MOUNT VERNON — Since Jan. 1, the Mount Vernon Fire Department has responded to 1,353 service calls, with 86% of them EMS calls and 14% fire calls, Fire Chief Chad Christopher told the City Council on Monday night.
“We’re a little bit down from last year, but that’s never a bad thing when we're talking about emergency incidents,” Christopher said.
During last Saturday’s windstorm and rain event, the Fire Department responded to more than 40 emergency calls within a 24-hour timeframe.
“So, as you can tell, it won’t take long to catch back up on runs and actually probably surpass last year’s number,” he said.
Erick Fisher was promoted to lieutenant and will become the EMS coordinator/training lieutenant, Christopher said. After completing a full week of training, he started in his new position on Monday.
The Fire Department is at full staff, but two people are out on injury leave. One will return to work in a few weeks, and the other will take a few more months to recover from broken ankles, he said.
Bryan Conant will retire on May 1 after 32 years of service with the city. Jimmy Morey will retire on July 8 with 25 years of service.
The Fire Department has 15 firefighters in its part-time program. Two of them tested for a full-time position and will transfer over soon, showing the program does play a part in filling full-time vacancies, Christopher said.
Three firefighters will start soon in the SAFER grant program, in which the city received a $1 million grant to fund their salaries for three years.
A vehicle exhaust removal system funded with a FEMA grant will be installed around April 10. Another part of the grant is funding new hoses, nozzles and some truck valves, Christopher said. The bid opening will be on April 20.
A $4,000 grant from the Energy Cooperative Roundup Foundation will fund physical fitness equipment for the fire station.
Five Kenyon College students remain in the volunteer program, with one student gaining firefighter II and EMT training. Even though he’s in school, he joined the part-time program, Christopher said.
Police chief wants to hire more officers
Police Chief Rob Morgan told the City Council he’s asking to add three officers to the department’s numbers. He said the large number of housing units and the increase in traffic are necessary factors.
“Our calls for service have gone up about 20-something percent over the last two years,” he said.
The numbers have returned to pre-COVID levels, Morgan said. The MVPD is on track to exceed the 17,000 calls for service answered last year. The calls are more demanding and require more officers to respond.
“The 12-hour shifts have been a very good benefit to the city working within the overtime constraints," he said. "The downside if an officer works a 12-hour shift, there’s not a lot of room for overtime in that person’s life,” he said.
They try to avoid exhaustion for their officers, who want time off to be with their families.
With the addition of three officers, each of the four squads – two each for day and night shifts – would have five officers. In addition, another traffic officer would be assigned to join the single dedicated traffic officer the city now has.
“We would love to have one that works the night shift time after factories get off work, OVIs in the evenings, weekends and so forth for the traffic issue,” Morgan said.
The City Council will hold a committee meeting to discuss the proposal at its April 10 meeting.
Parking lot, statue installation bids sought for CA&C Depot
Safety-Service Director Rick Dzik was authorized by the City Council to advertise for bids and enter into a contract for parking lot-related improvements at the CA&C Depot. The work will include the installation of a 9-foot-tall bronze reproduction of the Statue of Liberty gifted to the city from the Ariel Foundation for the use of the Mount Vernon Parks Department.
City Engineer Brian Ball said the parking lot is terrible.
“We’re going to do a concrete parking lot. We need these parking lots to last about 60 to 80 years based on our replacement cycle. So that’s concrete, not asphalt,” he said.
The statue will be installed where a sign sits on a corner of the property. The city will lose some revenue from the sign, but it was deemed too worn out to survive a move, he said.
The entire project at the depot building would cost more than $400,000, but City Councilmember Amber Keener said it would be done in phases. Potential short-term RV camping spots were identified that also would enable food trucks to have electrical connections that weren’t extension cords running to local businesses. A separate restroom building was part of the plan.
Ball said camping has not been allowed at city parks, but a local business owner told people they could camp by the depot. The plan would be to set the fee high enough that it’s not a management nightmare and it might subsidize.
Tent camping would not be allowed, Keener said in response to Council President Bruce Hawkins’ concern that homeless people would put up tents on the site.
Ball said that when the depot has been left open after hours for the Knox County Chamber of Commerce, which leases the building, the restrooms in the depot were damaged.
A grant is being sought from NatureWorks to help fund the work. The city had budgeted $200,000 for work at the depot, Ball said.
