Vermilion considering full-time fire chief; rezoning of 119 acres at Rt. 2 and Baumhart Road

Vermilion City Council was asked this week to consider making the position of city fire chief a full-time one. Mayor Jim Forthofer asked Council to consider the proposal due to the increasing reporting, training and "other administrative responsibilities" of a fire chief. Current Chief Chris Stempowski, who is part time, has done "a remarkable job" for 15 years, but "we put it off as long as we could. … we've got to get there already," Forthofer told The Chronicle-Telegram on Tuesday. The aftermath of the 9/11 attacks alone "created a whole lot of accounting responsibilities," as have Environmental Protection Agency regulations. "It is no longer reasonable to expect a volunteer chief with a full-time outside job, personal responsibilities and the demands keeping residents safe to also carry the administrative burden of our city's Fire Department in their spare time," Forthofer wrote Council in his Mayor's Report this week. Forthofer, Stempowski and the Ohio Fire Chiefs Association have worked to put together a job description to send to Council, and the position will be advertised, the mayor said. The issue was considered by Council in the first of three readings Monday, and Council is expected to take it up again Nov. 15, Forthofer said. Monday's Council meeting also was preceded by a public hearing on rezoning 119 acres of property at state Route 2 and Baumhart Road. A real estate agent representing a development group with interest in turning the property into a warehouse/distribution center had requested the city rezone the property from "highway commercial" and "light industrial" to "heavy industrial." The change in designation, which was approved by the city's Planning Commission earlier this year, would allow for construction of a facility taller than 65 feet in height, Forthofer explained. The 119 acres currently is cornfields, just south of the old Ford Motor Co. Lorain Assembly Plant that closed in 2005. Forthofer said Lorain County Community College and University Hospitals showed no interest in the property when approached by the city. No clients have been lined up, Forthofer said, but the company wants to buy it and have it under contract to attract future development. Forthofer said he heard concerns from the public that, if a deal to put a warehouse or distribution center falls through, the property might become something that neighbors don't want to live next to. "I understand their concerns, that it be zoned 'heavy industrial' for a warehouse and then have this deal fall through and all of a sudden it's heavy industrial and becomes industry," he said. "A distribution center is pretty clean … it's a reasonable concern. Council, I'm sure, is looking into options where this be conditional, and whether it can be rescinded if (a deal) falls through." In response to a question put to him earlier this month by a member of the public, Forthofer reported to Council that once an occupant for the property is identified and proposed to the city Planning Commission, "the city engineer will require of the developer, appropriate impact studies." "Those studies can include, drainage, wetland, traffic, and any other studies he determines necessary depending on the nature of the property and impact by the proposed development," Forthofer wrote. "The city engineer acts as the city's agent to ensure that codes are followed and impact to other property is minimized."