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The Franklin Township Fire District 3 Commissioners recently took a step to prepare the District in case a new contract with East Franklin Volunteer Fire Department is not ratified.

The Commissioners at their September 10 meeting voted to create a committee to study the feasibility of covering the District through shared-services agreements and per diem paid firefighters.

The resolution was presented for a Board vote after the Commissioners held a lengthy executive session.

“The purpose of this is to keep from having to come back every month and extend, extend, extend until we get to an agreement,” Board attorney Greg Pasquale said, referring to the resolution. “And the purpose of this is when somebody says, what’s it going to cost for per diem firefighters if you don’t do it, that they actually have a number of what that is. And the purpose of this is to make sure that, if for some reason the fire department decides that because they don’t have a contract, they don’t want to respond to any services, that the town is protected.”

Representatives from the EFVFD, the Fire Commission and attorneys representing both sides are scheduled to meet in the Municipal Building on September 17 to try to hash out a deal.

“We’ll have a conversation about the contract and see if we can’t hammer it out,” Pasquale said. “That’s my goal here, to try and get everybody to the same place.”

“I assume we’ll reach an agreement somewhere, either on the 17th or as close there to as possible,” Pasquale said. “And it won’t be a problem. But I suggest to the board that they take steps to make sure that they are prepared in case the fire department decides that they don’t want to continue responding to fire calls.”

The contract, which expired in April, has been extended several times since then. The current expiration date is September 30.

EFVFD Chief Dan Krushinsky asked Pasquale what happens on October 1 if the September 17 meeting fails to produce an agreement.

“The chairman is authorized to take whatever steps necessary to ensure that you continue that practice,” Pasquale said.

“Our practice of us coming to calls or him trying to find someone else to do our job?” Krushinsky asked, referring to Board chairman Sherrod Middleton.

“The practice of coming to calls,” Pasquale said. “The goal here, everybody understands, is the same.”

The fire company and the Commissioners have been deadlocked in a contract dispute for months. The two entities enter into contracts every year, through which the Fire District stores its fire apparatus in the fire department’s fire house – which is owned by the department – allowing the department to fight fires in the district and elsewhere.

Middleton has in the past threatened to remove all of the district’s apparatus from the fire house – thereby shutting it down – and replacing the volunteer firefighters with paid, per diem firefighters, if the contract is not signed.

At issue are a number of new stipulations in the proposed 2024 contract to which EFVFD Chief Dan Krushinski and his officers object.

Krushinsky did not seem to believe Pasquale’s assurance.

“We’ve been here so many times with two-faced lying people that say one thing to our face and when we leave it’s another story,” Krushinsky said. “Okay, we sat for two hours and were promised a meeting and the meeting never happened.”

“So when you sit and laugh before us, these people risk their lives for these residents that come here every month and get a story told to them and nothing happens,” he said. “That’s why we’re aggravated. I’m willing to work with you. I worked with the other attorney, but I was told by somebody down the street that none of the Commissioners want me to have a working relationship with you because it’s not my job to work with you. It is my job to work with you to make things better for everybody.”

Retired Franklin Township Police Det. Pat Colligan, a supporter of the EFVFD, took umbrage at Pasquale’s comment about the fire department deciding it didn’t want to answer calls anymore.

“They will continue to respond, unless there’s no equipment to respond,” he said.

Earlier in the meeting,Colligan said the idea to close the fire house “is the stupidest idea I’ve ever seen in my 32 years in Franklin Township.”

If the District decides to remove the fire apparatus from the fire house, Colligan said, “I will be laying in front in one of the bays to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

The next meeting of the Commissioners is set fro 7 p.m. on October 1 at the district headquarters on Shevchenko Avenue.

The Franklin Reporter & Advocate recorded the meeting:

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Here is the portion of the meeting when the resolution was read: