Staff writer
A Canal Fulton man was sworn in Tuesday as the newest member of Steubenville’s fire department, filling a vacancy created by a December retirement. Municipal Judge John Mascio administered the oath to Adam Smith, a two-year firefighting veteran, while his fiance, Kelci Overman, held the Bible. On hand for the swearing-in were, from left, Fire Chief Carlo Capaldi, Smith, Overman, Mascio and City Manager Jim Mavromatis.
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STEUBENVILLE Steubenville Council will vote next week on a new, three-year contract for the city’s AFSCME employees.
Council emerged from executive session Tuesday to sunshine an ordinance accepting the proposed contract with American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 2015, which holds the line on wages at least until July.
“There’s no pay increases for the first year,” City Manager Jim Mavromatis said.
“We asked them to hold off 180 days going into this year because COVID is destroying the economy, we’ve got businesses that may not bounce back. We have to see where we’re at.”
Members of Steubenville City Council will face an easy decision when they meet Tuesday.
They’ll be asked to consider emergency legislation that will allow Fire Chief Carlo Capaldi to hire three additional firefighters to help staff the city’s ambulance service.
It’s a request they should say yes to.
Added personnel will help the city put a second ambulance into operation while reducing some of the strain the department has been under since launching its EMT service in October.
The need is certainly there. Capaldi told councilmembers at last Tuesday’s meeting the city has been averaging between nine and 10 ambulance calls a day. That has led to revenue of $46,000 a number that is likely to grow as those payments can lag as much as six months behind. Original projections had anticipated bringing $715,000 in EMS revenue into city coffers, money that would cover the cost six people to staff ambulances.
lharris@heraldstaronline.com
STEUBENVILLE – Members of City Council will consider emergency legislation at its Jan. 19 meeting that would give Steubenville Fire Chief Carlo Capaldi the power to hire three more firefighters, enough to run a second ambulance.
Capaldi told council he needs the additional personnel to relieve the strain on his department: They’ve been averaging nine to 10 calls a day with one ambulance, he said, pointing out that’s without adding any additional personnel.
He said it could take up to six months for the revenue to really start to roll in, but they’ve already banked about $46,000.
“The problem we’re having now is we can’t wait six months for more people,” Capaldi said. “We projected generating $715,000 in EMS revenue that (would) pay for six people to work on ambulances, but we didn’t hire those people right away because we didn’t have a track record to be sure the money would come in at that (precise) moment.”
STEUBENVILLE – A residence at 539 N. Fourth St., Steubenville, was destroyed by fire, Monday.
Fire Chief Carlo Capaldi said the call came in around 9 p.m. He said the structure was occupied, though only one individual was in the building at the time.
“By the time the first truck got there, the first floor was pretty much fully involved,” Capaldi said. “There was heavy smoke coming out of the second floor, and shortly after that the whole structure was fully involved in fire.”
Capaldi said crews were at the scene “until almost 2 a.m., putting out hot spots.”
“The roof and the second floor collapsed onto the first, making it hard to put out all the hot spots under everything,” he added. “It’s still smoldering.”