The Eagle Joint Fire District Board of Trustees has recommended putting a levy to voters for fire and ambulance services. In the first five and a half months firefighters and EMTs have responded to around 1,200 calls for help.  
 
The Joint Eagle Fire District serving over 20,000 residents in Hubbard and Hubbard Township answered 2,037 calls for help in one year of fire calls and one-half year of ambulance calls. 
 
They started providing the service after private ambulance services pulled out and have reduced response times from twenty, thirty, and 45 minutes or an hour down to around six minutes.
 
"Time is valuable when there are heart attacks, accidents, fires, the quicker you get there the quicker the response, and you save lives," 
Chief of the Eagle Joint Fire District Ron Stanish said.
 
In order to ensure they are there are firefighters and EMTs to respond the department is asking for a one point four mill levy so it can hire 9 full-time employees on three shifts a day. We would
hope that two who are part-time could respond also.
 
Currently, there is a nationwide shortage of firefighters, EMTs and police in this service sector and competition by other municipalities who want to hire them.
 
"This makes sure we have staff with such a small pool of candidates and we are all trying to get them. Having a full-time department their priority will be our community," Vice Chair of the Eagle Joint Fire District, and member of the Levy Committee Tanna Angyal said.
 
One resident believes the levy is about creating new jobs.
 
"The city government provided a written request for a proforma request they did not receive them. The estimated amount of pay is quoted anywhere from 17 to 25 an hour. ... 
If it's $17.00 an hour that employee is going to cost you $35.00 once you add in all of the peripheral costs including your worker's comp, your benefits package and everything that goes with it." OJ Tucker said.
 
Tucker told the board that citizens are demanding full disclosure of the calls and whether they are transports or not and the time of day to disclose to the public. He says the population of this community doesn't need any full-time employees due to the population of this community. 
 
"This is about people facing reality when they go to the grocery store. This is about deciding which tuna helper you're going to get. This is about going to the pharmacy, deciding whether you're going to pay your taxes, whether you're going to get your prescriptions. That's what this is about, financial reality. This doesn't even cover other levies coming up, the schools, not to mention the countywide issues that are not voted on just by the taxpayers of Hubbard," OJ Tucker said.
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"These taxpayers are acutely aware of one thing that this centers around and that is the creation of full-time jobs and the magic word that comes with that and that is overtime," Tucker added.
 
 "Taxpayers are not going to go for two full-time ambulances," OJ said. 
 
But Eagle Joint Fire District board members say that's NOT the case.
 
"It's about number one, the safety of our families, and residents in Hubbard City and Hubbard Township. Voters will get an opportunity to vote on this," the Chairman of the Trustees for the Eagle Joint Fire District said.
 
The levy will cost an owner with a home valued at $100,000 $11.62 a month. 
 
Voters will decide in November what level of services they want to support. 
 
Residents do get a break when they need ambulance service.
 
"What we do is soft billing for the residents. If you are a resident of Hubbard City or Hubbard Township there is no bill for you. We will bill your insurance and if your insurance pays 
$200.00 that's fantastic. We will never ask you for the rest. If you are uninsured and are a resident then we take that as a loss," Vice Chair of the Eagle Joint Fire District, and member of the Levy Committee Tanna Angyal said.
 
We asked what will happen if the levy does not pass.
 
"It was made very very clear we had enough money to begin the program, but we didn't have enough money to sustain it so we will have to reduce the number of people that we have right now and we may have to go down to one ambulance," Angyal answered.