BUCK CREEK TOWNSHIP — Firefighters in Hancock County’s fastest growing industrial area are taking an unintended drop in pay as their workload rises higher than it’s ever been.
The cut comes amid a leadership transition the township’s new trustee says has been difficult. It also adds to the fire department’s existing funding challenges as large warehouses continue to be built in the area and annual emergency runs shatter the previous annual record.
Buck Creek Township leaders approved a 3% raise to firefighters’ starting pay for 2022, but also determined late in the budgeting process that the township wouldn’t be able to cover a contribution to the firefighters’ pension fund as it has in the past, placing that expense on the firefighters.
Brandon Wilch, a Buck Creek Township firefighter who will next year start representing the department’s 21 full-time firefighters in their union, said that’ll result in a net loss of nearly $2,100 each next year.
The fire department had made 1,976 runs as of Dec. 19, a 25% increase from its total for 2019, formerly its highest year. Officials attribute the spike to the development surge in the western part of the county, much of which has consisted of warehouses.
At a township advisory board meeting earlier this week, officials noted large buildings continue to go up in Buck Creek Township, including Walmart’s 2.2-million-square-foot fulfillment center on County Road 500N.
The township’s tax increment financing districts drive much of its business growth by capturing taxes from new development to fund improvements in the districts. Township and fire officials often note the fire department is responsible for responding to all of the new developments TIF districts create without receiving taxes from those developments it needs for more firefighters to keep up with all the growth.
Fire Chief Dave Sutherlin said his budget will allow him to ask for three new hires for 2023, but adds that’s a drop in the bucket of what’s needed.
“What are we going to do to plug the holes in the ship that is sinking?” Wilch said. “We are effectively drowning in commercial buildings, and we don’t have the current level or capacity to mitigate a response to one of those. … We don’t have enough people to manage a fully involved working structure fire. A cardiac arrest will take out the majority of the staff that we have available on a run right now.”
Jack Negley moved from township board member to trustee in January 2021 after winning a Republican caucus to succeed Melvin Branson, who died earlier that month. Branson served as trustee for over 40 years.
Negley said the transition has been challenging.
“Honestly, my head was spinning all year long,” he said, adding he inherited an office with an empty computer and file cabinets filled with handwritten records. “It’s been a very trying year.”
Of the commitment the township makes to firefighters’ pension fund, a portion of it can be mandated on the firefighters. The township has covered that firefighter portion in the past, however.
Negley recalled receiving word from the state late this summer for the township to expect an increase in income-tax revenue far smaller than the estimate built into the 2022 budget. He said that combined with discovering the details of financial arrangements established by his predecessor late in the budgeting process compelled the decision to place the firefighters’ portion of the pension contribution formerly covered by the township onto the firefighters.
“That’s the decision we made, and it stunk,” Negley said. “Nobody felt good about it.”
The decision does not call for firefighters to pay for their entire pension, but rather their portion the township has covered in the past.
Both Negley and Wilch said their sides are committed to finding a remedy for the pay cut sooner rather than later. The greater issue of keeping staffing on pace with development, however, they say, will likely require help at the state level.
Some possibilities for resolving the drop in pay have already been dismissed, like using part of the over $330,000 in federal funds the fire department got from assisting with responses to Hurricane Ida and President Joe Biden’s inauguration earlier this year. That money can only be used on equipment.
Public safety agencies can request tax increment financing funds under the control of the Hancock County Redevelopment Commission, but not for staff. The commission is covering most of the expenses for a new ambulance for the Buck Creek Township Fire Department.
