Study: Miami Valley Fire District a model that should be permanent

A joint venture providing fire services in Miamisburg and Miami Twp. is being lauded as a model for public entities that should become permanent, but the collaboration requires work in some areas, leadership and staffing among them.

Those findings are part of a study commissioned about the Miami Valley Fire District, which is the final months of a five-year agreement to provide fire services for the businesses and combined estimated 50,000 residents of the two communities.

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"The district represents a model (and lessons learned) that should be shared with other departments and public entities," according to the study's key findings.

Sixty-seven percent of residents and 82 percent of firefighters surveyed said the district should continue, the study found. Both employees and citizens “believe that a fire district is the best approach to providing service and should be permanent.”

Sixty-one percent of surveyed residents indicated approval of how tax dollars are being used for the fire district.

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Nearly half of the key findings in the $49,500 study by Aimpoint Research of Columbus reveal operational shortcomings. The district’s leadership structure is “a work in progress,” staffing levels need reviewed while training programs “need expanded and enhanced” and regional dispatch “integration still needs improvement,” according to the findings.

The results didn’t raise any eyebrows, said Miamisburg City Councilman John Stalder, who chairs the fire district’s board of trustees.

“I think the overall scope of the findings was pretty much what I expected,” he said. “I’m very pleased with it and I think it’s very positive.”

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“It answered what the board was looking for,” he added. “You know, after four years of being in operation, we had a number of questions (and) we wanted to know actually how we were doing.”

Both city and township officials have expressed positive overall feelings on how the district has operated since starting in June of 2012. And the information in the 70-plus page study reinforces those thoughts as both sides address the district’s future in the coming weeks, Stalder said.

“It gives us our grade card and kind of shows us some weaknesses and positives. So we can work with that for the future,” he said.

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“We were looking for a grade – how we were doing – and areas that we could improve in the future,” Stalder added.

The fire district’s board is set to accept the study today, and a joint meeting of city and township officials is scheduled for next month. Stalder said he expects both sides to either extend the current fire district agreement or approve a new deal making it permanent.

How long-range funding will work may not need to be addressed this year, he said. The current deal’s funding formula is based on population with the township providing about 60 percent of the district’s estimated $9 million annual budget, Administrator Greg Rogers has said.

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