Fire agreement deserves approval

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March 20, 2010

Anonymous Pharos-Tribune Sat Mar 20, 2010, 10:31 PM EDT

No one came out of the fire territory talks completely happy.

The townships wanted a three to one edge in representation on the governing board, saying they needed to protect against the possibility the city might shove more of the cost of operating the fire department in their direction.

Some from the city, on the other hand, felt that they should have control of the board. After all, they noted, the city has most of the population, and city taxpayers will be paying a larger share of the expense.

The compromise makes sense. It gives two representatives to the city and one to each of the three townships. That includes Eel Township, which is made up both of city and rural residents, meaning its representative should be looking out for both interests.

Setting up a five-member board also avoids another problem. With the four-member configuration proposed by the townships, the board would have been faced with the potential for a tie vote. Having an uneven number of members avoids that issue.

The territory will represent a significant change in the operation of the Logansport Fire Department.

City council members will continue to have oversight of the budget, but neither they nor the mayor will have control of the details. The fire chief will report to that five-member executive board, and it will be the board that ultimately decides what equipment to buy and how many firefighters the department really needs.

And it’s already clear that the staffing level might change.

No one is talking about laying off firefighters, but township representatives have suggested that as current firefighters retire, the department might well consider replacing them with volunteers.

In the end, the fire territory clearly beats the alternative. As poart of the city budget, the department faced the possible loss of a quarter of its staff starting next year.

At the same time, the territory will mean a break for city taxpayers, who now pay about 59 cents for every $100 of assessed value for fire protection. With the territory, that rate would drop by more than 25 percent.

The tax rate for township residents, on the other hand, would be roughly the same as the townships were looking at to set up their own department.

So while neither side got everything it wanted, both sides seem better off with the agreement than they are without it. And that’s the definition of a successful compromise.

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Fire agreement deserves approval

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