BY RICHELLE THOMPSON
The Cincinnati Enquirer
LEBANON -- Some afternoons, there's only one firefighter in the city, Chief Michael Hannigan.
The rest of the 40 firefighters are volunteers, most of whom work full-time jobs and respond when they can.
"That is a very uncomfortable position for me," the chief told the city council Safety Committee last week as he explained four alternate plans for a fire levy.
The proposals range from maintaining the status quo to a complete transformation of the fire and emergency medical services department. Cost to the homeowner of a $100,000 house would start at $105 annually for a 3-mill levy and go up to $350 for a 10-mill levy.
Council is expected to decide Tuesday which measure will go to voters in the November election.
The city's fire department has operated on a 3-mill levy since 1983. This year, that generated about $476,000. The department had to use about $70,000 from its reserve fund to meet the budget of $546,000.
Any levy approved by voters would go into effect in 2000.
All of the plans include some big-ticket items, such as two new ambulances and a fire engine. They also provide for buying land for an additional fire station.
The main difference is personnel:
The 3-mill plan would allow essentially the same level of service: a full-time chief and part-time emergency medical technicians. At 4.5 mills, the department could afford part-time EMS staffing around-the clock, while part-time fire crews would be on hand Monday through Friday, 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. It also would add a full-time captain. A 6-mill levy, which Chief Hannigan recommended, would pay for an average of two full-time firefighters - paramedics on-duty around-the-clock, a full-time captain and additional part-time staffing seven days a week, 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.
The 10-mill levy would mean an average of up to 10 full-time firefighters - paramedics and a full-time chief, captain and secretary.
Chief Hannigan conceded a 10-mill levy would be a tough sell. But Countryside YMCA President and Chief Executive Officer Stephen Bolland asked council to let voters decide whether they would be willing to pay for a full-time department.
He said he worries that response time to his facility, which has 15,000 members and is on the south side of Lebanon at 1699 Deerfield Road, is too long. Last month, it took 14 minutes for a volunteer crew to respond to an emergency in which YMCA member Ken Reed suffered a heart attack and died.
The proposal to change the fire department comes at a time when Lebanon's population is booming. It's at an estimated 13,700, a nearly 31 percent increase since 1990.
The department responds to about five calls for service a day, with a total of 1,805 for 1997. Mr. Hannigan expects the number to increase with the population.
Response time for the fire department averages eight minutes. When part-time EMS crews staff the department Monday through Friday, 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., the response time drops to four minutes. But the time is back up to eight minutes when EMS duties fall to volunteers at nights or on weekends. That's because volunteers are responding from their homes, Mr. Hannigan said.
A department with more full- and part-time employees could result in a drop in the city's fire rating of 5, Chief Hannigan said. The Insurance Services Office, based in New York City, gives fire departments throughout the country ratings from 1 (the best) to 10 (the worst) based on an area's water supply, fire and EMS personnel, training, equipment and facility, and response time. The ratings are used by insurance companies to determine homeowners' premiums. A rating of 5 is considered semiprotected, with a score of 1 to 4 being well-protected. But even if the department received a better rating, it likely wouldn't translate into more than a few dollars in annual savings. An increase from 5 to 4 would make no change in insurance costs for the owner of a $125,000 house in Lebanon, said Bill Hines, an agent for Dakin Insurance.
Still, saving a few dollars on insurance or spending a few more in taxes isn't at the heart of the issue, Lebanon resident Nancy Lyons said.
"I think the most important part is the firemen and the EMTs being there for the family," she said. "For some illnesses or accidents . . . those extra few minutes and seconds count."
Her husband, Harry, has served as a Lebanon volunteer firefighter and EMT for three years. In that time, the number of calls has increased, as has the need for a full-time force, Mrs. Lyons said.
"With a volunteer fire department, you have people who have lives and have jobs, and they can't go on every run," she said. Eventually "you may not have enough people to respond to a run."
