GREENWOOD TWP— The town board’s 3-2 decision last month to dismiss three of the township’s top fire department officers drew a small crowd of firefighters to the town hall on Tuesday night to picket that decision.
The dozen or so firefighters hoisted signs to passing cars protesting the decision, with some even calling for the dismissal of the supervisors who backed the decision to dismiss fire chief David Fazio, assistant chief Mike Indihar, and training officer Rick Worringer.
In a handout prepared for the media, department members wrote that the fire department currently has more members, at 21, than ever before and has increased its EMS response rate to 100 percent in the past three years.
Department members disputed town board concerns over equipment maintenance and noted that maintenance used to be performed by the township’s full-time maintenance worker.
“Firefighters have attempted to perform all required maintenance as best they can,” they wrote, “in an attempt to save the township money and to keep all equipment in service.”
The handout also accused the board majority and some citizens of creating a hostile environment, making it difficult to recruit new members. They claimed the board majority “seems to apply very little value to volunteers, as evidenced by their firing of all officers.”
The handout also criticized the reporting on this ongoing issue by the Timberjay, and accused the newspaper of “biased, inflammatory, and even incorrect reporting.”
The group was also very critical of Supervisor Rick Stoehr, who has taken on the role of overseeing township maintenance and fire department issues.
The discussion inside the town hall was heated at times as well, but the township officials were focused on correcting fire department problems that had been discovered. The fire department members protesting outdoors did not attend the town board meeting.
Fire equipment maintenance issues took up a large amount of time during the two-hour-plus long meeting.
Stoehr had a heavy equipment mechanic make a site visit to the fire hall to make sure that Engine One, which had stalled during a training and then during a fire call, was road worthy. A computerized scan of the truck showed that two fault events had occurred, and it indicated a faulty camshaft sensor. Mike Igo then drove the truck to his shop for repairs and servicing, and also to complete a DOT inspection.
During the servicing, Stoehr reported, other major issues were discovered, including issues that will require the replacement of the truck’s air compression systems.
“At this point in time and given the age of the truck,” Stoehr said, “it is not possible to get even a rough estimate of the cost to replace the tanks until replacements can be sourced, other than to say it is going to be quite costly.”
Stoehr said the problems found illustrated the detrimental effects that the lack of annual and monthly inspections, along with “hit and miss” servicing, has on these increasingly expensive pieces of equipment.
Stoehr and interim Chief Jeff Maus have had two other trucks serviced and inspected, and the rest of the equipment will be serviced soon.
“The township will have established a baseline to work form that will ensure all of the mobile apparatus will receive yearly service and monthly inspections,” he said.
Stoehr warned the board that they would be seeing some “significant claims” in upcoming months.
“This is to undo what could only be described as negligence,” Stoehr said. “Not only has the reliability of the township’s major assets been compromised, but consider the additional risk imposed on the firefighters and their mutual aid partners who count on the reliability of that equipment.”
Other fire department issues
Interim Chief Jeff Maus told the board that two days after the board’s decision to remove department leadership, six department members responded to a call on a structure fire, and that nine EMS calls later in the month all had response.
“All our services are being fulfilled,” he said.
At the Oct. 4 fire department business meeting, which was only lightly attended, the group discussed handling ongoing maintenance, keeping trucks filled with fuel after a run, doing monthly checks on basic items such as lights, tires, oil, etc. Maus said the department will be tracking any issues found with apparatus to make sure they are being addressed.
Maus said they are also developing a system to deal with false alarms at the hall. He noted the department had been paged out three times this past month on false alarms and were working with the alarm company to train members on how to respond and determine if an alarm was due to a faulty sensor, for example. Maus also said they are working on establishing guidelines for end-of-season service needs for the fire boats, and he is working with the boat manufacturers on development of a checklist.
Maus said he had spoken with three potential new department members.
Ralston questioned how Maus was going to do to gain the trust and respect from current fire department members who are unhappy with their treatment by the town board.
“They did not show up at the last business meeting,” said Ralston. “This shows no trust for the interim chief.”
Maus said most members had joined with the intent to serve the township, as was his personal intent.
“They are all adults and make their own decisions,” he said. “I hope they desire to serve the township.”
Ralston said if he didn’t see signs that Maus had earned the trust of department members, he would be making a motion to have Maus step down from the position at the next monthly meeting.
McGrath study
Board members questioned Supervisor Ralston on a perceived appearance of secrecy surrounding the McGrath study on area ambulance issues.
“I might have missed it,” said Maus, “but I didn’t receive an invite [to meet in person with the consultants], and I would like to have seen Peggy Nelson, a longtime EMT there.”
Maus said he had spent about three hours working with the consultants and was working on assembling all the information they were requesting.
Ralston said he had spoken to EMRs in the department and invited them to attend.
Clerk JoAnn Bassing asked Ralston if her office could be copied in on the correspondence between the McGrath group and the township, which his all going through Ralston.
“You are not going to get it,” said Ralston. “McGrath will provide a report to the board when it is over.”
Stoehr disagreed with Ralston’s approach.
“I fail to see where this is a problem,” Stoehr said.
But Skubic agreed with Ralston.
“This is all ridiculous,” he said. “You are nitpicking everything.”
Ralston said the correspondence includes personal comments.
“I will ask them if they want to forward the information to the clerk,” he said.
The board passed a motion on a 3-2 vote, with Ralston and Skubic voting against, to include the town clerk on all the information being sent between Ralston and the McGrath group.
Stoehr also reiterated that Greenwood Township has “absolutely no interest whatsoever in being in the ambulance business itself, or having control of TAAS or any other ambulance service.”
The intent of the study, he said, was to look at the feasibility of making improvements with the possibility of eventually achieving ALS ambulance service to better serve all of our residents.”
The board took no action on paying the 2022 Tower Ambulance subsidy, citing the lack of a current contract for 2022.
Stoehr said the city of Tower had violated the contract from 2021, by not making on-time subsidy payments for transfer miles, as well as not producing a business plan as the contract required.
Town board members also were offended by reported comments made by Breitung Supervisor Chuck Tekautz, which singled out Greenwood for not supporting the ambulance subsidy.
“We haven’t seen the contract,” said Chairman Sue Drobac. “The ambulance has to serve us whether we pay or not.”
Supervisor Paul Skubic agreed. “We need to support them, but they need to come to our side too.”
Resident Lee Peterson questioned why the service needed to replace the second ambulance, with 130,000 miles on it, when other area services like Virginia put many, many more miles on their rigs before needing to replace them. He blamed the move on the department accepting too many calls for hospital-to-hospital transfers.
Other business
In other business, the board:
• Will be offering a CPR class sometime this winter for fire department members and interested township residents, including seasonal residents.
• Accepted the resignation of fire department administrative assistant Tammy Mortaloni, and will advertise for the position.
• Discussed inviting OSHA to do a compliance visit to the fire department in the future.
• Discussed a small claims court case filed by Mortaloni against the township for delayed payment of wages. The case stemmed from a payment for time spent grant writing. The town board had asked for more details before paying out the claim, and then once it had been approved, had submitted the wages to their payroll service. Maus said for some reason that check had not been processed, but that he had not been notified it hadn’t been sent out. Once the township realized the check hadn’t been processed, they did get the issue resolved, but in the meantime, a small claims case had been filed.
• Approved some minor changes to the fire department standard operating guidelines to conform to township policies and asked board members to review the entire document to see if additional changes are needed.
• Will be seeking new proposals for the township website, which is not currently updated.
• Appointed John Bassing as an alternate to the Tower Area Ambulance Commission.
• Noted that absentee ballot applications are available at the town hall, but that these applications are being processed by St. Louis County, not by the township, for the upcoming general election.
• Approved having the town hall furnaces serviced, and some other maintenance in the fire hall.Noted that absentee ballot applications are available at the town hall, but that these applications are being processed by St. Louis County, not by the township, for the upcoming general election.
• Approved having the town hall furnaces serviced, and some other maintenance in the fire hall.