Ohio Township Lawmakers Defend Firehouse Reversal

Sylvania Township's lawyer has advised township officials that the trustees' vote Tuesday to rescind a 2 1/2-year-old motion concerning the site for replacing a firehouse was proper even though it wasn't unanimous.

During a closed-door meeting Thursday, John Borell told township Administrator John Zeitler and Trustee Kevin Haddad that because the February, 2010, action ruling out rebuilding Fire Station No. 1 at its current location was not passed as a "home rule" resolution, it can be rescinded by a majority vote, Mr. Zeitler said afterward.

Mr. Borell, an assistant Lucas County prosecutor whom the township retains separately as its counsel, was consulted after Mr. Haddad objected to the vote's outcome.

After having all but decided during a previous meeting to rebuild the downtown Sylvania firehouse at the existing site, 6633 Monroe St., trustees John Jennewine and Neal Mahoney formed a voting majority Tuesday to rescind the old resolution that took that site off the table.

READ MORE: Sylvania firehouse debate flares

"We sat down, and we had a meeting and the attorney explained that everything was legal," Mr. Zeitler said after Thursday's meeting. "We are a home rule township, but that resolution that was passed to take No. 1 off as a site was not passed as a home rule resolution, just passed as a regular township resolution."

Fire Station No. 1 will be the last of three firehouses the township will replace as part of a capital campaign voters approved in 2008 with passage of a 1.25-mill general operating levy. The township fire department provides service in both the township and Sylvania city.

While Fire Station Nos. 2 and 3 were moved short distances from their old locations -- moves accompanied by minimal debate -- to be rebuilt, the future of Sylvania's downtown firehouse has drawn several years of controversy.

Fire department leaders argued that the existing site is too small for a modern firehouse and that Monroe's traffic made it unsafe as well.

But alternative sites have all been found wanting, either because they were deemed too far from downtown Sylvania and its surrounding residential areas, or because lights and sirens would be too disruptive to nearby homes.

During the meeting Tuesday, Mr. Haddad had passed out flyers citing sections of the Ohio Revised Code that he believed applied to the rescinding vote, and declared any action in that regard by his colleagues to be "null and void" without his agreement.

Mr. Haddad was not available for comment later Thursday. Mr. Zeitler said the meeting with Mr. Borell was civil and Mr. Haddad "understood what the attorney told him."

"Our attorney determined that what we did at the meeting was legal. That is from the legal perspective. Politically, he can disagree. The trustees can disagree or agree," Mr. Zeitler said.

Copyright 2012 - The Blade, Toledo, Ohio

McClatchy-Tribune News Service