Oxford city council and department heads gathered at the city's second annual Strategic Planning Retreat Jan. 6 at Hueston Woods.
The retreat, which provided an open forum for any city-related discussion, included a conversation of strategic issues pertaining to Fire and Emergency Medical Services in Oxford.
Oxford Mayor Prue Dana said the retreat was held instead of a city council meeting, as a substitute work session, to discuss both the past year and what needs to be accomplished in 2009. Like a council meeting, it too was open to the public.
"Its purpose was to assess where we've been and put together some concrete actions about where we want to move forward in 2009," Dana said.
City Manager Doug Elliott, who acted as facilitator for the retreat, said that the group went through the typical planning process, but expedited it this year. While discussing the city's strengths and weaknesses of the past year and reviewing last year's list of things to accomplish, council and department heads were able to amend and create a new list of issues to watch out for in the new year.
Fire and EMS Services was among these issues and in consequence, three specific needs were discussed by all in attendance.
Elliott said that this year, Oxford will work on maintaining and improving the general staffing of these services. As part of this, Elliott said that it was also important for the city to advance to the paramedic level in EMS.
Elliott said that this can be done by employing a staff with higher levels of training. By dong this, Oxford's EMS staff will be able to achieve much more than a staff made up of only basic Emergency Medical Technicians.
Secondly, Oxford also needs to continue to utilize both student and resident volunteers, and perhaps even expand the volunteer level of involvement if possible. Elliott said that student volunteers currently play an important role in fire service.
Thirdly is the need to renew contracts for fire service with Oxford Township.
"It's very old and we need to begin discussing with Oxford Township the need to update that contract for fire service," Elliott said.
Elliott further said that Oxford has a contract with the township as a political entity to provide both Fire service and EMS. He said that since the contract was last renewed in 1980, it is outdated and needs to be renewed by meeting with the Oxford Board of Trustees.
Dana said that she was looking forward to working with city council and the department heads in 2009, especially since this year, they will have all worked together before.
"This year, I look forward to accomplishing a lot because we've all worked together and (will have) some more time because we dealt with the difficult issues last year," she said.
Dana said that the 2008 Comprehensive Plan was finally passed last year and currently, the city budget is in the black depending on what happens with Miami University. Dana said that the city plans on working closely with the university as they work through their budget issues.
Dana said that in addition to working closely with Miami, council will also be working closely with the Talawanda school board as they proceed with plans for the new high school, particularly on all things pertaining to infrastructure.
Specifically, Elliott said that the city wants to make certain that the property where it's being built is annexed properly.
Elliott said that he is currently compiling a report of the 2009 Strategic Planning Retreat and that it will be handed out at the next city council meeting Jan. 20.
