NEW PHILADELPHIA City officials are putting the finishing touches on an application for a federal grant to hire additional firefighters to deal with the rising call volume at the fire department.
New Philadelphia is seeking $1.4 million through the Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) grant, which would allow the city to hire six additional firefighters. The deadline to apply is Friday.
On Monday, City Council passed a resolution of support for the grant. That resolution comes on top of letters of support that have already been received from state Rep. Al Landis, R-Dover, state Sen. Jay Hottinger, R-Newark, and U.S. Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio.
"Our call volume keeps increasing, and that is creating overtime," said Mayor Joel Day. "In the last year alone, the city spent nearly $500,000 in overtime because of our increased call volume. So the answer to me, we're going to take that $500,000 and hire additional firefighters. The SAFER grant would help us reach that goal."
Before council voted on the resolution, Councilman John Zucal offered his support for the grant application.
"We will be hiring firefighters one way or another, and this is an opportunity to reduce taxpayer burden when it comes to that," he said.
In addition to applying for the grant, the city will be moving forward with negotiations with townships to which the city of New Philadelphia provides fire protection "to increase their fair share of costs associated with the services provided by our fire department," Zucal said.
Fire Chief Jim Parrish said it is necessary for New Philadelphia to hire additional firefighters to a meet National Fire Protection Association standards for adequate staffing on the ground during fires.
The last time the department hired additional firefighters was in 1999, when three were added, he said. At that time, the call volume was less than 1,500 per year. In 2017, the department answered 2,824 calls with the same number of people it had in 1999.
"The call volume climbs a little bit every year," Parrish said. "We still pass up about 100 calls a year to other departments because we don't have the staff to answer those calls. We do the best we can with the people we have to service the community."
Also at Monday's council meeting, Day urged all voters in New Philadelphia to support the two-year, 0.5-percent sales tax increase that will appear on the May 8 ballot to fund a new countywide 911 emergency communications system.
"The current 911 system is reaching its end of life and needs to be replaced with modern equipment that will improve its coverage in New Philadelphia and throughout the county," the mayor said. "Our emergency responders depend upon this system, and this is an issue that affects all of us."
Day also told council members that New Philadelphia will celebrate Arbor Day on Thursday at East Elementary by giving out 320 blue spruce tree seedlings to students and staff to take home and plant. National Arbor Day is on Friday.
Reach Jon at 330-364-8415 or at jon.baker@timesreporter.com.
On Twitter: @jbakerTR