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WELLSVILLE -- Fire Chief Barry Podwel's request to transfer dispatch services for Wellsville Fire Department (WFD), which also dispatches for Wellsville Police Department, continues to remain a hot topic between the chief and village council, which has tabled or denied his request multiple times for nearly a year.
The matter was the center of a debate during the Sept. 1 meeting of the Wellsville Village Council when Podwel during his report to council said he still wants to turn dispatch over to the county and Council President Keith Thorn responded saying he does not see how that is possible right now with the General Fund going lower.
Thorn said the transfer was going to cost a ton of money, and the village just doesn't have it right now and that Podwel had previously told him when council approved a fourth firefighter for the department that having that firefighter would make it so the fire department would be able to dispatch for the police department and that dispatching for the police was a part of the agreement of them getting the fourth firefighter.
Podwel pointed out that there is nothing in the fire levy stating that the fire department dispatch for the police department and the fire department has the money to make the switch to the county 911 and that's why he keeps asking for it every meeting.
"I know everybody is getting sick and tired of me talking about it, but I'm going to talk about it until it is done," Podwel said.
Thorn said he is not OK with the switch until the village has the money to do it and do it properly. Podwel cut in telling him, "I have the money to do it." Thorn responded by telling him, "No you don't, you don't have the money to properly do what we need to do in town to make sure that this town runs properly, and that's the problem."
Thorn then went on to say when the village has the money to make the switch to county, then he has no problem with doing it. He also told Podwel that in the meantime the fire levy and everything else would go down the drain if the town falls.
Podwel told Thorn that that was his opinion and Thorn responded "yes."
Podwel said he talks to Fiscal Officer Hoi Wah Yu all the time about the department having the money and that the money is there and the police department has nothing to do with him, it's the fire department.
Podwel went on to tell council members that they have his hands tied to where he and the firefighters can't go out and do their jobs because he has to have his guys sit over at the station and answer the phone for the police department.
Thorn responded that he would need someone over there anyway to answer the phone because he would be out on a call, to which Podwel replied that county would answer the call.
Thorn then asked Podwel where's the list of members from the Wellsville Volunteer Fire Department (WVFD) that he previously asked him for, and Podwel told him he never requested a list of members, he requested a meeting with the WVFD. Thorn then said he now wants a list of WVFD members, and he wants to know why that membership no longer is available to work in the village. Podwel told him that has nothing to do with him wanting to send dispatch to county, to which Thorn said "it has a lot to do with it."
"I'm still going to keep fighting on this at every meeting," Podwel said. "Go ahead," Thorn replied.
Podwel then said that Thorn and council was holding the WFD back from doing their job that Wellsville residents pay for through a fire levy, and he emphasized a fire levy, not a police levy, which that can't do because they have to stay at the station answer the phone for the police department.
Thorn asked again where the volunteer fire department is, to which Podwel told him the lack of volunteers is everywhere, not just Wellsville and he could recall a time when volunteers came in two at a time -- one answering phones for the police and the other for the fire department -- and again asked where the volunteers are. Podwel said he didn't know. Thorn again said he needed a list of the WVFD membership.
Thorn said he was going to talk to them (WVFD) and he has asked for meetings until he was blue in the face and he wasn't asking for another one and he would contact them individually.
Podwel told Thorn that was fine but he did not see what the volunteers had to do with him sending fire dispatch to county and that the WFD is the only fire department in Columbiana County that dispatches their own firefighters and that everyone else is through the 911 system.
Podwel again noted that the firefighters cannot go out and do their jobs because they have to answer calls for the police department who they don't get a penny from for doing it and that has been the way it's been since he started in 1988. Podwel also said that there is nothing in the fire levy stating that the fire department dispatches for the Wellsville Police Department.
Council Member Aaron Smith said the main reason for not allowing the switch is the fire department may have the money, but the village doesn't have the money it would take for the police department and that if they allowed the fire department to switch to county that would cause a predicament with the police department and the General Fund even if the fund was at a level it needs to be at.
"I understand that they are two different things and you got the money, but the ripple effect for the village, we can't afford it," Smith said.
"If something happens, God forbids somebody gets killed in a house fire and we can't go then who's it come back on," Podwel told council. "It doesn't come back on you people; it comes back on me because I'm the chief."
Smith noted there were volunteers manning the phones before, and he understands it is a nationwide thing, but he is just concerned about Wellsville. Smith then went on to tell Podwel that if he looked, there was a lot of volunteers that quit pretty much all at once and he doesn't believe that has anything to do with what is going on across the nation and that there is something going on with the Wellsville volunteers and they need to fix it among themselves so everybody can move forward. He went on to say if that hadn't happened the current situation wouldn't be happening because the volunteers would still be able to man the phones.
Thorn told Smith that the volunteers didn't all stop coming at once, and Smith agreed but again said a big chunk of them did stop coming all at one time and that was evident in the financial report which shows where they stopped paying a lot of them.
Smith again commented it was a money issue and not being able to afford it type of situation.
"I have the money to do it," Podwel replied. "It's not my problem that the police doesn't have it."
Smith told Podwel he understood that, but they had to make a decision based on the whole village and not just one department.
Podwel asked if the council was willing to take the brunt of it if something happened in a fire call if the firefighters couldn't go to the call. Thorn responded that if there was a serious fire call there would be no one blaming him if he took off to respond to it, but if he was going out to do inspections.
Podwel said that that's a part of it, not being able to go out and do inspections and be a part of the public and more in the public view which helps pass the levies.
Yu asked who else has a full-time fire department that is not volunteers. Podwel told her East Palestine and East Liverpool.
During the public portion of the meeting, Wellsville resident Brad Elliott questioned council on the fire department dispatching for the police department and if it was shown that fire levy monies were funding that dispatch.