HIRAM TOWNSHIP, Ohio — Using several bays inside its township complex, Hiram Township debuted its new fire department, which began responding to calls at 8 p.m. Wednesday.
Chief Nicholas Bushek explained that the township built the department from scratch in less than two months, collecting donated or rented equipment from other nearby departments.
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“This ambulance was donated to us [by Penn Care],” Hiram Township Trustee Dan Ellenberger said. “The fire engine, another department [Green Township in Mahoning County], had it sitting and said we’ll sell it to you at a price that was so reasonable.”
Trustee Ellenberger told News 5 the township has invested about $54,000 in the startup operation, including its apparatus and equipment.
Why launch a new fire department?
Before launching its own department, Hiram Township contracted with Hiram Village for fire and EMS coverage.
Earlier this year, the village fire department was temporarily shut down following a public dispute between village officials and the firefighters association. The disagreement involved concerns over payroll, staffing, maintenance and communication.
Watch News 5's coverage when squad cars were used to block access to the Hiram Village Fire Department's bays:
“We wanted to make sure that would never happen again,” Chief Bushek said.
Village officials maintain their department remains operational and committed to serving residents.
“We have over 100 years of operations at this site and we will continue to do that,” Hiram Village Mayor Anne Haynam said.
Now, both the township and village are operating separate fire departments within the same community.
Mediation continues between the village and the township.
Both sides expressed concerns over two fire departments covering such a small geographic area.
“I think everybody will agree that having two fire departments in 25 square miles doesn’t sound like the greatest thing,” Ellenberger said. “Our goal is to bring everyone back together to have one fire department. That fire department obviously located here [in the township.]"
“The name of the game right now is to consolidate resources,” Haynam added. "It's fiscally not responsible for us to be running our own nor is it fiscally responsible to be running their own. The call volume is so low."
Haynam told News 5 that when the entities were combined, the fire department previously averaged 1.3 calls per day.
“From the beginning of the year, our concept was let’s work with Troy, some of our surrounding communities because looking forward, there’s going to be consolidations,” Haynam said. “There’s just not enough resources to afford what you need to do.”
The township and village remain in mediation, with negotiations tentatively scheduled to continue next week.
“We’re still in mediation, nothing has been decided,” Haynam said. “Because the township decided to rush out and essentially do a pop-up fire department, there’s a whole lot of wait and see with what they have going on there. It’s atypical to go out and do what they’ve done when you’re in the middle of mediation.”
Haynam told News 5 there's been no communication between the township and the village when it comes to mutual aid.
Ellenberger told News 5 that Hiram Township Fire would offer mutual aid to Hiram Village Fire if needed.
"We're hoping and constantly looking at bringing the township and the village back together," Ellenberger said.
Clay LePard is the Ashtabula, Geauga and Portage counties reporter at News 5 Cleveland. Follow him on X @ClayLePard, on Facebook ClayLePardTV or email him at Clay.LePard@wews.com.
