Menu
Clinton Township VFD ceasing operations indefinitely
VAN BIBBER LAKE – With the resignation of Chief Jack Giles, the Clinton Township Volunteer Fire Department is halting its operations indefinitely by action of the fire protection district it is under.
The announcement was made Thursday evening at an emergency public meeting of the Walnut Creek Fire Protection District’s leadership at Clinton Township VFD’s firehouse, which is located near Van Bibber Lake.
District Board President Rusty Burch, Vice President Mike Mahoy and Secretary Richard Cope appealed to the community and its membership that the department is unable to run efficiently without a chief. However, this does not mean that the department as an entity is to be shut down completely.
Giles came on as chief in April after Kenneth Stone resigned. He has previously served as a volunteer with the Reelsville Volunteer Fire Department.
Burch said the course of action going forward will be to turn over coverage of the area to the Bainbridge Volunteer Fire Department and other departments which can respond until a new chief is found. Both Clinton Township VFD and Bainbridge VFD make up the district.
Burch stated that while the department will not respond to emergencies for the time being, its building and equipment are to be available to other volunteers. This being the case, its membership has been asked to turn in their pagers and radios.
Douglas Chubb, who has previously served as the department’s assistant chief, argued to the board that it was up to the membership to vote on its leadership positions per its bylaws and standard operating procedures (SOPs). In this way, he said the membership could fill the vacancy.
“At this point, we as a board have ceased to have confidence in the Clinton Township Fire Department,” Cope responded, suggesting this meant that someone qualified is needed to be chief. “We are forced to be where we’re at not because it’s an easy choice, but because we have to do what’s right for the community.”
Chubb put forward that Bainbridge VFD would be unable to take on the additional coverage. Tackling Cope’s hope that it would do the best it can, he said this would only mean more delayed responses. Illustrating the point, one resident told how the department arrived in three minutes when her son had a stroke.
“We’re not a paid fire department where we sit at the firehouse waiting to get called out,” Burch said, providing that while Clinton Township’s volunteers live in or around Van Bibber Lake, response times still vary as they have to go from Point A to Point B to Point C. “It’s that way with every rural community.”
Chubb further claimed the action was illegal with the membership being locked out without advance notice.
This was besides being unable to retrieve personal belongings as well as tools and money, which Chubb advocated as belonging only to them and to the department’s auxiliary. Burch opined that this was not good responsibility, but said the items could be returned with proof of ownership.
Clinton Township Fire Capt. Lydia Chubb, who has also served as the department’s treasurer and secretary, spoke up about recent incidents in which she and other members have been attacked on runs. While these have been taken in stride, she said whoever would step up as chief had to understand these dynamics.
“There’s a lot of stuff that goes on out here that you know nothing about,” Chubb said. “When we get a call, we get assaulted on our run, which can be proved. We don’t go off and punch the crap out of anybody or anything. We do our job, we come back, we do the run report, we can call it a day. We can still do that.”
To a question from Clinton Township Fire Lt. Loren Leonard about members responding to emergencies individually or with other departments, Burch suggested it was an unknown about whether they would, as Leonard put it, “be kicked to the curb.” However, he said a pro tem chief was an option to consider.
Mahoy did not make any statements during the meeting.
Ultimately, Cope related that the goal is, as he put it, to get local people with a positive mindset running the department.
While he assured that “it will be good,” Cope emphasized that this new development is the newest in a line of issues. Burch provided that if the same things are done over and over, the same results will be had. As he put it, the results need to change.
“I’ve been on this board for I can’t tell you how long, and the struggles have been going on all that time,” Cope said. “We’re going to turn it around.”