Fairport Harbor cites heavy 2024 call volumes, awards for fire department as voters OK two levies

Mayor Tim Manross said Fairport Harbor’s police and fire departments logged heavy demand in 2024 and that residents approved two levies to support those services.

The state of the village address, delivered Feb. 20, gave a department-by-department accounting: the police department recorded “just shy of 7,000 calls in 2024,” the fire department tallied 415 responses with no civilian or firefighter injuries, and EMS runs numbered 805 with 542 hospital transports. Manross credited both departments’ mix of full-time and part-time personnel for sustaining services the village could not otherwise afford.

Why it matters: public-safety workloads drive local budget choices and insurance costs. Manross highlighted the fire department’s Insurance Services Office (ISO) Class 2 rating — “out of over 2,000, Class 2 fire departments nationwide, Fairport Harbor stands as one of 118 in Ohio and one of two in Lake County” — and said that rating can help lower insurance costs for residents and businesses.

Details: Manross named department leads and staff listed in the address. He said the police force is “community first” and referred to the village’s school resource officer program as a well-received addition. The speech listed training and certification items: the police department is certified by the Ohio Police Officers Training Commission and the Ohio Collaborative of Community Police Advisory Boards; the fire department reported more than 1,800 training hours in 2024 and staff completions of paramedic school and peer-support training.

Manross detailed EMS transport destinations by hospital: 336 to University Hospitals–TriPoint, 118 to Cleveland Clinic Mentor (Hillcrest), 43 to University Hospitals Lake West, six to University Hospitals Geauga and three to MetroHealth’s main campus. He also described mutual-aid partnerships, listing neighboring departments to which Fairport Harbor provided or from which it received assistance, and he said the fire department supported regional exercises including a Lake County hazmat drill.

Grants and equipment: Manross reported several state grant-funded purchases for the fire and EMS teams, including new turnout gear (identified in the address as funded by an Ohio firefighter-safety grant), active-threat kits and additional medical equipment funded with Ohio EMS grants. He thanked chiefs for pursuing grant opportunities that expand the village’s capabilities at limited local cost.

Voter action and council resolutions: Manross said Fairport Harbor citizens approved two levies in 2024 to support police and fire services. He also said the council has passed resolutions urging federal partners to maintain staffing at Coast Guard stations that serve the region, calling the reduction in Coast Guard hours a public-safety concern for small communities reliant on federal search-and-rescue capacity.

Quotes: "If there is a problem, we hear about it pretty quickly and it's been nothing but good, positive reviews," Manross said of the SRO and police partnerships. He also said of the fire and police staffing, "A lot of these folks have retired out or they're into the second stage of their careers. And we have just got a breadth and a depth on a bench for our young guys and our young women that work for our safety departments."

What’s next: Manross thanked residents for passing the levies and said the departments will continue training and mutual-aid work. He noted ongoing outreach to state and federal partners to secure continued grant funding and to press for restored Coast Guard staffing.