Belpre Volunteer Fire Department Inc.’s Stone Road location. The organization filed a lawsuit against the city of Belpre and Belpre Volunteer Fire Department Chief Anthony Cronin in April 2023 in response to its contract providing EMS services to the city being terminated. (Photo By Michelle Dillon)

BELPRE — A status hearing will be held Tuesday for a lawsuit filed against the City of Belpre involving its termination of an emergency medical services contract last year.

Belpre Volunteer Fire Department Inc., which, according to a lawsuit it filed in April 2023, has done business as Belpre Fire Fighters’ Association, Belpre EMS and Belpre Bingo, is suing the City of Belpre and Belpre Volunteer Fire Department Chief Anthony Cronin because in January 2023 the city terminated a 2021 EMS contract it had with BFVD Inc.

Belpre Volunteer Fire Department and Belpre VFD Inc. are not the same entity. In an amendment to BVFD Inc.’s articles of incorporation in 1982, the organization is solely organized exclusively for charitable, religious, education and scientific purposes.

Belpre Mayor Susan Abdella confirmed Belpre VFD Inc. is a different organization from the Belpre Volunteer Fire Department.

“They’re a separate organization is about all I can tell you,” Abdella said.

The complaint states Belpre VFD Inc. entered into a contract with the City of Belpre to provide EMS services in October 2021, and that the city would pay it $70,000 and provide $10,000 in supplies. It also says that Belpre VFD Inc. employed Cronin as its administrative chief.

The city sent a letter to BVFD Inc. in January 2023, terminating the contract. The complaint states the city terminated the contract without cause.

In its complaint, Belpre VFD Inc. alleges that even though the contract is terminated, the city is still using vehicles and equipment owned by the BVFD Inc. and refuses to return them. It also alleges Cronin deliberately diverted sensitive and confidential BVFD Inc. information to the City of Belpre, including the identity of parties with whom BVFD Inc. contracted, BFVD Inc. vendor changes, ambulance use and financial information.

It also alleges Cronin used his BFVD Inc. knowledge to work against it in contract negotiations and “oust” it as the city’s EMS provider.

In the complaint BVFD Inc. alleges the City of Belpre and Cronin maliciously and deliberately acted with the intent to interfere with its business and contractual relationship with the city, to deprive it of its use of its pharmacy license for the city’s use instead, to deprive it of the use and ownership of its vehicles and to damage its reputation in the community.

BVFD Inc. also accuses Cronin and the city of defamation in the complaint, citing what it called a published false statement that the mayor made in January 2023 to nursing home and hospital administration members that BVFD Inc. was closed, and that its employees and agents were “untrustworthy” and “shady” and a February 2023 fire business meeting in which Cronin said that drug trafficking was occurring at BVFD’s 133 Stone Road location.

BVFD Inc. states in the complaint that Cronin and the city’s action were designed to invent a reason to terminate the EMS contract, and it asks the court for a declaration that the city had no cause to terminate the contract, that all EMS-related vehicles and equipment belong to BVFD Inc., that the city is improperly using BVFD Inc.’s pharmacy license and BVFD Inc. is entitled to damages. There are numerous claims in the complaint, and BVFD Inc. is asking for $25,000 in damages for each of five sections, with the actual amount of the damages to be determined at a trial.

The City of Belpre has made accusations against BVFD Inc. too. Its termination letter states that BVFD Inc. removed licensed drugs from city-owned vehicles without permission and used them in BVFD Inc.’s vehicles, and that the BVFD Inc. used city-owned vehicles for non-emergency transport when they were supposed to be used as backups only if BVFD Inc. vehicles were out on other emergency calls.

The letter also accuses BVFD Inc. of removing regulated drugs from the city-owned fire department building and keeping them at BVFD Inc.’s building, which is not where the drugs are required to be stored. It also said that BVFD willfully refused to provide financial information the city requested in August 2023.

The letter said the most serious violations by BFVD Inc. are that it is not an Ohio licensed ambulatory service, that its EMS vehicles were not registered with the state of Ohio and that it did not have a license from the Ohio Pharmaceutical Board for the drugs it stored in its vehicles and at its location on Stone Road.

In its answer to the BVFD Inc.’s complaint, the city said it terminated the EMS contract validly and it denied all the allegations.

When contacted about the lawsuit, Abdella declined to comment. Belpre City Law Director Tom Webster said that he is not the city’s attorney for the lawsuit so he cannot comment on their behalf. Cronin was reached by phone and said he had no comment.

While Abdella declined to comment she did say “The citizens of Belpre still have EMS coverage right now” because the city takes care of its citizens.

In April 2023 the city entered into a contract with City of Belpre EMS Inc. for EMS services.

A notice of hearing date was filed on Jan. 19, with the Washington County Court of Common Pleas, and it sets a two-day civil jury trial for the lawsuit scheduled to start Nov. 13.

Michelle Dillon can be reached at mdillon@newsandsentinel.com