Fire services contract reflects wages

A three-year renewal contract between Amherst Township and the city of Amherst was brought to City Council during a Jan. 7 meeting that calls for slight increases in monthly fees for fire protection and hourly wages for the township.

Amherst Mayor Mark Costilow said during the meeting that the city and Amherst Fire Chief Jim Wilhelm negotiated with the township about the increases.

Amherst Township has since signed the contract, Costilow said.

“The fire chief (Wilhelm) did a very good job negotiating that contract right up until the last minute,” the mayor said. “(The previous contract) did expire at the end of last year, but in good faith, we’re still gonna provide those protection services.”

The contract said the township will pay $11,000 a quarter to the city through Dec. 31, 2021, and will pay $28 an hour per firefighter responding through Dec. 31, 2020, and $29 through 2021.

Costilow said the city also plans to sign onto providing fire code inspections as a part of the new contract.

Amherst Township currently uses private providers to conduct the inspections, he said.

Wilhelm agreed with Costilow during the meeting that the contract included reasonable increases for the township.

“As far as the raises on there, it’s been over 20 years since we’ve increased it,” Wilhelm said.

Fire departments across the state have experienced more expenditures as a part of a presumptive cancer legislation from the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation, Wilhelm said.

The bill allows firefighters with cancer to file a claim for workers’ compensation, since a study by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health found 68 percent of firefighters get cancer in their lifetime and are more likely than the general public to develop cancer.

“There’s a whole new list coming down the pipeline,” Wilhelm said. “I only think it’s fair that some of that cost reaches out to the township.

“I just spent $65,000 on new turnout gear,” Wilhelm said. If turnout gear is more than 10 years old, the department has to dispose of it, he said.

In addition, the Fire Department will increase its hourly wages a total of a dollar over the next three years, including no increase this year, but 50-cent increases the following two years, he said.

Wilhelm also said the Fire Department will need to replace a 2004 tanker truck in about five or six years.