COLUMBUS, Ohio — A new housing development on the west side has created a fight over jurisdiction as the City of Columbus annexed the land but Norwich Township Fire will cover it.
The Columbus firefighters union has filed a grievance arguing that Sugar Run development is in the city of Columbus and should be covered by Columbus Division of Fire. Norwich Township says the land is actually in both Columbus and Norwich.
Construction crews are working rapidly on what will be an additional 800 homes and separate apartment buildings on the west side of Columbus.
With the increase in housing comes a boom in population, and a need for more first responders.
“A fire station needs to be there. It is our position it should be a Columbus fire station,” said Columbus Fire Local 67 President Steve Stein. “Report after report saying we need more fire and EMS resources. We believe those are needed and we can't just outsource that work."
Residents will be served by Columbus water and sewer and the Columbus Division of Police, but Norwich Township Fire.
Stein filed a grievance with the city arguing in the fire union contract the city is not to contract out fire or EMS services, and he believes this is what Columbus has done in this situation.
“Our collective bargaining agreement doesn't permit it. In our opinion, this is an egregious run at language that has been in our contract for almost 30 years,” Stein said.
Norwich Township Fire Chief David Baird disagrees.
He explains because of the way Columbus annexed this land, it is both in Columbus and Norwich Township and the township will collect property taxes to cover fire and EMS services.
“It's duel jurisdiction, both Columbus and Norwich are responsible for providing fire and ems services because we both receive funding from this property,” Baird said.
The problem with duel jurisdictions is that they receive calls from two different 911 dispatch centers. If these residents need fire and EMS instead of police, their calls will have to be transferred, which could take time when seconds matter.
“When 911 calls are processed, those go to different call centers. I think the specific issue here is we've now bifurcated your 911 response which means 911 calls for police are going to Columbus PSAP, public safety answer point, but if you have a medical emergency or fire, that's going to have to get rerouted back to the northwest dispatch center. Those are seconds, those are minutes,” Stein said.
“We also monitor Columbus Dispatch. If we are dispatched our alarm office hears it as well as our members at our station closest to this,” Baird explained.
10TV reached out to Columbus City Attorney Zach Klein and did not get a response. There was a hearing for the grievance last week, no word yet on when a decision will be made.