T-L Photo/CARRI GRAHAM Hopedale Fire Chief Mark Marchetta speaks to Cadiz Village Council members Thursday evening about the Silver Spade Joint Ambulance District levy that was approved by voters in November.

CADIZ — The Hopedale fire chief responded to a “Harrison County Taxpayer’s” letter that details complaints regarding the recently approved Silver Spade Joint Ambulance District’s levy.

On Thursday evening, Fire Chief Mark Marchetta provided Cadiz Village Council with an update about the levy. He also spoke about a letter he received last month from an anonymous resident.

The letter writer stated they were unhappy with the district providing ambulance services to villages and townships that are not included in the new levy that was passed by county voters in November. The 2.25-mill levy is paid for by communities including Cadiz Township, Green Township, the village of Cadiz and the village of Hopedale.

Marchetta said the levy does not go into effect until later this year after federal funding runs out. The district is currently providing seven-day-a-week ambulance services through the Safer Grant it obtained in 2018, which will not expire until August. The levy will then go into effect.

“When the federal money goes away in August, then the levy money is going to become available for us to use. As of August 1, we’re not going to automatically respond to calls outside the district,” he said.

Although the fire department will no longer automatically respond to out-of-district calls beginning in August, it will do so in “life-or-death” circumstances such as major traumas and time critical events, Marchetta said. He added that non-district patients are billed differently than those residing in the district. Residents who fail to pay an ambulance bill will not be sent to debt collections, while those who live outside the district will be, he said.

“It’s called soft billing for those in the district and hard billing outside the district,” he added.

From 2018 to 2020 the Hopedale Fire Department responded to 4,144 emergency calls — 49.6 percent in Cadiz Township and village of Cadiz, 42.6 percent in Green Township and village of Hopedale, and 7.8 percent other, Marchetta said. During the first quarter of this year, the department has responded to 425 calls, 48 of which were outside the district including in Jewett, New Athens, Harrisville, Adena, Smithfield, Scio and Moorefield. He said the district has mutual aid agreements with all other departments in the county.

“Eleven percent of the calls have been out of the district so far this year, and that is at absolutely no cost to the taxpayer,” he said. “We haven’t spent any taxpayer money because we haven’t received any taxpayer’s money. That was one of the complaints in the letter.”

Marchetta said the letter writer also accused the district of having an “overabundance of funds” from the levy, due to the district’s plan to purchase a fourth ambulance in the fall that will replace one of its older models. He said the district currently has one ambulance in Hopedale, one in Cadiz and a third that is used as a back-up vehicle.

Marchetta said the district’s total payroll for the year is $684,277. Once the levy goes into effect, it will generate $598,394.

“The funding through the levy does not even cover all of payroll. As a matter of fact, there’s an $86,000 shortfall from the levy to cover payroll,” he said. “So $86,000 plus all the other expenses of the ambulance district — fuel, maintenance, insurance, EMS supplies, etc. — are all the responsibility of the Hopedale Fire Department.”

Marchetta said he plans to provide council with an update each quarter to keep the public informed.