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INDIANAPOLIS — The Wayne Township Board unanimously approved a merger of the Wayne Township Fire Department with the Indianapolis Fire Department during a vote Thursday night.
In a 5-0 vote, the board granted Wayne Township Trustee Jeb Bardon the ability to continue negotiating the final details of the merger with the city of Indianapolis, according to the Wayne Township Board.
An Indianapolis City-County committee will review the merger resolution sometime this month. If it is approved there, the merger would need to be reviewed by the Indianapolis City-County Council in April. If the vote is approved by the council, Mayor Joe Hogsett would need to provide the final approval with his signature or a veto.
If the merger passes through all of that, then it will likely go into effect by the end of this year.
Wayne Township would become the sixth township in Marion County to officially merge with IFD, according to the Wayne Township Board.
“Wayne Township can no longer afford to maintain a standalone fire department. And, while we cannot go back and change the decisions of the past, we can secure a future where every Wayne Township resident continues to receive world-class fire and emergency medical protections – and that’s what happened tonight,” said Bardon. “I want to thank the members of the board, the community as a whole and our team at Wayne Township for working through this difficult situation in a responsible, respectful way.”
According to township officials, all five Wayne Township fire stations will continue operating and remain open while staff will be offered positions with IFD and the city.
The exact date that the EMS merger will officially go into effect will still need to be negotiated at a later time.
The board approved the merger proposal last month in a 4-1 vote.
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. Bardon has previously indicated the township was on target to go into the negative by 2025.
“With the rising costs of health care, retiree health coverage, regularly replacing and updating equipment and facilities, and other critical needs, it is projected that as early as 2025, the Wayne Township Fire Department would have cash flow problems, forcing it to borrow money or cut services and lay off employees,” the Wayne Township Board said in a statement. “This merger, along with the merger of the EMS service that was approved last month addresses those concerns.”
A public hearing was held before the vote where residents expressed a mixed reaction to the merger.
Talk of the merger has split opinion, with advocates contending that the merger would place the township in a condition that is much more financially viable while detractors have expressed concerns that IEMS being able to maintain the same level of service for residents already relied on without a merger being in place.
The township’s fire department serves nearly 150,000 people on Indy’s west side.
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