Firm to Study Harrison Fire Departments

The Courier Journal

Tuesday, May 6, 2003

Since money from the Caesars casino began flowing into Harrison County four years ago, all 10 fire departments have asked for — and received — thousands of dollars to buy protective suits, trucks and even a new septic tank for a fire station.

County leaders agreed early in the casino era that gambling riches could significantly upgrade underfunded fire departments, plus police, ambulance and emergency-management services.

Even though an assessment of needs conducted before Caesars' 1998 opening warned that many expensive public improvements would be required, county leaders and the Harrison County Community Foundation have been surprised by the flood of requests for money — particularly from fire departments.

Yesterday, Steve Gilliland, the foundation's executive director, told the three county commissioners during their morning meeting that the foundation has hired a Clarksville consulting firm to study the county's fire departments.

The aim is to help evaluate the departments' needs and provide information to guide decisions by the foundation's board, township trustees and county officials, Gilliland said.

The foundation intends to pay Emergency Services Consultants nearly $14,000. Its study, due this summer, would inventory each department's equipment and training records and recommend ways the departments can improve.

Ultimately, the study should help officials determine which fire departments really need more money, Gilliland said.

"We've been saying this for three years: We're not firemen. (But) we're trying to separate what do they need, vs. what do they want, vs. what do they fantasize about," Gilliland said in an interview after the meeting.

J.R. Eckart, president of the Board of Commissioners, said county executives also have discussed having an assessment prepared of public-safety needs to update an earlier study. Given the potential for the two studies to overlap, he said, the county should wait until the foundation's report is completed before proceeding with the other assessment.

So far, the foundation has provided fire departments in the county nearly $96,000 — including $50,000 to buy property on which the Elizabeth Fire Department planned to build a station. The department has had trouble finding the money for the construction, Gilliland said.

The remaining $46,000 was divided among five departments for a variety of equipment, including a $10,000 system for Harrison Township's department to recharge air tanks in breathing packs.

The county, meanwhile, has spent casino-tax revenue earmarked for human services on several big items. They include $1.8 million since 2000 for salaries, equipment and cars for 10 additional police officers; $451,000 to buy the county's first ladder truck, for Harrison Township; and $551,000 for ambulance services, according to county records.

In other business, the commissioners approved a request from the Harrison County Convention and Visitors Bureau to support its application for $25,000 to the community foundation. The money would pay Laconia sculptor David Kocka (pronounced KOTCH-ka) for expenses to create a 5½-foot bronze statue of John Shields, the expert hunter and gunsmith from southern Harrison County who accompanied Meriwether Lewis and William Clark on their expedition to the Northwest.

The visitors bureau hopes to highlight Harrison County's link to the historic journey when bicentennial events are held this October in Louisville and Southern Indiana. The statue would go in Little Flock cemetery near Buenavista, where Shields was buried.

Sean Hawkins, the convention bureau's community-development manager, said Kocka is donating about $15,000 worth of in-kind work toward the $40,000 project.