Madison Township Fire Insurance Rate Lowered for First Time in Years

Lina PortmanJune 5, 2024

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Madison Township residents and business owners can expect some savings on their building insurance this fall. Indeed, a recent assessment by the Office of Insurance Services improved the public protection classification for the township's structural firefighting system by two levels.

“This is unheard of,” Madison Fire Chief Ken Justus said Monday during his administrative report at the regular board meeting. “This is a big problem, according to the ISO representative, because it doesn't happen very often.”

Madison Township had been in the middle category for more than 20 years.

Justus told the board that the rating improvement was due to factors including the upgrade of the county's dispatch center from analog radios to the state's multi-zone digital radio communications system , as well as the addition of a new tanker truck and a new ladder truck. The addition of the Mansfield Fire Department to the Madison structure fire response, which gave additional personnel for fire calls, also helped, as did the addition of personnel in Madison and the developing a plan for the future.

Justus said in a news release that the improvement in score and rating was due to the hard work of Madison firefighters and officers. Related factors included staff training, fire prevention and code enforcement, fire investigations, and public education on fire safety.

Justus noted that the township has a split classification because only part of the community recognized fire hydrants as part of a pressurized water distribution system. In the future, he said the Madison Fire Department will work to develop a better rating for residents outside the pressurized system or more than 1,000 feet from a fire hydrant through the the use of tankers and water shuttle systems and testing and reporting the results of any new hydrants.

Justus said the ISO representative indicated the improvement would affect insurance rates when the new ratings are released on September 1.

“I can't tell you, because every house is different: the size of the house, the square footage, the year it was built, the type of construction, things like that. All of these variables come into play when you’re pricing a home,” he said.

According to Justus, there are only 361 communities out of 1,692 ratings in Ohio with the Class 3 rating Madison received and only 241 communities with the same public protection classification as Madison.

Summer paving contract approved

Separately, trustees approved a $310,197 contract with Sarver Paving, of Ashland, for the summer road paving program. Sarver had the lowest bid of the three companies that submitted figures.

The road list includes portions of Berger, Walker, Benedict, Averill and Herring Avenues, Woodside, Truxall, Fir, Springlake and Lakefront Drives and Molly and Brentwood Courts as well as special sections for Bentwood Road due to milling specifications different and for Home Road. , which will be a joint project with Springfield Township with costs shared 50-50.

Lina Portman

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