MADISON TOWNSHIP — Madison Township’s fire chief was honored Monday evening with a credential that few departments in the state of Ohio have earned.
Madison trustees honored Fire Chief Ken Justus for his achievement of an Ohio Fire Chief credential with a presentation from Ashland Fire Division Chief Rick Anderson.
The credential is presented based on a chief’s years of service as a firefighter, years as a chief officer, professional affiliations and other credentials.
“We get asked all the time how we know someone is a good fire chief,” Anderson said. “If I know you, I could tell you whether you’re a good fire chief or not, but that could be biased.
“Trustees, you’ve got a great guy here. It’s shown right here in his paper, vetted by who he submitted his application to and the board of directors of Ohio Fire Chiefs,” he said. “You can be very proud of Chief Justus and what he’s attained.”
Anderson said out of 1,180 fire departments in the state of Ohio, only 186 chiefs have an Ohio Fire Chief credential. Only 66 of those credentialed fire chiefs are still acting chiefs.
Justus worked various roles in the Mantua-Shalersville Fire Department for 25 years before he became the Madison Twp. Fire Chief in 2021.
“After I became a fire chief, I just wanted to do this,” Justus said. “It’s one part of what I want to achieve, but this is just one of the steps toward getting more education.”
Justus also told trustees about an opportunity the fire department has to hire Kramer and Associates Fire and EMS consultants for a departmental analysis.
“This would work in our favor for a lot of aspects of what we do — how we’re budgeting, where our staffing should be, if we could form fire districts with neighboring communities and save money,” Justus said. “This is the catalyst to those talks because we could define what our needs are.”
Justus said Kramer and Associates would typically charge more than $20,000 for a full survey including evaluating the conditions of fire departments, staff interviews, budget reviews and management plans for the future of the fire department. With an agreement from Kramer and Associates and possibly funds from the Madison Twp. Fire Dept. union, Justus said this survey could cost about $10,000.
“This type of survey looks at everything that involves this fire department,” he said. “It will be a comprehensive study to say we should be training our people to certain levels, we should be more cost effective — utilizing mutual aid or not utilizing mutual aid depending on what they see.”
Trustees will discuss Justus’ request to hire Kramer and Associates Fire and EMS consultants at their next meeting Feb. 21.
Also at Monday’s meeting, trustees approved the fire department’s request to purchase three sets of turnout gear that will include protective pants and coats. Justus said the gear will cost about $8,100 and the township should receive the gear by this summer.
In other news, trustees voted Monday to change the part-time zoning inspector’s pay from hourly to monthly. The zoning inspector position will now offer $600 a month as well as a percentage of permit fees.
Madison Township hasn’t had a full-time zoning officer since late August 2022. The township trustees hired a part-time zoning officer to write permits one week after Wayne Liggget’s retirement. The current officer writes permits for the zoning department but doesn’t complete all enforcement calls.
The Madison Twp. trustees are still looking for a part-time zoning inspector. Interested applicants can call 419-589-9999 and leave a message with their name and phone number.
