Letters to Editor 24 May 2012

Options for city, townships

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To the editor:

This is an open letter to Hillsboro Mayor Drew Hastings.

I, as a Liberty Township resident, view this discussion of Fire/EMS protection status as follows:

1. Schedule – Hillsboro ends providing Townships Fire/EMS services at the current costs after 2011.

2. Your preference – Have a fire district consisting of Hillsboro and the Townships, which must include Liberty Township as a minimum.

3. You are open to negotiations with the Township Trustees regarding contract services.

There are three potentially acceptable options:

1. Develop a Fire District. The district would consist of Hillsboro City and some or all four townships.

2. Develop a Fire District. The district would consist of just the four affected Townships.

3. Contract the Fire/EMS services. This would be between Hillsboro and the four Townships.

My assessment of the issue is as follows:

1. Forming Fire Districts (Options 1 and 2) – Not feasible within the existing time frame. The amount of planning, cost analyses, facility acquisition, manning, training, equipping, scheduling of a supporting levy, et. al. cannot be successfully accomplished during the remainder of 2012. We township residents would have less protective capability on Jan. 1, 2013 than that of a passerby spitting on the fire.

2. Contracting Fire/EMS services (Option 3) – The only viable option, and this will still require considerable planning in order to get the agreed contract and associated levies on the November ballot.

My preferences at this time are:

1. I have great respect for the capabilities of the Hillsboro Fire Department, though it has been considerably weakened by the recent staff layoffs.

2. Derive a protective system that is carefully prepared and fully understood by all affected citizens.

My suggestion, should you still want a joint Hillsboro/Townships Fire District, is:

1. Prepare a multi-year contract for Fire Protection/EMS now. The townships have proposed such a three-year contract.

2. Restore the firefighting capabilities of the Hillsboro Fire Department.

3. Use the three-year period to study the issue and identify the steps needed to implement a new Fire District to become effective January 2016.

4. Recognize that there will be some tax burden variability, particularly the added burden of township residents working in the city and (in some cases) those renters residing within the townships.

5. Establish a timeline of activities to implement a new Fire District – if publicly supported.

Sincerely,
Ray Erickson
Hillsboro

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