HUNTINGTON TOWNSHIP, ROSS COUNTY, Ohio — The future of emergency services in one Ross County township hangs in the balance after three township trustees restructured the fire department without input from the department’s administration.
Huntington Township covers nearly 6,500 residents — and that’s just who lives there. Factor in route 23 and other highways, as well as the contractual agreements the fire department has with various other townships, and the department protects tens of thousands of people every day.
On Tuesday, waves were caused in the small community after township trustees voted in an emergency meeting to restructure EMS coverage. The decision was made that the department would go from 24-hour EMS shifts to 8-hour shifts, leaving concerns of burned-out employees and overnights not being staffed. The decision was made without consultation from the fire department’s administration, according to now-former Fire Chief Larry Cuckler. Cuckler, who has been chief for the last decade, immediately resigned Tuesday when the trustees blindsided him with their new structure of the department.
“What we do right now is we have three people on duty, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., seven days a week, and then two people overnight,” Cuckler told the Guardian on Wednesday. He said the coverage is a mixture of part-time and full-timers sharing the duties. He went on to say that historically, the structure of fire service is that the men and women work 24 hours and have 48 hours off. With the new structure put in place this week, the trustees would eliminate those shifts and have EMTs and medics work 8-hour shifts. The issue with that, Cuckler said, is that the employees have other jobs and have structured their personal lives around the current schedule, which would lead to mass resignations from the department.
“At the meeting last night, the township trustees came up with some kind of new scheduling plan and said ‘this is what we are going to do.’ I looked at it, shook their hands, and told them I resigned because it would leave hugegundo [sic] holes in the schedule where no one would be at the fire station, and as the fire chief, I’m not in favor of that and I’m going to be a part of it.”
Cuckler said he was hit with the new schedule at the meeting and immediately opposed it for the safety of everyone involved.
“I don’t know what it was, where it came from, and it’s not a schedule that’s going to work in this business. That’s like a road-crew schedule: they work forty hours a week. If you’re out here digging a ditch and you don’t get finished with it, you just come back tomorrow. You can’t do that in this business. If someone is having a heart attack, you can’t say, ‘sorry, I’m out of time. We will be back tomorrow.'”
The former chief said the trustees had been harping about money for a couple of months because a grant that helped fund EMS coverage is coming to an end. Even with three existing levies, the trustees are claiming poverty:
- 1.5 mill EMS levy – Approved 11-7-2017, permanent levy
- 2.0 mill Fire & EMS levy – 5-year levy expires 12-31-2022
- 1.0 mill Fire & EMS levy – 5-year levy expires 12-31-2023
Several citizens, fire members, and business owners have taken to social media to express their frustration over the new structure.
“… the trustees have decided that payroll is too costly and they are cutting the full-time staff to 40 hours a week instead. Not only does this cut their salary, but it also does not guarantee that someone will be on duty when you call 911,” said Cassie Cahill-Noble. “Instead, [a] trustee said ‘if no one is here then no one is here.’ The three full-time staff have been working constantly due to staffing shortages that every other department has been suffering, most of the time working 36-48 hours in a row with only 12 hours off. People are already quitting. [The] chief has resigned. As of 11 p.m., the captain and both lieutenants have resigned.”
The Guardian reached out to all three trustees: Larry Kellough, John Cottrill, and Gary Hopkins. Only Kellough answered his phone, while the other two did not return messages for comment.
“I don’t want to answer any questions …. we are not taking any questions about it,” Kellough told the Guardian on Wednesday. “We are kind of keeping it still right now to see what comes out on this. We have no information to give out on it.”
According to social media postings, the elected trustees have called a second meeting for this Friday to revisit their decision. According to Cuckler, he is prepared to come back to the department after the trustees have asked him not to make any career moves just yet. In addition, several fire and EMS members have tendered their resignations, which the trustees have refused to accept.
The meeting on Friday is scheduled for 3 p.m.