INDIANAPOLIS — A potential merger of the Wayne Township Fire Department with the Indianapolis Fire Department has been temporarily shelved following a joint statement issued by both departments Thursday.
The joint statement confirmed that the Wayne Township Fire Department would remain independent “for the foreseeable future”, announcing that the two agencies would not be able to merge by Jan. 1 as they had initially planned.
“It’s been determined we’re not going to move forward with merging the two departments for a couple of different reasons, but the main one is we’re running out of time between now and the end of the year,” said Jeff Harris, director of communications for Wayne Township Government. “Both IFD and Wayne Township have to have a new union contract in place. We’re talking about a multi-million dollar merger that means everything from retiree pensions and employee health care to transferring assets from one department to the other, so again, we’re not going to be doing it now or for the foreseeable future.”
The departments had been expected to merge as part of a wider effort to reduce operating costs, with the Wayne Township Board unanimously approving the merger during a meeting in February.
Harris reassured Wayne Township residents that fire services would resume as normal despite the merger not happening.
“The good news is nothing is going to change for Wayne Township residents. They’re still going to have five fire stations fully staffed and fully equipped just as they are,” said Harris. “They’re still going to have world-class fire services. We’re still going to work closely with IFD and the surrounding fire departments as we always have, so nothing is going to change for the taxpayers here in Wayne Township.”
If the merger had gone through, Wayne Township would have become the sixth township in Marion County to merge with IFD.
Wayne Township began exploring the possibility of a potential merger late last year to address concerns about the township’s ability to continue providing fire and emergency protections amid rising cash flow problems.
According to previous reports, the township was struggling to cope with rising costs related to the maintenance of multi-million dollar equipment and paying off firefighter pensions.
The township’s fire department serves nearly 150,000 people on Indy’s west side.
The entire statement on the fire department merger can be viewed below:
“Over the last six months we’ve been discussing merging the Wayne Township Fire Department with the Indianapolis Fire Department. It has been an open and productive conversation that included deep dives into finances, operations, personnel, and the tax structures that support the fire protection services. However, given the complexity of this multi-million-dollar merger, all parties have agreed it will not be feasible to complete by January 1, 2025, as we had initially hoped and planned. For now, and for the foreseeable future, the Wayne Township Fire Department will remain its own entity providing fire services to Wayne Township residents.
We thank the teams from the City of Indianapolis, Wayne Township, Local 416 and both fire departments for their hard work on this merger and we look forward to continuing our long partnership to provide world-class fire protection to Indianapolis.”
City of Indianapolis, Wayne Township and Indianapolis Professional Firefighters Local 416
Wayne Township’s EMS officially merged with Indianapolis EMS in March, with Harris saying that the move helped free up some much-needed funds to go towards the operation and maintenance of the township’s fire department.
