Dexter Township to hold special meeting Monday to discuss fire protection, new North Territorial substation
The Dexter Township board will hold a special meeting on Monday to discuss a plan to establish a manned fire station at the Multi-Lake Sewer Authority on North Territorial Road.
In April, a nine-member Public Safety Advisory Committee was appointed by the board to look at both the township’s police and fire services.
The committee recommended the township establish a manned fire substation at the Multi-Lake Sewer Authority to improve response times for the nearly 6,600 township residents.
However, the committee did not make a recommendation on which fire service — the Dexter Area Fire Authority or Chelsea Area Fire Authority — should man the station.
Both fire services provided the committee with detailed bids.
The committee drafted a fire services report that's now on the township’s website. It will next look at the township's police protection.
Currently, the township contracts with the Putnam Township Fire Department to cover the Portage Lake area in the northeast section of the township, Chelsea to provide fire protection in the western portion of the township, and Dexter to cover the central and southeast portions of the township.
Because the current contract expires with Chelsea on Dec. 31, the township must make a decision on fire services quickly.
The report notes the millage rate to fund the status quo level of fire services in 2011 is 1.67 mills.
Currently, the township's fire millage levy is 1.487, but that's expected to increase to 2.02 mills by 2015, the report states.
Net startup costs for a temporary sub-station at 12088 North Territorial Road were estimated at about $47,000, according to the report. The costs to staff the facility around the clock with a full-time firefighter vary between the Chelsea and Dexter proposals for the first two years. In 2013, the Chelsea proposal is about $5,000 less than the Dexter one.
The Dexter Township board meets at 7 p.m. at the township hall, 6880 Dexter-Pinckney Road.
Lisa Allmendinger is a reporter for AnnArbor.com. She can be reached at lallmendinger@sbcglobal.net.
Comments
pacman
Thu, Nov 25, 2010 : 4:36 p.m.
I thought this was already a done deal with Chelsea fire. Chelsea received a federal grant and has already hired 6 firfighters to cover the Dexter area. Why are they voting on something that Chelsea Fire has already assumed they are taking over? What is the vote for?