Nasewaupee Gives Notice to Split from SDFD

Southern Door Fire Board chair Loren Uecker reads a letter Sept. 28 from the Town of Nasewaupee giving notice that the town intends to split from the Southern Door Fire Department. Photo by Kevin Boneske.

SDFD kicks one of the town’s members off the board

The Town of Nasewaupee provided the Southern Door Fire Board with official notice at its annual meeting Sept. 28 that the town intends to leave the Southern Door Fire Department (SDFD).

Nasewaupee plans to form its own fire department next year after having been a part of the SDFD since it was formed in 1980 with the Village of Forestville and the towns of Forestville and Clay Banks.

The letter from town chair Steve Sullivan and town clerk Jill Lau to leave the SDFD was read by fire board chair Loren Uecker, who is one of two board representatives from the Town of Forestville. 

The notice stated that Nasewaupee is removing itself from the SDFD corporation and terminating and withdrawing from participation in the operating agreement, effective as of the date of the fire board’s 2023 annual meeting, and that the town will exercise its option in the agreement to purchase the department’s assets located in Nasewaupee.

The SDFD’s eight-member fire board is composed of two representatives from each municipality. The department is funded by a tax levy, based on equalized value, with Nasewaupee covering more than two-thirds of the overall cost.

Some board members who are not from Nasewaupee questioned whether the notice to leave the SDFD was valid because it wasn’t notarized.

Nasewaupee Town Board chair Steve Sullivan, contacted after the fire board meeting, said the town’s legal counsel advised him it wasn’t necessary to notarize the notice to leave the department.

Fire Board Member Not Seated

Though the SDFD as it was formed will remain in existence for another year, with a north station in Nasewaupee and a south station in Forestville, the fire board voted 6-2 not to seat Bill Krueger for another term, with the other representative from Nasewaupee, Steve Melville, voting against the motion backed by Loren Uecker.

The same motion approved new two-year terms for Patrick Olson to represent the Town of Clay Banks, Chuck Schley to represent the Town of Forestville and Terry McNulty to represent the Village of Forestville.

Uecker has been at odds with Krueger, who presented a letter April 19 at Nasewaupee’s annual town meeting about issues in the SDFD. Town voters backed a motion during that meeting to urge the town board to split from the SDFD and form Nasewaupee’s own fire department.

Uecker had previously accused Krueger of violating the state’s open-meetings law for having presented the letter during Nasewaupee’s annual meeting. The SDFD fire board decided during its July meeting not to pursue that allegation.

Heated words were exchanged between Uecker and Krueger leading up to the Sept. 28 vote not to seat Krueger on the fire board for another term. Uecker accused Krueger of being “one sided” and “not doing what’s beneficial for this department.”

Krueger said he was never one to back down if he saw something wrong, and by his accounting, “the board is part of the problem.” Still, he said it was the Nasewaupee board’s decision and not his to leave the SDFD.

“You guys [on the fire board] didn’t listen,” Krueger said. “You had two or three warning shots from Nasewaupee.”

Following the fire board’s decision not to seat Krueger for another term, Sullivan said the matter will be on the Nasewaupee town board’s meeting agenda Oct. 20.