By Martin Rozenman
The Columbus Dispatch
Copyright 2007 The Columbus Dispatch
All Rights Reserved
MIFFLIN, Ohio. — Mifflin and Clinton townships’ fire departments will have to wait at least six months to merge, if that partnership takes place at all.
In a joint meeting at the Mifflin Township Hall yesterday, trustees decided to wait until December, after elections, to meet again on the matter.
Trustees, firefighters and residents heard a presentation from James Mills, a retired firefighter who led a citizens committee. That group produced a report on why the townships would best be served by a merger.
Those reasons include saving tax dollars, improving service and reducing administrative costs. A merger also would allow Mifflin to better spread its resources among its four stations, the report said. Clinton has one station.
Each township would save about $500,000 a year, the report said.
The report recommended forming one department which eventually would operate from one station. Mills said that would not be in the near future.
“This isn’t such a big change as you may think,” Mills told trustees, adding there’s at least 30 years of shared history. In the past, the townships’ firefighters have trained together, worked at each other’s stations and shared resources, the report said.
Fire Chiefs Randy Stickle of Clinton and Jim DeConnick of Mifflin and Shawn Barnett, vice president of Mifflin Township Professional Fire Fighters Local 2818, all spoke in strong support of the partnership.
Mifflin serves most of Gahanna, and Jim Williams, the city’s director of emergency operations, said city leaders support the recommendation to merge. “All our concerns have been favorably addressed,” he said.
Clinton Trustee Larry Wilkes and former fiscal officer Roberta Olt both said the plan is a prototype for the state’s townships, which are battling to remain viable.
Clinton Trustee Bruce Tjampiris asked about legal issues and the boards voted in closed session to forward the study to the Franklin County prosecutor’s office to confirm they can merge.