Rossford approves agreement, city will respond to Perrysburg Twp. fires

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ROSSFORD – City Council on Monday unanimously approved an agreement with Perrysburg Township that would
have the city’s fire department automatically respond to any structure fire in the township.
The two municipalities already have a mutual aid agreement, but this takes cooperation between the two
departments to another level. Instead of one department arriving on the scene and determining more help
is needed, both departments will immediately respond.
City Administrator Ed Ciecka said because both departments rely on volunteers, there are times when both
departments may have few firefighters available. "This is a way of providing supplemented
manpower."
For Councilman Jim Richards, that means having "more of what’s needed when life is at risk. … If a
kid is on the second floor, three minutes is an awfully long time."
Ciecka could not say how many more fires the Rossford department would be responding to.
Richards said it is the kind of cooperative agreement that city and township officials sought in the
past. "Both chiefs are to be congratulated."
Council also voted to go out to bid for the replacement of roofs on the police station and the recreation
building. Ciecka said the city was estimating the police station will cost between $55,000 and $65,000
and the recreation roof will cost between $90,000 and $100,000.
Council also discussed and gave first reading to a proposal to have the Ohio Department of Transportation
maintain four traffic signals in the Crossroads of America. The contract would cost the city $3,000 a
year for each intersection, $12,000 total. The intersection are at U.S. 20 and Thompson Road-Crossroads
Parkway; Route 20 and the Crossroads Centre entrance; Ohio 795 and Crossroads Parkway-Clark Drive; and
Route 795 and Lime City Road.
Ciecka said that ODOT could monitor the lights from its office, while the city must rely on motorists
reporting any failures. Since all four intersections are heavily traveled, any disruptions pose safety
issues.
"We found it in our best interest to run maintenance through ODOT," he said.
Councilman Ken Hermes questioned whether the city has spent that much on maintaining the lights. But
Councilman Leonard Michaels said that safety and quick response time needs to be considered. He said one
of the lights was inoperative a couple weeks ago "and it was a total mess" in the area.

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