MOUNT GILEAD-Keeping strong fire protection is the goal of Village Fire Chief Chad Swank.
Voters will be asked to vote on a ley on May 3. If it passes, staffing levels will remain unchanged. If it fails, however, the department will be forced to return to an all-volunteer staff by the end of 2023.
Keeping daytime staff hours is critical, Swank said.
“If we don’t do something in the near future, we’re going to have to revert back to 100 percent volunteer,” Swank said. “It is not the best scenario. Daytime hours are our biggest call volume, and that’s where we have the least amount of volunteers.”
Swank the staffing “actually supplements the volunteers, where a lot of places use that in reverse.”
Residents voted down a proposed municipal income tax increase on Aug.
3 by a margin of 22 votes. They voted on a 0.25 percent levy increase on income for the fire department. The final tally among the four precincts was 127 against the levy, to 105 for it.
The same amount is being asked for this time.
What does that mean for the taxpayer?
The median income per village resident is $36,945, which is $92 annually or 25 cents per day.
The income tax levy estimated revenue to property tax would be approximately a 4.5 mill property tax levy or $140 annually of property tax per $100,000 of home valuation.
Swank said there would be a hiring freeze implemented of any additional volunteer or part-time firefighters, should the levy not pass.
Passage of the levy would allow them to continue current services, including fire prevention, fire safety inspections, and being present at community events.
It also would maintain its current insurance rating of a 3, which helps to reduce the cost of homeowners’ insurance by about 4 percent annually, Swank said.
The department has rising maintenance costs due to the aging and outdated equipment.
Since 2019 the Mount Gilead Fire Department has been awarded $429,121 in grant funding. That money has gone toward purchasing everything from fire helmets to trucks.
“Fire hoses, turnout gear, all that stuff has a service life, and to be compliant, you have to replace that stuff. I still have a fire hose from the 80s on the fire truck,” Swank said.
“I’ve been able to buy a little bit here and there. Last year we got everyone a set of turnout gear.”
The department has an annual operating budget right of approximately $400,000.
“Council financed the ladder truck we bought; the majority of it,” Swank said.
Since he took over as chief in July 2019, the department has acquired $429,000 in grant money. That should be a supplement to the budget, he said.
CARES money also helped with another $350,000 influx into the budget.
“That was huge and literally how we’ve been doing it,” Swank said.
Swank wants to provide the village and contracted areas with the best fire protection possible.
“During the day when we catch a fire, whatever staffing that I have on duty at the firehouse, that’s all I have for the day,” he said. “The same holds true at night.”
For more information, contact Swank at cswank@mgfd.net or 419-946-2551. The firehouse, located at 72 W. High St., Mount Gilead, is open between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. daily.