Sep. 22--CLARK COUNTY -- After months of preparation, the chief of a new fire department in Clark County said he and his team are ready to hit the ground running.
At 12:01 a.m. Saturday, the new Tri-Township Fire Protection District Fire Department was expected to officially take over fire protection services in Carr, Union and Silver Creek townships, following the dissolution of a longstanding relationship with the Sellersburg Volunteer Fire Department.
The Tri-Township board, which had contracted with the Sellersburg department for fire services for more than three decades, funding it through a property tax levy, voted in March to cut ties and start its own department at the end of the contract period, this Dec. 31.
Among its reasons cited were a historically poor relationship with the Sellersburg department and concerns about some of its operations. The Sellersburg department later filed notice to end the contract earlier than that and as of Friday at midnight it became voided.
A lawsuit filed by Sellersburg in May was resolved at the end of July, with the Tri-Township department agreeing to allow them to still use station No. 1 and to pay $225,000 over three years for a previous loan for equipment and repairs.
The Sellersburg department also agreed to give the new department two fire trucks. Amir Mousavi, chief of the new department, said there's been an overwhelming show of support both from the community and the pool of applicants, and he has some he has not been able to process yet. Some of those vying to be firefighters with the new department come as far as northern Kentucky, he said.
"And they want to come all the way down here to help get this department off the ground," he said. "They understand that we have a very specific mission in what we are doing and want to run a very professional department, and they want to be part of that."
Mousavi was hired as the new department's interim chief to help with the transition, but has since been hired as its permanent chief, with an annual salary of $80,000. He said as of Friday he already had roughly 50 firefighters on his roster, about 80 percent part-time paid staff and the remaining volunteers.
He said there have been between 15 and 22 firefighters at every training coordinated in recent weeks by the new Tri-Township department and others in the area. Mousavi has also started social media pages for the new department, with the goal of being transparent and actively involved with the community.
"I'm very excited," he said. "I'd like for the community to know what's going on." The new department will receive the same funding from tax settlements that were previously paid to the Sellersburg department.
For this year, it's expected to receive an estimated $590,363 from the fall tax settlement and another $35,884 per month from local income taxes. Counsel for the Tri-Township board plans to request advance funding from the Indiana Bond Bank at the start of 2020, to prevent a short term cash flow at the start of the department.
It would be repaid from tax settlements received next year. Boyce Adams, Sellersburg Volunteer Fire Department chief, said he intends to still operate as a volunteer fire department, though they will no longer be the department in charge of providing fire services to the district. Using money the department has saved from investments and income from a previous ambulance service, he wants to expand public training in CPR, child safety and first aid, "some of the proactive measures, helping people help themselves," he said.
He will continue to honor any mutual aid agreements the department has with others in the county. Adams said until the midnight deadline, the department has been focused on continuing fire protection services.
He said Friday that after the transition, they will start looking at what may be next. "Right now we're exploring a bunch of possibilities," he said. "We've got quite a few irons in the fire...we're going to take a couple of months to figure out exactly what is going to be best for all involved."
Aprile Rickert is the crime and courts reporter at the News and Tribune.
Contact her via email at [email protected] or by phone at 812-206-2115. Follow her on Twitter: @Aperoll27.
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