City, townships move closer to deal

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February 6, 2010

Anonymous Pharos-Tribune Sat Feb 06, 2010, 10:45 PM EST

From all indications, the city of Logansport and three surrounding townships will soon announce an agreement to form a fire territory.

That’s great news.

The final numbers are a work in progress, but it would appear the two sides are on their way to working out an arrangement that will benefit everyone.

It took a while to reach this point, but to their credit, representatives on both sides put their emotions aside and began to tackle the issue from a pragmatic point of view.

All it took, really, was for the competing interests to begin to see the issue from the perspective of those on the other side of the table.

The city finally came to realize that it really wasn’t fair to ask residents of rural areas to pay the same rate for fire protection as residents of the city. They weren’t getting the same level of service, and they were also relying on more than one fire department for protection.

At the same time, township trustees got a look at how much operating a fire department really costs. They took a look at setting up their own department, and they began to realize that there was no way they could do it for the same price they had been paying.

As a result, the two sides began to move toward the middle. In the end, it appears city residents will pay a bit less for fire protection while residents of surrounding townships will pay a bit more.

In exchange, the townships will gain a voice in the operation of the fire department. The resulting fire territory will be managed by a board made up of representatives of all three townships and the city of Logansport.

And the city will avoid making the sort of draconian staff cuts it would have been forced to make without the formation of the fire territory.

Such cooperative efforts are exactly the sort of ventures state officials are beginning to demand of local units of government, and in the end, the fire territory that comes out of this discussion might prove to be a model for the rest of the county.

Congratulations to everyone involved for reaching this point.

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City, townships move closer to deal

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