Marah Morrison
The News-Herald, Willoughby, Ohio
(TNS)

Mar. 11—The Willoughby Hills City Council’s Finance Committee recently held its first of two budget hearings.

The initial hearing had a focus on the city’s Service Department, as well as its Fire Department.

Among the topics that were discussed was that the price of road salt is almost the same as last year. If the mild weather should continue, the city will have a stockpile of salt to carry into next winter at the same price, said Mayor Andy Gardner.

“With the construction of the new salt storage facility, we have the perfect place to store the salt,” Gardner said.

The focus on the city’s road resurfacing program will be the cost of the engineering and local share for the Ohio Department of Transportation’s Chardon Road resurfacing project, which will take place west from SOM Center Road to Bishop Road.

“These costs will be incurred this year and the resurfacing will take place in 2024,” Gardner said. “The city will be resurfacing Pleasant Valley Road from the bridge west to Chardon Road and restriping all roads in the city. I am also hoping that we will again be able to coordinate the repainting of fire hydrants in the city with the Lake County Water Department.”

Meanwhile, Fire Chief Robert Gandee said his department continues to focus on increasing staffing and updating its vehicle fleet.

“The 2023 budget includes funding for a sixth firefighter on all shifts,” Gandee said. “Our hope is that we will be able to provide more staffing on our emergency responses while, at the same time, having a buffer in place to avoid overtime in the event that a scheduled firefighter cannot work their shift.”

Gandee also reported that the department’s new incident command vehicle is in its final stages of upfitting and should be on the road in the next three weeks. The department’s new fire engine will start to be built this month with delivery late this summer to follow.

In addition, a new ambulance will be ordered to come into service in 2024 and the replacement for the fire chief’s emergency response vehicle is expected to be delivered next quarter. The Service Department has also been able to do some projects to freshen up some of the spaces in the Fire Department.

“The department has obtained many grants to assist with the cost of equipment replace over the years — new SCBAs, radios, hoses, thermal imagining equipment,” Gandee said. “We will continue to pursue those grants. The department is also evaluating the use of grants to add additional, full-time personnel.”

The next budget hearing is scheduled for March 15 and will focus on the Police Department and administrative budgets. City Councilman Mike Kline, chair of the Finance Committee, said he welcomes questions from the public and can be reached via email at MikeKline@Willoughbyhills-oh.gov.

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The Flint Fire Department requested multiple new fire trucks for the department at last week’s city council meeting, abc12.com reported.

A fire official told the council that the department needed about five to six new trucks. The department sought permission to purchase three trucks: A ladder truck, a heavy rescue truck and a pumper truck, the report said.

The ladder truck would cost just over $1 million while the pumper and heavy rescue would cost about $750,000 apiece. All three trucks are currently available as demonstration or gently used models from Pierce Manufacturing, according to the report.

The fire official said that some existing Flint fire trucks had been driven over 175,000 miles and they are rusting, the report said.

Almost eight years after it was founded, Emergency Service District No. 6 broke ground last week on what will one day be the site of a two-story fire station on SH 36 in Pleak, fbherald.com reported.

The service district was created in 2015 when a majority of Pleak residents voted to impose a tax of .10 cents per $100 of property value to provide funding for the emergency service district, the report said.

Taxes collected over the years have gone to purchase equipment and supplies, according to the report.

Presently, Pleak fire share a small station house owned by the city of Pleak.

The new fire station will be about 13,400 square feet and cost an estimated $3.2 million, the report said. It will have office space for fire and EDS, kitchen, common area, sleeping quarters on the first and second floor and have four bays to hold fire trucks and other equipment.

Construction on the facility itself could start within the next few weeks. Construction is expected to end in the spring of 2024, according to the report.