Liberty to start planning fire stations

Jennifer Baker reports:

Township Fire Chief Paul Stumpf said today he hopes to begin hiring more full-time firefighter/paramedics next year - and start drawing up plans to replace one older fire house and build a fourth.

Liberty voters passed a five-year, 3.5-mill fire levy by 59 percent to 41 percent with all 297 precincts reporting. The levy will cost the owner of a $100,000 home $107.19 annually and collect $2.6 million a year.

Township officials say the increased funding is expected to start coming in by the spring.

The new fire stations could cost up to $5 million. Construction on both could start in late 2008 or early 2009, depending on township trustee approval, Stumpf said.
“Everybody realizes how busy we are getting,” the fire chief said. “They drive the roads. They see the growth. They hear the sirens and see the vehicles going up and down the road.”

Liberty’s population is about 33,000, up from 9,249 residents in 1990.
Its population is expected to surpass 80,000 by 2030, according to the Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Regional Council of Governments.

The increased funding would help the township employ a total of 40 full-time firefighter/paramedics by 2011, Stumpf said. Next year, he hopes to hire three more and fill two vacancies for a total of 21 full-time firefighter/paramedics.

Now, the township has 53 part-time firefighter/paramedics.

Last year, the department had 1,849 service runs, 71 percent of which were for emergency medical services, he said. That’s up from 1,245 runs in 2000.

“Our biggest problem is we get two or three emergencies at the same time and when the fourth one comes in we don’t have the people to respond,” Stumpf said. “Obviously we use mutual aid from surrounding departments, but everyone is getting busy. We need to beef up to make sure we have the people to respond.”