If a 1.5-mill levy fails to pass at the ballot box, the Sylvania Fire Department said it may have to layoff firefighters and eventually close a fire station, said the department’s fire Chief, Jeffrey Kowalski.
“The next year’s going to be a challenge,” Kowalski said. “I have a deficit next year. I may have to lay off a few firefighters…. I won’t be able to maintain a fire station…. It’s not a threat; I’m not trying to pull one over on the public; it’s not a threat just the reality of it. We have done so much with so little for so long we’ve become good at it.”
The department currently has 56 fulltime firefighters/paramedics who staff four fire stations 24 hours a day.
The continual 1.5-mill levy would collect about $1.82 million annually and would cost the homeowner of a $100,000 house $53 a year.
In 2008, the fire department asked for a 2.5-mill levy and promised they would not come back for five years, Kowalski said. “It’s been seven years,” he said.
Kowalski cited a decrease in expected revenue from depreciating property values coupled with rising demands on his department as reasons why he needs the extra money.
The levy in 2008 was expected to bring in $1.8 million a year, but only generated $1.5 million due to re-evaluation of property tax values, he said. With that levy money, they replaced three fire stations that were falling apart — one 85 years old — and bought three engines and a truck. Kowalski said they spent money only on areas of need and tightened their belts when less money came to the door.
“We tightened our belts and did away with purchasing things we needed before going back to the voters,” he said. “Unfortunately, we don’t have another way of funding our department. We have no payroll tax and we don’t transport people so we don’t get any money for that.”
The fire chief said his department has been doing more with less for years now yet it remains No. 1 and No. 2 on its level of runs in a comparison with six other departments in the Toledo area. Few other departments protect a city and a Township, he said.
The demands have increased. Over the past 10 years, runs have gone up 47 percent and the population has increased 9.6 percent, yet Kowalski staff has decreased, he said.
“We’re doing more with less and trying to make it work,” he said.
The response to the levy has been mostly positive with some folks saying the Sylvania Department should go back to being a volunteer department. To that, Kowalski says they wouldn’t have the same level of response time.
“Response time is key to saving lives,” he said. “You have a better chance than anyplace else of being saved in Sylvania and the township. Each engine and truck that leaves the station has all the equipment.”
With the new levy money, Kowalski said he plans to put some firefigthers on full-time status because runs are going up. Since 2007, runs have gone up 2.7 percent every year. Last year, the department had 4,500 incidents with 7000 responses. Responses are the number of vehicles put into service for an incident. Most of the runs — 77 percent — are EMS and the rest are fire.
He wants to replace aging equipment, including radios, a 20-year-old fire truck and an aerial truck in 2020. He said he is setting money aside each year for new vehicles.
“We want to improve our basic life support system,” he said.
Kowalski said the department “did its homework” on the financials of building three new fire stations rather than renovating the old. He said it would have cost twice as much to renovate.
