By JOYELL NEVINS

Record Herald Editor

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BETHEL TOWNSHIP – The Bethel Township Fire Department has tweaked its department once again. With the resignation of Fire Chief David Stitzel, it puts Township Administrator and Director of Public Safety Mike Gebhart in direct command over the three assistant lieutenants.

Stitzel was hired in August 2010, with the compromise agreement and release of then Fire Chief Carl Blackburn. At that time, there was one full time chief and four other officers consisting of assistant chief and lieutenants. The Fire Department had three people in house 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., and a crew on call for each night from Sunday to Friday (the crews rotated each 6th Saturday). Two problems – the first was that since there were only five officers, one night each week there was no officer on deck. The second was that since they often were coming from home, the response time could be anywhere from 6-10 minutes.

The new system was one fire chief, three assistant chiefs, one captain, and seven lieutenants. All are part-time, stipend, positions. There was also a bonus system implemented to ensure four people in the station each night. The new financial set-up actually saved the city $26,000 in payroll.

Thanks to cross training, there are also now two EMT Paramedics and two EMT Basics on board each night. This means that two different “Advanced Life Support” crews will be able to respond to calls at night. Plus, since the department has employed this set-up, the response time is down to two to four minutes.

Stitzel left of his own accord mostly because of time constraints. He was still a full time Battalion Chief for Riverside, and taught fire classes in conjunction with Sinclair as well. With a wife and a family, something had to go. His reputation was intact when he officially resigned on Dec. 31.

“Dave did a wonderful job,”said Gebhart, “He’s the one who taught me fire.”

As the fire chief, Stitzel’s job was mainly administrative. He submitted for grants, handled the payroll, and coordinated the schedule. The three assistant chiefs, Jay Zimmerman, Josh Schiebrel, and Andy Ehrhart, were the ones who actually handled the calls. They rotate as on-duty supervisor on a weekly basis, bringing the fire department’s command base vehicle home at night in case they need to get back to the station.

“They’re the work horses anyway,” said Gebhart, “We have three very competent assistant chiefs.”

Zimmerman has taken over making the monthly schedule and Schiebrel is overseeing payroll. Ehrhart prepares the trustee reports, and continues to handle training for the department.

“The only difference for our residents is they will go directly to me with complaints or praise,” said Gebhart.

At this point, the township administration is leaving the option open for hiring a fire chief in the future. Right now, though, the department is managing fine without the position. The $10,000 in payroll saving for the city is a nice bonus as well – especially since the state is cutting their local government funding in half this upcoming year.

“It won’t be the deciding factor, but it is one of the factors I am looking at,” said Gebhart, “I think, how could we best spend that $10,000?”

Gebhart added that while there are no recruitment problems for the fire department, they are “always on the lookout” for paramedics.