T-L Photo/ROBERT A. DEFRANK Powhatan Point Councilman John Mitchell, right, speaks to EMS member Bill Nieman Tuesday. The fire and EMS department is a point of contention, with issues of reduced hours and delays to the contract renewal to provide coverage for York Township.

POWHATAN POINT — The future of the village fire and EMT department was a subject of contention Tuesday night, including the resignation of an EMS captain, who was then escorted from the council meeting. This after Mayor Chris Heslep informed council that Josh Cooper had resigned as fire chief shortly before the meeting.

Ben Taylor will act as interim chief and will be sworn in at a later date.

EMS captain Mark Petho objected, saying there were numerous “allegations” against Taylor. Petho was told Taylor was next in line and would act in an interim capacity until a new chief could be found. Council members said it has not decided the new chief would be Taylor. Afterward Heslep said this would be an opportunity for Taylor to prove himself in the role.

Voices were raised as talk touched on hours and the management of the fire department, with Petho and Councilman John Mitchell exchanging words, with Mitchell saying the budget had not been managed properly.

Petho also submitted his resignation and was escorted from the municipal building.

Afterward, Heslep said people are welcome to attend meetings and speak their minds.

“I’d really would like not to have council meetings get out of control like that,” Heslep said.

Another EMT, Bill Nieman, also raised objections to the capping of hours among firefighters and EMTs and prohibitions against sleeping during shifts, pointing out the number of hours they must work and be on call.

Afterward Heslep gave some additional background, saying the allegations against Taylor involved the assignment of hours, which were Cooper’s responsibility.

“What it boiled down to was we had someone who was scheduling, which was the chief’s situation in that place and he was scheduling the hours inappropriately to what we had asked him to do,” he said.

“We had talked about 16-hour shifts and having coverage that way,” he said, adding there were only four people on staff at the time, and Cooper continued to schedule eight-hour shifts.

Heslep added Cooper gave no reason for his resignation.

He said the cuts were in response to budget issues.

“We were overspending our budget because no one was paying attention to it, and we had to rein back the hours a lot because … the fire department had overspent quickly. I didn’t like to have to do that, but ultimately it had to be done,” he said, adding too much money was coming out of the budget in hours and the budget could have eventually begun eating into the general fund.

The drop-back in hours per person led to reduced coverage and ultimately delaying the village’s contract to provide coverage for York Township.

“Because of that, we’re in a situation now where unfortunately with the township’s money and our money that’s kind of how we survived as a fire department,” Heslep said.

He said negotiations are ongoing with York Township and he hoped to continue coverage.

The volunteer roster is 10 to 12 people, with 6six to eight paid staff.

Regarding the budget, Heslep said at one point everyone was working more than the 32 hours of part-timers. He said those working more than 32 hours would be eligible for insurance, which was financially not feasible. Heslep said he is conferring with the village attorney and Powhatan Point may not be required to follow this rule based on the number of employees in the village.

During the meeting, council members brought up the possibility of a raise for emergency medical services personnel. It will be discussed at the next meeting.

Afterward, Petho said Heslep had acted in a petty and unilateral manner regarding fire and EMS. He said Heslep reduced hours from 53 to 28 due to budget concerns.

“It was done in an unprofessional manner where it was like a flip of a switch, and there really wasn’t any discussion about it,” Petho said, adding the mayor did not increase hours when it apparently became feasible to do so. Petho said a 52- or 53-hour work week was typical among emergency services. He said Heslep has not provided references to the Ohio Revised Code for basing the policies.

Petho also said it was common practice for emergency service personnel to sleep on their midnight shifts and be on call.

“A lot of these people who are picking up these afternoon and midnight shifts, they work a full-time job somewhere else,” he said.

“This has just been a snowballing effect. The fire chief would make progress in trying to meet the demand, but the problem would be you’d meet one demand, he’d come up with something else,” Petho said.

He also said personnel are making $14 per hour and pay raises have been discussed but have not come about.

“Ever since this mayor took over in January of 2022, we just have not had any progress on this department,” he said. “At the end of the day, nobody would communicate, and that was the biggest failure, the lack of communication between the mayor and his council and our department.”

Petho said he intended to remain part of the department on a volunteer basis.

“I did not want to come to this point of resigning. I did take a lot of pride in what I’d done down there and this was a very hard decision to make,” Petho said.

In other matters, road paving is being scheduled for the end of summer.