York Township Fire Department to get new operational equipment and receive grant funding

YORK TWP. — The York Township Board of Trustees accepted the fire department's request for new operational equipment such as EMS bags, drug boxes and more during its meeting Thursday. Erhart/York Township Fire Chief Jason Creamer said the current EMS bags have been used since at least 2007, and the drug boxes, which were originally used by Southwest Hospital, have been in use for about as long. The department requested two of each, so there would be one for each ambulance, at cost of about $1,400. A request was also made for two sets of protective turnout gear for firefighters because the gear only has a service life of 10 years, Creamer said. Along with this, the department will receive upgraded flashlights, traffic vests and extra sets of fire gloves. The total cost for these items and others is about $11,500. The department also received funding from an Ohio EMS grant for 2022-23. This grant funding is obtained through the money raised from seat belt tickets. He said typically York Township receives about $3,400 in funding from this grant, but this year it was $710. "Because of the pandemic, there were significantly less seat belt tickets written in the state of Ohio, so everybody's amounts were decreased," Creamer said. The fire department is also working on preventive maintenance on its vehicles, he said. The ladder on unit 56-1 was found to have problems that would cost more than $12,000 to repair. Since these issues are not safety-related and do not affect the operation of emergency response, the department will take a closer look at what needs to be fixed. These fixes are to keep the vehicle valuable when it comes to selling it upon replacement. Trustee Rick Monroe thanked the fire department for its service as of late. "I just want to give a shout out to Jason and the fire department," he said. "On Monday, we had seven calls while they were staffing. They covered every single call, and that's really unheard of." Contact reporter Madisyn Woodring at (330) 721-4049 or mwoodring@medina-gazette.com.