Fairfield trustees press for analysis as county weighs moving emergency management; board discusses ladder truck funding

Trustee Shannon Harkenmeyer said the county should lay out what problems it would solve before any move to replace Butler County Emergency Management proceeds and urged a fact-based comparison between current operations and proposed alternatives.

The Fairfield Township Board of Trustees discussed a recent Emergency Management Agency (EMA) meeting and a possible county-led reorganization during its Jan. 7 regular meeting, with no formal board action taken. Trustees were told county commissioners have expressed an interest in studying whether EMA services should remain under the current structure; the commissioners would need to provide 90 days’ notice to terminate existing arrangements, a timeline trustees described as putting a decision into the September range.

Trustee Shannon Harkenmeyer said the EMA board is planning a response and that local officials should receive a public report before any change. “What problems are we trying to fix with this change?” Harkenmeyer asked, calling for a decision matrix that compares costs, services, staffing and impacts on…