washington Township Trustee Jim Mayhill does not want things to change.

He said that as well as his $50,000 contract with Logansport he also has a $15,000 to $16,000 contract with the Walton Volunteer Fire Department and is fearful that a fire territory would have a negative impact on volunteer departments.

“They want to try and take control of our volunteer fire departments,” Mayhill said. “Our volunteer fire departments have worked hard to get what they have got, and I don’t want to see that taken away from them.”

As for the city ceasing its coverage of Washington Township, Mayhill said that wouldn’t happen as long as he had a contract with the city.

Both Knepper and Mayhill cite a lack of communication on the issue and say they would be willing to sit down with McMinn and Fincher if something needs to happen.

Noble Township Trustee Billy Buzbee said he would also like to see such a meeting happen because so far he has not been included in any discussions about the future of the township’s fire protection.

Knepper added that he couldn’t see how restricting fire service to just the city would help the fire department because the department would lose the money and support the township trustees already provide.

“If they lose that money they will be in a worse situation than they are in now,” he said.

McMinn says that he has regularly communicated with the trustees on the issue and says he hopes they will soon recognize the need to change.

Without a territory, he envisions difficult times ahead for LFD and the neighboring townships.

“If the budget doesn’t change, and I don’t expect it to, we are going to be hit really hard,” McMinn said. “We should have been in this last year, or the year before.”

Kevin Smith is a staff writer at the Pharos-Tribune. He can be reached at (574) 732-5148 or kevin.smith@pharostribune.com