Elyria mayoral candidate Bill Grace looks to shrink fire department

An Elyria mayoral candidate wants to shrink the city's fire department down to one station, proposing cuts to the department's budget to plug tax revenue holes created since Bendix left Elyria. Bill Grace, former mayor and current independent candidate, proposed the cuts to The Chronicle-Telegram, alleging that moving operations to only the Cedar Street station would not have an impact on response times. The city currently operates stations at Cedar Street, Abbe Road North and Lorain Boulevard. Grace also took issue with the department's spending, including the 2022 overall salaries of 16 firefighters who took home more pay than Mayor Frank Whitfield, calling it an outrage that borders on theft in office. He alleged the city's budgets "(revolve) around the demands of the Fire Department. … Because 'lives are in jeopardy, burning buildings, dead bodies,' etc., the Fire Department gets what it wants. Everything else is sacrificed." Grace's list of salaries did not include a breakdown of individual firefighters' overtime or sellback of unused vacation time. Grace took issue with Whitfield, who is running for reelection as an independent, and former safety/service director Kevin Brubaker, who is running for Elyria mayor as a Democrat, alleging they have both shown they're "willing to sacrifice the well-being of Elyria to gain the political support of firefighters to win an election." If elected, Grace plans to consolidate the city's fire department down to just the central Cedar Street station and cut the department to 68 firefighters by attrition — allowing top earners to retire and not be replaced. In a call with The Chronicle on Thursday, Grace said the Cedar Street location is strategically located to reach the center and outskirts of the city, arguing any place his opponents look to build another station would only gain seconds in response time. "If we can lower the time on all the other aspects of that overall time, if we can lower dispatch times and all the other times, that gives us the ability to work out of fewer stations," he said. He said the hookups for fire hydrants have gotten better, requiring less time, as well as improvements to traffic signals in recent years to get trucks through intersections. Both Whitfield and Brubaker have said they would look to build a fourth fire station to service the city's growing southeast side. "If Bill Grace wants to attack me on my record of supporting safety forces in this city, then he's welcome to do that. My stance stands: I support our safety services, our police department and fire department. I think our residents support that, so I will stand with my record on that," Brubaker said. As far as plans for a fourth fire station on the southeast side, Brubaker declined to go into details on his proposal, citing the impending election. He said he did not foresee needing to put another levy on the ballot, and expected to be able to staff a fourth station with the department's current equipment and manpower. He did not give an estimate of how much a fourth station would cost to build. Whitfield, reached by text message on Thursday, said the fire department was on the front lines during the pandemic, giving vaccines alongside regular services. "In regards to wages, I don't set the wages of employees, that is an act of City Council," he wrote. "My job is to make sure that our department has the tools, people power and training to keep Elyrians safe." Grace's plan also lacks the support of the current City Council, Council President Vic Stewart said. "To run everything out of the Cedar Street station, in my opinion, is not safe for our residents," Stewart said Friday, adding later that he suspects City Council would have a "strong say" in what would happen to the city's fire stations. Grace did not think he would need Council's approval to shutter stations. When asked what he would do if the public and Council were against his proposal, he said, "It is arguable that by being elected, the public is behind my general platform." This is far from Grace's first time going toe-to-toe with the fire department. Since announcing his campaign, Grace has made overspending in the city's fire service a focal point. During his time as mayor, Grace and the firefighters union were often locked in fierce public debates on how to fund and operate the department, including maintaining in 2011 that the department could be adequately staffed with 56 firefighters instead of the then-75, according to Chronicle-Telegram archives. The department currently has 71 firefighters. If elected, Grace would like to see it cut to 68. Fire Chief Joe Pronesti disputed Grace's characterization of the department and his idea that it could adequately operate out of only the central station. "There's isn't a fire chief in the country that would go along on that," Pronesti said Thursday. Pronesti said dispatching the department out of central would take 7 to 9 minutes to reach portions of the city, including the new housing development off Bender Road near Chestnut Commons. He said it is more than 4 miles there, as well as Lorain County Community College and the Nelson Stud Welding factory. Grace has previously compared Elyria to Avon, arguing if the Avon Fire Department can handle a city of the same square footage out of one station, so too should Elyria. Grace argued Elyria's population — roughly double that of Avon's — was not a factor and neither was the cities' differences in housing stock. "It's about distance, it has nothing to do with the volume of residents, volume of fires even," Grace said Thursday. "Fire station quantity and locations is strictly a function of area to cover, end of story." Pronesti said comparing Elyria to Avon is "comparing apples and oranges." The chief pointed to Elyria's population density, as well as its older homes with balloon framing in older homes — which allows fires to spread quickly through walls and floors. "The bottom line is he's got a personal problem with the fire department," he said. He said if Grace closes stations it will negatively affect the city's insurance service office rating, affecting commercial and residential rates. He also disputed Grace's characterization of department salaries, stating minimum manpower overtime for 2023 is down almost every pay period compared to the previous year. He said the department has not hit $300,000 yet this year for staffing overtime — the lowest it has been in 30 years. "Mr. Grace, do your campaigning and 'mission' to eliminate a basic city service to another place — it has no place in my community," Pronesti said via text Thursday. Contact Carissa Woytach at (440) 329-7245 or cwoytach@chroniclet.com.