BY RAY SCHAEFER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
DEER PARK - City council Monday voted 5-2 to keep Deer Park in a joint fire district with neighboring Silverton, even though voters here rejected the levy that would help pay for it.
The vote means the Deer Park-Silverton Fire District, created in August, can buy the old Provident Bank building at 7048 Blue Ash Road in Silverton for about $1.3 million.
"A target date is April 1 to at least get paramedics on 24 hours a day," Deer Park Fire Chief Tom Camp said. "This is the priority: to get the service to the customers."
The district has an option to buy until June 30. Chief Camp said plans call for renovating the bank building into offices and sleeping quarters and constructing an eight-bay facility in back to house the equipment.
"The availability of the building pushed this along," Councilwoman Sandra Hall-Rymer said. "We are two very small communities that are landlocked. I believe it's the right thing to do for the community,"
Said Dotty Condon, one of about 15 residents and Deer Park firefighters at the meeting: "I think the city needed it. We've lived here 35 years, and we've used the life squad many times."
Other Deer Park residents, like Bill Cox, disagreed.
"I believe I'm an informed voter," Mr. Cox said. "There must be a lot of dummies, because I'm an informed voter.
"Council is going against what the people said. They will have to answer to us."
Council members Jeffrey Miskimens, Harvey Alcorn, Pamela Adkins and Cindy Gifford joined Ms. Hall-Rymer in favor of keeping the city in the district. Council members Dave Gruber and Donald Rohdenburg voted to remove the city.
On Nov. 3, voters in Deer Park rejected the 6.5-mill levy, which helps fund the district, while voters in Silverton approved it. When the two cities' vote totals are combined, the levy passed. With the city remaining in the district, the cost of renovating the Provident property and the new structure behind it is split three ways among the fire district, Deer Park and Silverton.
"I think it was a sweetheart deal for Silverton, and that's why they voted it in," Mr. Rohdenburg said.
Other Deer Park residents, like Bruce Cate, said Deer Park would have approved it if people understood why a fire district was needed and council did a better job of selling the plan.
"It's a good thing," Mr. Cate said. "You've got to (present) it better."
If council had voted to pull the city out of the district, it would have dissolved. Creation of a new district could have gone on the May ballot.
