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Greenwood
and White River Township fire departments are studying whether they
should merge into one department that would serve more than 80,000
residents.
The two fire departments could become one if a study finds that
consolidation would be a more effective way to provide fire protection
to the residents of Greenwood and parts of the Center Grove area.
Three departments - Greenwood, White River Township and Bargersville -
now serve the township.
White River Township Fire Chief Jeremy Pell and Greenwood Fire Chief
James Sipes agreed to study how to consolidate and if that would lead to
any cost savings or improvement in fire protection. They are researching
what areas, such as response times, should be studied.
Firefighters will study
the selected areas and work to have a report by September, when a
committee studying a merger between the township and the city plans to
have a draft of its own consolidation plan.
If voters in the Center Grove area and Greenwood agree to a merger, it
wouldn't automatically mean the fire departments would merge. The White
River Township Fire Department is governed by an appointed five-member
board and has no connection to township government, whose board agreed
to a merger study with Greenwood.
The Johnson County commissioners created the township's fire protection
district, and they would have to agree to a consolidation of
departments, fire protection district board chairman James Dodson said.
The Greenwood Fire Department is a city department that's overseen by
the mayor, board of works and safety and city council.
Merger study committee chairman Pat Sherman asked the two departments if
they would study consolidation while his group investigates joining
township government with the city of Greenwood. If the merger happens,
35,000 to 40,000 residents of the Center Grove area would become
Greenwood residents, pay a city tax and vote in city elections.
Bargersville Fire Chief Jim White will take part in the consolidation
discussions and provide information if needed, but the Bargersville Fire
Department will remain independent and is not looking at merging. His
department provides fire protection to the southern part of the township
up to Stones Crossing Road and is the first responder to many Center
Grove schools, including the high school.
A merger between Greenwood and White River Township government could
affect the Bargersville fire district and township district boundaries
because the now-unincorporated area would become part of a city with
municipal fire service, White said. The merger committee could choose to
leave the current district boundaries the same or decide that the
Bargersville fire department wouldn't cover any territory within
Greenwood city limits.
The committee could make the White River Township department or a
consolidated department responsible for fire protection in parts of the
township that are not within Bargersville town limits, White said.
"At this point, nobody has enough information to predict what they're
going to do," he said.
Whether the departments consolidate depends entirely on what effect it
would have on fire protection for residents, Pell said.
Consolidating could have advantages, Pell said. A merger would give the
departments greater purchasing strength on fuel, health insurance and
equipment, making them less expensive to operate. Consolidating also
would create a broader tax base that would allow the departments to hire
additional firefighters as more residential growth occurs when the
economy turns around.
Even if the departments don't consolidate, they will look at ways to
strengthen ties that already include a shared union, a mutual-aid
agreement and a shared coverage area along State Road 135, Pell said.
They will look at ways to team up to buy fuel for the trucks or purchase
employee benefits, such as health insurance. Such arrangements would
allow them to use their shared size to negotiate lower prices and save
taxpayer money, Pell said.
As a stand-alone agency, the White River Township Fire Department does
not have many of the advantages for cost savings that Greenwood does as
a city department, such as access to street department mechanics, the
clerk-treasurer's office and the city attorney, Pell said.
If a vehicle breaks down, the White River Township department has to
take it to a private mechanic and pay market rates while Greenwood can
go to the street department and have a city employee work on it. If
accounting needs to be done, the Greenwood Fire Department can go to the
city's clerk-treasurer, while White River Township has to hire a private
accounting firm. (Reprinted with permission of the Daily
Journal)
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