Last October, Northwood City Council debated the need for more budget cuts, with some questioning whether they could be made without having a serious impact on city services.

Council, reluctantly, had placed a .25-percent municipal income tax increase for three years on the November ballot to counter sluggish income tax revenue collected by the city that year. The revenue would have provided funds for capital improvements, capital reinvestment and operating expenses.

The city, which has a 1.5-percent income tax rate, would see the rate rise to 1.75-percent if the proposal passed.

Council had already made deep cuts in the budget and in personnel in nearly every department, including police, fire, and streets. In the volunteer fire department, cuts included the elimination of two firefighters working the day shift from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Council President Jim Barton and Councilman Ed Schimmel were among those last year who were opposed to a tax increase. They thought more could be cut from the budget.

“To be honest with you, I just don’t know where the belt is going to get tightened at,” Councilman Dave Gallaher had said. “For the life of me, I don’t know what else we can cut that’s not going to have a direct effect on our residents.”

Raising the income tax rate was one of three options council considered as a way to counter further budget cuts and layoffs if city revenue continued to drop. Charging residents a monthly refuse collection fee of $10, and reducing the tax credit to residents who work outside Northwood, were later rejected by council.

In November, voters rejected the proposed income tax increase.

Four months later, on March 3, a 67-year-old resident with breathing problems waited 28 minutes for the Northwood Fire Department to respond to three 9-1-1 calls, the first of which was made at 6:49 a.m., the second at 6:58.54 a.m., and the third at 7:11.09 a.m. Two days later, Tim Mix, of Parc Rue, died in Mercy St. Vincent Medical Center. Tests showed that Mix, who had pneumonia, had brain damage due to a lack of oxygen and he was removed from life support.

In addition to the elimination of the two firefighters on the day shift, there was a 3-percent pay cut and a hiring freeze in the fire department. Following the death of Mix, council, in hopes of preventing another delayed response to a 9-1-1 call, restored the two firefighters for daytime service five days per week, increased pager rates, and lifted the hiring freeze.

“Now we have two people on when 60-percent of our incidents occur during the daylight hours, when many people are working full-time jobs, including volunteer firefighters,” said Northwood Administrator Dennis Recker. “That coverage is guaranteed Monday through Friday. They’re firefighters, all of them, and they may be EMT’s or paramedics. Of course, it’s much better to have a dedicated system where you actually have two people on duty at the station.”

Council also cut the full-time fire chief position to part-time. Savings will go toward funding the two firefighters working the daytime shift. Council also agreed to use $20,000 in Redflex automated photo speed and red light enforcement camera funds for training and recruiting additional firefighters.

In addition, council increased the pager rate for the crew who mans the Medic 800 Advanced Life Support (ALS) vehicle at night, and changed the “two tone out” system of Fire Station No. 1 and Fire Station No. 2. On March 3, there was a “two tone out” system from 5 p.m. to 7 a.m. In a two tone out system, the first call is dispatched to the appropriate fire station. If there is no response in seven minutes, a second call goes to the second fire station. If there is still no response after another seven minutes, a third call is dispatched to fire departments in neighboring communities that have mutual aid agreements with Northwood, such as Lake Township. Now, both stations are simultaneously toned out, and if nobody responds from either station after seven minutes, dispatchers request mutual aid.

The city is also initiating the “I am responding” cellular based system, in which a firefighter who is toned out can press a preprogrammed button that sends a message to the dispatcher that “I am responding,” to the call, said Recker.  “If dispatchers get one or two of those, they know then that we will be able to respond to a situation without great delay. Adversely, if they don’t get those tone-out receptions, then they know they need to go to mutual aid backup.”

City employees will also be trained in Cardio-Pulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) and the use of the Automated External Defibrillator (AED).

“It’s a pretty substantial training session that we would be able to do in-house,” said Recker. “We have trainers who are on the fire department already who are qualified to train.”

Recker said it is becoming more difficult for volunteer firefighters to respond to emergency calls within an appropriate time frame because they have full-time jobs and other commitments.

“When you look at the busy lifestyles that Americans lead these days, it’s very difficult to rely 100-percent on a volunteer force to muster the necessary people all the time without exception. We used to be able to do that because people had a little less going on and volunteer firefighters were responding in adequate numbers. I think that system is changing. That’s one of the reasons why we put a pay scale in place and have dedicated assigned shifts for day time coverage. So we’re better off than we were.”

Is the fact that Northwood has a volunteer fire department a contributing factor in the Mix incident?

“Without a doubt,” said Recker. “Have we remedied it? I think we have. But the only way to remedy it 100 percent is if the city was to go ahead and find the money to put two firefighters on 24-7. And that’s all but impossible with our current budget.”

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