By Rebecca Miller
A great opportunity was recently taken by Wauseon Fire Chief, Rick Sluder, who has been Chief for the past six years. “It was not an award,” Sluder said, “but an opportunity to represent northwest Ohio in Washington D.C.”. Usually the spots are filled by Ohio Society of Fire Service (CFSI) board members, but this year four members were asked to go, Sluder being one of them. Chief Sluder has been on the Wauseon Fire Department since 1990, and is proud to be in year twenty nine right now.
In describing the purpose of the trip, Sluder said that the Federal Government provides a lot of grant funding, such a s SAFER, grants provided for staffing issues, and AFG which gives assistance for equipment. “All of these grants originate in Washington,” Sluder explained, “and we have to lobby to keep the funding up.” While there, the four members met with congressional leaders from their districts. Currently the president’s budget has the funding at 70% of what is needed to operate, so they spoke with eight Ohio congressmen and senators to encourage them to fight for the needs of Ohio fire fighters. Much of the gear and fire trucks are actually made here in Ohio, and Sluder said that they pushed that fact as a great reason for Ohio leaders to fight for the funding.
“We went to three different office building over the two days that we were there,” Sluder said, adding that it was a full and busy time. It is the job of CFSI to educate legislators on nationwide issues, basically the needs of fire fighters which will enable them to care best for the citizens they serve. In their International Association of Fire Chiefs Legislative hot sheet, the gentlemen were encouraged to focus on specific issues as they spoke with Legislative Directors and Chiefs of Staff for Senator Rob Portman, Congressmen Robert Latta, Anthony Gonzalez, Warren Davidson, Troy Balderson and Steve Stivers.
Those issues included: protecting the FIRE/SAFER grant programs, funding for the U.S. Fire Administration (USFA) and Nation Fire Academy (NFA), requirement to Give Back Public Safety Communications Spectrum in the T-Band, EMS grants for rural Fire/EMS agencies, Federal Taxation of volunteer incentives, strengthen Federal incentives for Fire Sprinkler Retrofit Installations, improve hazardous materials response training for First Responders, and supporting First Responder mental health needs.
“We met with legislative aids and chiefs of staff as most of the legislators were back at home. We made sure that they let our legislators know that this is important to Ohio!” Sluder said, adding, “The grants drive the availability of safe equipment.”
In the evenings, they were able to do a little sight seeing and Chief Sluder shared that seeing the WWII Memorial and the Vietnam Wall were highlights for him. There was also a dinner one evening for all who had participated, giving them the opportunity “to network with fire service leaders from all over the United States with a common goal of maintaining our funding and improving our services across the broad spectrum of public safety.”
Rebecca Miller may be reached at publisher@thevillagereporter.com
