Fire authority proposal seeks stable funding

The City of Rogers City and the surrounding townships are a step closer to forming a local fire authority. Representatives from Rogers City, as well as officials from Bismarck, Belknap, Moltke, and Rogers townships met January 16, with all agreeing to move forward with a proposal to bring fire protection service and equipment under the ownership of a proposed fire authority. The proposal has been on the table for more than a year and all that remains, after all the legal details are ironed out, is formal approval by the respective boards. Officials say it is getting increasingly difficult to pay for emergency services.

ROGERS TOWNSHIP supervisor Ralph Kortman, who also serves as president of the fire board, said taxpayers from his area approved one mill for operations, but some millage dollars are going to pay fire protection bills. A fire authority would have the ability to place a proposal before voters to request a millage, which would create a more stable source of funding. Part of the plan could be to request as much as one mill to pay for fire protection services and bank additional money for the purchase of future equipment. Plans also include relocating a truck from the soon-to-be crowded fire hall to another location and possibly place a truck in the Bismarck Township. Rogers City fire chief Tim Luebke said the proposed fire authority ?would bring it all under the ownership of the authority.?

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He said the matter is still in the planning stages. ?City attorney Mike Vogler is going over the fine details. At this point what they are looking at is the authority taking over the department and then farming out the personnel from the city.? The authority would pay for the services of the fire fighters. Luebke does not believe the authority would ask for more than a mill.

KORTMAN SAID the millage would gives us ?more of an idea what you are going to have in the future.? Bismarck Township supervisor John Kleiber said part of the proposal would be to place a truck possibly in the old bus garage of the Bismarck Township Hall, which is the former Hawks School. One of the major problems with the plan is there are no volunteers available during the daytime, so officials would have to recruit some new members. Luebke said everything has worked fine through the years, but ?funding is getting to be a problem.? The city budget is getting tighter and ?one thing that always seems to be cut is emergency services.?

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