ONEKAMA — Around 40 people filed into Onekama Township Hall on Monday for an informational meeting about the proposed Manistee Regional Fire Initiative.

The initiative is designed to unify the fire and emergency medical services of the city of Manistee and Onekama, Stronach and Filer townships under a single authority to improve efficiency, coordination and the sharing of resources.

The proposed authority would be governed by a board comprising a representative from each of the participating municipalities. An at-large representative could be appointed by a majority vote if the board has an even number of representatives.

Filer Township Fire Department Chief Jim Espvik said his department has gone from 28 members a decade ago to 10 today, nine of whom have full-time jobs.

"It's getting harder and harder to respond to the calls that we've got," he said. "... This is not a money-saving venture. It is a service-providing venture that is going to provide better, more consistent service to our communities."

Espvik said recruiting volunteers has become more challenging because they have the same training and certification requirements as full-time firefighters, which can be challenging for people with careers and other obligations.

The Manistee Regional Fire Initiative steering committee includes Manistee Fire Department Chief Tom Hernden, Onekama Township Fire Department Chief Rob Johnson, Manistee city manager Bill Gambill, Onekama Township supervisor Dave Meister, Filer Township supervisor Terry Walker, Filer Township treasurer Tom Stege, Stronach Township supervisor Phil Vadeboncouer and Stronach Township trustee Logan Skiera.

Meister said Monday's meeting was being held to ensure people get accurate information about the proposed initiative.

"I want real information to get out to the people, not BS information. Are ( Onekama Township's) fire trucks going to Manistee? I've heard that 20 times. No, they're not," he said. "... Is there going to be an ambulance here? Yes, there will be an ambulance here at Onekama Township. That's part of this thing.

"We asked MMR at the last meeting on Friday, someone asked the question, how much would it be to field and put one of their ambulances here?" Meister continued. "Because it's an option. ... It's $734,000 a year, or $800,000 I think were the two figures that were mentioned. Those are real numbers. That's not making stuff up on Facebook and just saying what you want and then nobody checks it."

Proposed staffing

If the authority is formed, Filer and Onekama townships would join the city in having full-time staffing 24/7. Two employees would be stationed in Manistee and Filer, while one would be in Onekama.

The Stronach Township Fire Department would continue to operate as it does currently, with paid-on-call volunteers reporting to the station before responding to fire and EMS calls. Full-time staff members in the Filer Township station would head to Stronach to cover calls.

Johnson said in addition to the one person stationed in the Onekama Township Fire Department, another person would be paid to be within three minutes of the fire station.

"So then when that tone drops, they will get there in three minutes, take off and go, which is far better than what we have right now," he said. "Plus, it's an ambulance, not just a rescue vehicle. And then as we roll this thing out, we will do our due diligence as quickly as we can to get that second person in here."

Gambill said volunteer firefighters will still be important if the fire authority is formed, but response times will improve due to having full-time staff at the three stations.

"They don't have to go to the station to get their equipment and come," he said. "They're coming straight from your station to there, and you'd have additional capacity with other stations having full-time staffing. So you'd have a quick, larger response immediately."

To illustrate a full-time staff's effect on response times, Hernden played a video containing bodycam footage from a city police officer at a house fire. Although it was not a city call, the city fire department was first on the scene as a mutual aid partner for more than 15 minutes before a Manistee Township fire truck arrived.

"It's not that the guy that showed up in the other truck was dilly-dallying, doing something that he didn't want to leave or whatever," Johnson said. "He hustled from where he lived to that station, got that water truck and got there as fast as he possibly could. It was 15 minutes. In the authority situation, you would have had Filer there and you would have had Onekama there.

"... There would have been seven firefighters there within 10 minutes, two of them there within 3 to 5 minutes, with water trucks to supply water."

Johnson said departments occasionally are unable to respond to a call because no volunteers are available.

"I can speak for Onekama: This month alone we missed six of them," he said. "We had nobody to respond, which is going up. ... We can put on a pretty good response if everybody's home in the area. But as we get thinner and thinner, the probability of that is not as probable."

In such cases, MMR responds to the call and asks a neighboring township to assist if necessary.

Millage proposals

Stronach, Onekama and Filer townships have the following millages on the Nov. 3 ballot to facilitate participation in the fire authority:

* Filer Township is looking to levy 2.85 mills, or $2.85 per $1,000 of taxable valuation, over a five-year period, from 2026-30. If passed, the levy is expected to generate $501,703 in the first year.

* Onekama Township is seeking to levy 2.5 mills from 2027-31, which is expected to raise about $604,295 in the first year.

* Stronach Township has two millages required to join the authority. One is a 1.5-mill renewal from 2027-31 for fire department protection, maintenance, equipment and education. The other millage is an additional 1.68 mills over the same five-year period.

Meister said Onekama Township's millage does not equate to a 2.5-mill increase for township taxpayers, because it would replace the existing 1 mill collected for fire services.

"We collect 1 mill right now. It's not up for renewal until next year," he said. "So it's not 2.5 we're asking for plus 1. It's the 2.5 replacing the 1 mill. ... We would not renew the 1 mill for next year. If the proposal fails on the ballot, we will have to come back to the voters next year and ask for 1 mill."

Costs and mutual aid

The municipalities' annual contributions to the proposed authority would be determined by a funding formula that factors in property values, call volumes and a fixed allocation.

Gambill explained the city's proposed contribution to the authority to dispel a rumor that the formation of the fire authority would be a windfall for the city.

The city's current fiscal year budget for its fire department is $1.36 million. He said its annual net financial commitment to the authority would be $1.32 million when taking into account its annual contribution, lost EMS revenue and pension obligations.

"The city's going to be contributing to the authority, we're going to be providing the training for the full-time staffing and the system, but we also have a revenue that we get," he said. "So, we're going to lose that. Some years we get over $300,000 in EMS revenue, some years it's $280,000. ... We're also going to be paying the ongoing pension liability for our retirees. ... It's not a windfall. It is just trying to maintain costs."

Gambill said the steering committee members discussed charging non-member jurisdictions for aid.

"Now obviously this isn't official until the articles of incorporation are adopted by each municipality or township, but we did put a draft article that we all kind of reviewed," he said. "It's not final yet, but that is the concept. ... There would be some sort of charge."

Gambill said if the fire authority is not formed, Manistee City Council would vote on eliminating automatic aid agreements for fire calls, although there are no discussions about changing aid agreements for medical calls.

"It would be a council decision to get rid of automatic aid agreements, but it would be recommended to them," he said. "... Nothing against the townships, it's very important to have volunteer service, but a one-person response 15 or 16 minutes into a fire is not sufficient. It's not equitable for the city to pay for that response for a neighboring jurisdiction. Nor is it for Onekama or any of the other situations."

Hernden said the city fire department would still be available to respond via mutual aid.

"There's auto aid and mutual aid," he said. "... And what we would do is likely rework the automatic aid part of it, because if you have a fire in your area, you respond to it, you size up the incident, request resources and then that's when we bring in the mutual aid."

Equipment

The draft articles of incorporation state that participating fire departments' property will transfer to the authority, but "any specific vehicles, apparatus, equipment or other personal property expressly identified in an exhibit to these articles as excluded from the transfer shall remain the property of the respective incorporating municipality and shall not be transferred to the authority."

Essentially, Gambill said, the departments could choose to exclude equipment from the transfer.

"We have a lot of redundant equipment, some older equipment," he said. "We do have a motor pool that relies on selling some of that redundant equipment to go toward things, but the idea was, we talked about Stronach having a pumper they may want to keep, so that should be added to that list of protected equipment."

Hernden said the proposed fire authority would have three ambulances.

"(There would be) one in each fire station responding to that primary area," he said. "However, we'd be able to backfill each other. We'll provide ambulance service at no out-of-pocket cost to the taxpayer within the authority. ... Outside the authority, if they need our help, we'd bill the exact same MMR does."

More information is available at mrfi.info.

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