Suffield Township Pushes for Fire and EMS Tax Levy Renewal

Suffield Township in Portage County, Ohio is conducting efforts to renew a tax levy that funds their fire department and paramedics. The levy funds over $170,000 a year for five years. 

“[The levy] helps keep trucks on the road, people in the building, and purchase operating supplies” Suffield Fire Chief Bob Rasnick said. “It is essential for us to maintain staus quo, and that’s all we’re asking for, to maintain status quo.” 

When the levy passed in 2015, it was necessary for the fire department. Without it the number of firefighters on-duty would have decreased from 3 to 2, according to the Suffield Township, Ohio website. 

“We need everyone’s help [with the levy],” Chief Rasnick said, “it is a fire department general operating fund.”

Chief Rasnick, who has been the chief for 35 years, said the firefighters do all they can to take care of all in-house repairs in an effort to lighten the financial load on the township. 

“The cost of operating is going up,” he said. “Everytime we leave the building it costs money.”

Portage County saw a spike in fatal car accidents with 14 in 2019, doubling that of 2018, which was a record-breaking low of seven fatal accidents. Occasionally, the Suffield Fire Department is dispatched to these accidents. 

“A really bad accident can generate anywhere between 15-20 calls,” Dispatch Coordinator Alisen Butcher said.

Dispatchers are those who direct either police, fire or paramedics to the scene of an accident or emergency. According to Butcher, they maintain contact with the police officers, firefighters or paramedics who are at the scene.

“I don’t think most people understand our job,” she said. “They think we are just switchboard operators.”

In every state except Texas and California, 911 dispatchers are classified as clerical workers, which includes “secretaries, office clerks and taxicab dispatchers.”

“The type of calls we take, the people we talk to and the stress we have is just very different than a secretary,” Butcher said. “Dispatchers are first responders, we are the first people that people talk to.”

According to Butcher, the dispatch center fields approximately 1,500 non-emergency calls and 40-50 emergency calls a day. The minimum staff allowed on shift for the city of Kent dispatch center is 2, which means the staff could be handling up to 200 calls an hour.

The staff could be handling up to 200 calls an hour.

Suffield Fire Department posted a video on their Facebook account two weeks ago featuring Chief Rasnick discussing the importance of articulating which fire or police department a victim needs help from to the dispatcher.

Suffield Township is nestled on the southwestern-most quadrant of Portage County, and according to Chief Rasnick, 911 emergency calls made from a cell phone can see much confusion in this area.

“When you pick up a landline, it’s a controlled phone call and we know right where that is coming from,” Chief Rasnick said, “but when you call from your cell phone…it could hit a Summit County cell tower…and go to a 911 dispatch center in Summit County instead of ours.” 

“It is imperative that when you dial 911 from your cell phone that you request the Suffield Fire Department,” Chief Rasnick said in the Facebook video.

Chief Rasnick, who has worked for the Suffield Fire Department for 40 years, understands the importance of his job in the township.

“These are my people,” he said. “You never know when you’re going to need [us], but when you do, you expect to see these red trucks pulling in your driveway.”