2012 – Northern Door Fire District: Feasible?

After being discussed for a number of years, the idea of combining Northern Door’s fire departments into one fire district gained some actual steam in 2012.

In Feb., Jack Edwards, Fire Chief of the Lake County Fire Department in southeastern Wisconsin, spoke to a number of Door County’s firefighters and elected officials about his experience merging the Delafield, Chenequa, and Nashota departments in 2010. Those at the meeting heard enough positive things about Lake County’s merger to begin district discussions of their own.

In May, representatives from each Northern Door fire department and government sat down to decide whether or not they should move forward with the project. They decided to form an official exploratory committee to begin looking into what it would take to make a shared fire district a reality.

Proponents of the district argued that it will relieve a lot of the administrative burden which is currently weighing on each individual department and allow for greater coordination between departments. It’s also possible that the district could save money in the future by reducing the amount of equipment each municipality has to purchase.

But costs for fire protection would probably rise initially as a result of creating the district and getting it running, leading some to opt out of the process. Baileys Harbor and Jacksonport decided they would not move forward in the fire district discussions, while Sister Bay, Gibraltar, Liberty Grove, Ephraim, and the town and village of Egg Harbor are still considering the shift.

Right now, the municipalities involved are looking at last year’s fire budgets and figuring out some logistics. Expect more movement on the fire district issue, either backwards or forwards, early in 2013.