By Wayne Gates

The Ohio Supreme Court ruled 7-0 on Sept. 26 to allow an EMS fire levy reduction vote to move forward in the village of Georgetown.

The village challenged a petition to reduce the vote with the Brown County Board of Elections, which turned down the challenge and moved that the vote should proceed.

The village challenged the BOE decision in front of the Ohio Supreme Court and lost.

The petition calls for the current 9.5 fire and EMS mill levy to be reduced to 2.5 mills.

According to information provided by Brown County Auditor Jill Hall, this would reduce the income for the Georgetown Fire Department from the levy from $526,218 per year to $154,225 dollars per year.

“That would make us an all-volunteer department again,” said Georgetown Fire Chief Joey Rockey.

“A volunteer department trying to handle our run volume will be a catastrophe.”

When asked why, Rockey said “We would miss 600 to 800 runs a year. There is no possible way that a volunteer department could maintain the 1400 runs or so that we do each year.”

Rockey said that the GFD responded to 12 runs on Sept. 30 alone.

“A volunteer department cannot and will not sustain that kind of run volume,” he said.

Rockey said that the only alternative would be to ask for help from elsewhere.

“We might reach out to neighboring counties to cover runs. The smaller departments can’t cover their runs. We are covering them in a lot of cases. I can see us reaching out as far as to Bethel or Fayetteville for help.”

Rockey said that if a department as far away as Bethel or Fayetteville has to respond to Georgetown, it could be as long as 45 minutes for an ambulance to show up for a call.

He said that if a patient has to wait that long for help, the outcome usually isn’t good.

“Irreversible brain damage sets in at eight to ten minutes of blood loss. During the daytime, my policy is that a squad must be out the door in less than a minute. At night, I give them three minutes because they have to get dressed.”

And that kind of speed saves lives, according to Rockey.

“We had a 14 month old baby who couldn’t breathe Sunday night out in the township. The paid crew got there in six minutes and the baby was already mottling from lack of blood flow. If that had been a volunteer crew responding from home, that baby would have died,” he said.

Rockey added that just over $150,000 dollars a year just isn’t enough money.

“It would be a titanic struggle to continue to operate the department. The cost of maintenance, equipment, supplies and all of the other costs of operation don’t go away.”

Fire levy opponent Mike Napier, who asked the Brown County Board of Elections to allow the levy reduction vote responded to questions from The News Democrat via e-mail.

“I would like to thank the Brown County Board of Elections and the Brown County Prosecutor’s Office for their due diligence in getting the petition on the ballot,” Napier wrote.

“ I encourage everyone to read the supreme courts decision to view the incompetence of the current leadership we currently have in the village office. Remember voters it is election year so choose your candidates wisely. I would suggest to everyone: vote to rebuild and restore our community.”

When asked what the village should do to ensure public safety if the levy reduction vote passes, Napier responded, “That would be a good question for the village council, mayor and administrator. Do they or did they ever have a backup plan in the event that their “forever” fire levy tax gets reduced or what would have happened if the levy had not passed? If they don’t have a backup plan they should be ready to turn in their resignation for malfeasance.”

The News Democrat will be hosting a community issues forum at the Gaslight Theater on Oct. 23 at 6:30 p.m. to discuss the issues and political races in Georgetown this November. Napier said he cannot attend to speak on behalf of the levy reduction vote due to a scheduling conflict, but did have the following to say about the forum.

“The only people from the village that pay the fire tax should be allowed to be present during this part of the meeting pertaining to the fire levy. That means that the fire chief would not be able to voice his opinion because he does not pay on the GFD tax levy that he is so desperately fighting for. The former administrator (Art Owens) is very close in my opinion to committing voter suppression. Just view his post on his personal Facebook account and see if you don’t agree.”

Rockey, meanwhile, said that he has a personal stake in the ability of his department to ensure public safety.

“I have family that live in Georgetown. To think that my mom could lay there on the living room floor in a diabetic emergency or cardiac arrest before somebody comes…that’s what could happen. Something like that could happen daily in a village of our size with our run volume,” he said.

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