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HOWLAND -- The township's fire chief gave an update on the state of the department's gear following their response to a June 29 plane crash, saying there's a chance it might need to be replaced.
Fire Chief Raymond Pace concluded his report at Wednesday's trustees meeting by thanking the township's personnel and mutual aid companies that responded, sending his condolences to the families of the individuals involved in the incident.
Trustee James LaPolla inquired about the state of the fire department's response gear, stating that it had been brought to his attention that gear from the incident shouldn't be used again because of contamination from the airline jet fuel.
"One of the things we're handling right now is, we have about 15 of our personnel that were in structural firefighting gear that has become contaminated with jet fuel," Pace said. "We followed the manufacturer's recommendation to launder it twice in our gear extractor at our fire station. We have not been successful at removing the contaminants from the gear."
Pace said the fire department has sent the gear to be professionally cleaned. If it can't be done, the cleaning company will give the department documentation that says they cannot use it, he added, meaning it would have to be destroyed and replaced.
To replace all 15 sets -- which includes a coat, pants, gloves, a hood and structural firefighting boots -- the fire department would be looking at "just under" $78,000, Pace said.
Pace said it was unclear whether it would be covered under insurance through the accident or under the township's budget, adding that they were working on it.
Police Chief Nick Roberts confirmed that they had crews there 24/7, protecting the scene.
UPDATED RECORDS POLICY
Trustees approved the police department's public records policy, a change that came under House Bill 315, which was signed into law Jan. 2 by Gov. Mike DeWine and allows law enforcement to charge the actual cost of preparing a video for inspection or production.
The resolution allows the department to charge a $75-per-hour fee per video record, with $750 for 10 hours being the maximum fee.
Roberts said they receive a plethora of requests from the county prosecutor's office, but they have no plans to charge them.
"The problem we're running into is, we're getting a lot of out-of-state people reviewing our records, watching news programs," Roberts said. "For instance, if someone's running an Instagram page, they'll send out a records request for whatever incident they think was interesting for their page, and then we're stuck with going through hours of video to see what redaction needs done, plus sending them everything via mail or email."
Roberts said the Ohio Revised Code provides a list of what needs redacted, which includes certain faces in camera view, a house interior or an officer holding up a licenses.
"There's just a lot of tiny nuances and things we've got to be looking for in order to make that video legal in order to release that," Roberts said.
Roberts said they have a redaction program built into their camera system, but they have to go frame by frame to make sure they find everything that needs redacted from the entire video.