Grant-funded Delphos firefighters could lose positions

Sept. 27--DELPHOS -- With a grant set to expire in December, the city of Delphos is facing a significant decision when it comes to its Fire Department.

Delphos City Council has held lengthy discussions regarding three of the city's firefighters/EMTs, all of whom have been funded for the past two years through the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response grant. That grant permitted the department to be fully staffed at six firefighters plus a chief after financial difficulties forced cutbacks in 2013, according to Delphos Fire Chief Kevin Streets. However, with the grant set to expire, there is uncertainty as to whether the city should pick up the $183,000-per-year bill to cover those three full-time positions or if that money would be better spent on other city expenditures, such as streets or utilities.

The grant "was designed for communities to be able to afford things until they got back on their feet," Delphos Mayor John Parent said. "We're in a much better place financially than we were then. We've been able to add a couple of police officers and try to get [city employees] back up to where they were, but certainly, the city's not fully recovered. So we're in a situation where we still have departments running very tight."

Should the city decide not to keep these three positions, the department could be run with an emphasis more on volunteer, pay-per-call service instead of full-time employees. However, that could have a negative impact on response times, according to Streets, with volunteer EMS personnel, who are also in use in Delphos, often having to come from home or other outside locations.

"When I became chief, I moved the ambulance from the EMS building to the Fire Department," he said. "So they would respond in the ambulance, and if it was a critical patient, we would immediately take them to the hospital and not wait on the volunteers. If it was not critical, we would wait on the volunteers."

Streets also expressed concern over additional overtime costs for remaining staff as well as ISO ratings for businesses in the city, a rating that includes emergency response times in its calculations. Worsening ISO ratings could lead to higher insurance rates.

In projecting a variety of future fiscal scenarios in the next few years, Auditor Tom Jettinghoff confirmed that the city should have enough funding to maintain all three positions, should the council decide to go in that direction.

"At this point, it's a matter of priorities," he said.

Delphos City Council will meet at 7 p.m. Monday at the city building, 608 N. Canal St., where further discussion on this issue, along with a possible vote, is expected to take place.

Reach Craig Kelly at 567-242-0390 or on Twitter @Lima_CKelly.

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