Tight squeeze for Southgate firefighting

Retired Southgate Fire Chief Ray Muench, 80 years young, called me to say I really needed to see the Southgate firehouse for myself.

Southgate, a small Campbell County city nestled between Wilder, Newport and Fort Thomas, desperately needs a fire station. A referendum to increase local taxes failed by eight votes a few months ago. That's too bad, but it seemed silly that talks about consolidation weren't serious since neighboring stations were less than 2 miles away. I said as much in a Forum blog posting.

What I learned on my visit reminded me that sometimes what seems logical on the surface isn't always the way to go.

Chief John Beatsch was a young firefighter on the scene of the Beverly Hills Supper Club fire. Now he volunteers when he isn't running a convenience store in Fort Thomas. He convinced me that consolidation won't offer better fire protection to Southgate residents and certainly won't lower their taxes.

So, they're back to the drawing board with plans for a scaled-back proposal that should reduce the maximum cost to about $1.2 million.. This time, Beatsch said, he hopes the council simply will vote to raise taxes instead of going to a referendum. It'll cost the average taxpayer less than $100 per year. Homeowner's insurance and taxes could go up more than that if the department merges, he said.

Lest you think the department isn't busy, the chief said that they had 180 fire calls and about 300 ambulance runs last year, many in support of surrounding communities. All, he said, on a budget of about $200,000 -- $179,000 from the city and the rest from fund-raising. That's less than 20 cents per day per citizen.

Not doing anything shouldn't be an option, which brings me back to my tour of the aging station. The floor of the station is holding a load many times beyond its safe capacity. When they have meetings in the basement, they have to pull the two trucks onto the street. And they can't pull one of the trucks out without removing the other -- a loss of potentially critical response time.

If you live in Southgate, you really should see it for yourself. For now, check out the photo that shows the tight squeeze when they pull out of the station. The trucks have to be custom built for a lower height. And pictured, from left, are my three tour guides: Muench, Beatsch and Assistant Chief Steve Rath, one of the few paid firefighters. Rath also is on the Fort Thomas department.

Beatsch thinks consolidation will come someday. But he argues that the new station will be that much more valuable for the merged department, local insurance rates and -- most important of all -- rapid service that you hope and pray you never need. I think he's right.