Issue 2 passes in Butler County, providing Fire and EMS with more funding and resources
Voters in Oxford overwhelmingly voted to pass a Fire and EMS levy which will raise nearly $1.3 million per year for the Oxford Fire Department.
On Nov. 5, Oxford voters voted to pass Issue 2, a levy to help the Fire and EMS department battle understaffing, a lack of quality equipment and lack of funding.
The levy passed with 72.9% of voters voting in favor of the levy, which will cost property owners $91 per $100,000 in property value annually. The levy will raise $1.284 million per year, according to calculations from the Butler County Auditor.
As a result of this levy, Miami University will contribute $1.27 million to the fire department annually for the next decade.
John Detherage, fire chief of Oxford’s fire department, was surprised by how much the levy passed by. It had the highest support of any issue on the ballot in Butler County, with the exception of local liquor options.
“This will give us enough staff to make sure that we can get a couple of ambulances on the road and also still have fire protection left,” Detherage said. “In the condition we’re in right now, if we have two calls at the same time, that takes everybody that’s on duty and leaves us without any additional fire or EMS protection.”
This year, the department has been greenlit to hire three additional staff members in the next year. With this addition, there will be seven staff members on duty at all times. Detherage said this is the first step moving forward post-levy.
The department has already run an ad for additional staffing and is preparing to run any applicants through the hiring process and train them if needed.
Detherage touched on Miami’s involvement and said the university’s contribution is unique in the state of Ohio.
“Their willingness to jump out ahead of everybody and take this problem head on, that’s an absolutely great thing for our community,” Detherage said. “And we’re going to do everything we can to make sure we don’t let the university or the people of Oxford down. We’re going to use these resources to do the best job we can to serve the people.”
City Manager Doug Elliott thanked the Oxford City Council, citystaff and the community for its support.
“I believe it demonstrates a strong commitment to supporting our firefighters, paramedics and EMTs by providing them with the resources to hire additional staff and to address our capital equipment replacement, so with this adequate funding, our division of fire and EMS can better protect the lives, homes and businesses in our community,” Elliott said.
Elliott said that he had spoken to Detherage, and since the levy has passed, they will move forward with the hiring process for the three additional firefighters, bringing the full-time staff up to 15.
Before the implementation of the levy, the department was losing experienced staff and had equipment that didn’t meet the standards of what they needed. Now, Elliott says the funding will help them maintain adequate staffing to deal with it.
“This community has always been supportive of the city, and especially when it comes to our protective services, both police and fire,” Elliott said. “So I was delighted to see that it passed by such a huge margin.”
