After approving the renewal of the existing fire levy last November, Liberty Township voters will once again shape the future of its fire and EMS services as the Liberty Township Fire Department (LTFD) seeks an additional levy on the November ballot.
The current levy, first approved by voters in 2013, is for a period of five years and at a rate not exceeding 5.6 mills. Now, LFTD is asking for an additional 2.4 mills for each $1 of taxable value, which amounts to $84 for each $100,000 of the county auditor’s appraised value.
If passed, the levy would first be collected in 2025 and is expected to generate approximately $6.51 million for the department.
Liberty Township Fire Chief James Reardon said the department’s need to return to the ballot with an additional levy stems from the impact of inflation and the inability of the levy structure to match it.
“What happens is at the beginning of a levy, you have basically more money for a carryover, so to speak, from year to year,” Reardon told The Gazette. “And the way the levies are designed is over a length of time, that carryover is what you’re using to get you from year to year. And by renewing the levy versus replacing the levy, you’re locking in that dollar amount again.
“So when this levy was originally passed at 5.6 mills in 2013, the residents were paying $171 per $100,000 (in valuation). In 2018, we put it on the ballot as a renewal, which locked in that dollar amount, and their effective rate dropped from 5.6 mills down to 5 mills and went down to $146 dollars. And then again, when they renewed the levy last fall, it locked that dollar amount in instead of resetting it, and that dropped what they pay per $100,000 down to $103.”
He added, “So essentially, since 2014, our fire levy has brought in the same amount of money, give or take a little bit of fluctuation. And the problem with property taxes in Ohio is there is no built-in inflationary mechanism. A gas tax, income tax, or sales tax each have inflationary mechanisms built in where if you buy more, you’re paying more in taxes. If you make more money, your income tax is going to go up. The more gasoline you buy, the more money they get. Property taxes don’t work like that; they’re built to remain constant and flat. But as inflation has really risen since 2021, we don’t have a mechanism to offset those costs. And that’s why we’re having to come back.”
As the township continues to expand, that growth has decreased the tax burden for homeowners while doing nothing to help the fire department address rising costs.
“They voted on a dollar amount, but as they added 100 houses, 200 houses, 300 houses, or whatever it is, they share that dollar amount,” Reardon said. “So if there were 100 homes here when this levy was passed, and they added another 100 houses, we make the same amount of money but 200 people are paying it instead of 100.”
Because of the growth, the department’s call volume has increased by 59% since the first levy was collected in 2o14. Reardon said there are fewer support staff positions in the department than existed at that time, and he noted there are just two “overwhelmed” people in the department’s fire prevention office to maintain the existing building permits while also checking new fire lines and sprinkler systems.
LTFD received grant funding in 2019, allowing it to hire six people whose salary and benefits were paid for three years. Those funds ended last year, and the department has since absorbed those costs.
Reardon said the department is also seeing a rise in “overlapping calls,” or separate calls that come simultaneously. On one occasion, a Saturday earlier this month, he said there were five separate instances when three calls were being serviced concurrently.
“Fortunately, our staffing level was pretty full that day, so we were able to staff three ambulances instead of two,” Reardon said. “We haven’t had to rely so much on mutual aid to take those additional calls because we’ve been fortunate enough to have adequate staffing on the days those call volumes really hit us hard. One of the things this levy will do is make sure we can maintain adequate staffing for these additional calls we’re getting.”
Staffing issues don’t only relate to the department’s ability to find new people. The allure of transferring to other departments in central Ohio continues to grow with offers of more pay and better benefits. Reardon said other departments in the area have also begun to offer lateral transfers, allowing employees to take their “seniority time” with them when they transfer.
Reardon said the LTFD is a mature group featuring many who have either met the 25-year service mark for retirement or are nearing that milestone.
And when employees leave, it creates a void that extends well beyond a job opening in the department.
“My concern isn’t finding the people to replace them if they choose to leave,” Reardon said. “My concern is the knowledge they take with them and the investment this township has made in them. Over a 20-year period, this township has made a $2.8 million investment in one person. For a guy to get an offer to go to another agency for $5,000 more and another day off each month, what’s the harm in him leaving?”
In addition to allowing for proper staffing, the added revenue would help the department compensate for the rising costs of equipment. According to Reardon, the same fire truck the department purchased in 2017 for $700,000 would now cost $1.2 million.
“We have maintained staffing and operated on a fixed amount of income for 10 years,” Reardon said. “We’re to the point now where something is going to have to give. We do not want to decrease the services we are currently providing, and we believe the community can benefit from some additional services we could offer. But unfortunately, with a fixed amount of income and the inflationary costs, we’re not going to be able to do that.”
Each of those issues represents the immediate dangers the department will face if additional funding isn’t secured, but Reardon noted preparing for the future alongside a growing community has also become increasingly difficult without first knowing the revenue will be in place to fund those plans, which he admitted will likely include a third fire station eventually.
“We’re one of the very few accredited agencies in North America, and one of the things to gain accreditation is your planning process,” he went on to say. “And that’s the biggest thing for us, is that to keep pace with the growth of this community, we have to plan.
“Am I making statements that we’re going to build a third fire station? No, I’m not making that statement. But is it inevitable? Yeah, I think so. I’ve lived here or worked here for 49 years. I grew up in this community and remember when we had two subdivisions. And now you can’t go a quarter of a mile and not pass four subdivisions. For me to say we’re not going to have a third station, that’s not a true statement. For me to say we’re going to have one next year, that’s not a true statement either. But we have to be able to plan for that.”
Reach Dillon Davis at 740-413-0904. Follow him on X @DillonDavis56.
