Emergency Medical Services and Fire Protection are the most important services the township provides.  Our Kingsville Township Fire Department (KTFD) has come a long way from the days when local residents who worked locally could quickly respond as volunteers to help their fellow citizens.  As more and more of us work outside the area, Kingsville has adapted by having the department staffed 16 hours a day by qualified professionals.

Over the last 8 years, we have made significant changes to insure that residents get qualified service in a timely manner. Some of our efforts include:

• Instituting standards for the Fire Chief position to insure qualified leadership. We require that the Fire Chief be a certified Paramedic / Firefighter 2.
• Hiring an on-duty, working Fire Chief to minimize administrative costs.
• Creating a strategic plan to look at future personnel, facility, and equipment needs and develop a path forward for 24/7 service.
• Fire Hall renovations to accommodate paid part-time staff and eventual 24/7 service.

The Northeast Fire District was an attempt to provide better service while sharing costs with surrounding communities but local voters in the end did not support this effort and as trustees we redoubled our focus on Kingsville Township. I still believe a fire district is not a bad solution but I think it may need to involve more or different partners and I have no plans to pursue this without overwhelming community buy-in.

I will pursue every option to insure that Kingsville residents have the best fire and EMS we can provide.