Nasewaupee Residents Urge Board to Leave Southern Door Fire Department
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The Southern Door Fire Department (SDFD) could have one fewer municipality within its coverage area in the future if the Town of Nasewaupee and the department’s other municipalities can’t come to an agreement.
During last week’s annual Nasewaupee town meeting, residents recommended that the town board break free from the SDFD and form its own fire department. The motion carried on a show of hands, with 29 residents in favor and none opposed, according to the meeting minutes. The vote is nonbinding, and firefighters in attendance abstained from the vote.
The recommendation follows ongoing conflicts within the department and its organizational structure, which includes a fire board with two members each from the Village of Forestville and the towns of Nasewaupee, Clay Banks and Forestville.
The SDFD – which was formed with an operating agreement Dec. 1, 1980 – has a north station in Nasewaupee and a south station in Forestville. Decisions on equipment purchases, how much each municipality contributes toward the department and the amount of representation each municipality has on the board are among the divisive issues that have surfaced during recent months.
Based on equalized value with a property-tax levy used to support the department, as called for in an addendum to the operating agreement approved in December 1984, property owners in Nasewaupee contribute more than two-thirds of the funds out of the four municipalities making up the SDFD.
Prior to last week’s annual meeting, the Nasewaupee Town Board held a special meeting last August to address the town’s possible withdrawal from the department. At that time, the board decided to try to work out the internal conflicts. Then during the April 21 meeting, the town board decided to wait until its May 19 meeting to decide what to include in a letter to the other municipalities about what Nasewaupee wants to do regarding future fire protection.
Nasewaupee Town Chair Steve Sullivan said he would consider changes to how the SDFD is structured to continue the town’s participation, rather than leaving and starting a separate department.
For example, with the town paying for more than half of the SDFD’s budget, Sullivan said he would favor lowering the percentage that Nasewaupee contributes, or having more than half of the fire board represented by town residents.
“Do we want to propose to the other municipalities something like, no municipality has to pay more than 50% of the cost?” he asked the other board members. “I guess we’re the major user – the major one that’s paying for this. [Should we seek a] change in representation, like four people from Nasewaupee [and] one from each of the other towns? I don’t think it’s going to fly.”
Sullivan said the increasing value of shoreline property in Nasewaupee is contributing to the town having to pay a higher percentage to fund the department.
The department’s fire chief, Rich Olson, who was not present at the annual meeting, read a prepared statement at the April 21 board meeting.
“I wish I had been here [at the April 19 annual meeting] to hear for myself all the unraveling of the hard work that I and members of this department have put in to become a more unified department in the past 11 months,” he said. “Rehashing of past events does no good in moving forward.”
Olson said he has “worked diligently to be fair and equitable in decisions being made, and conscious of how we needed better communication and transparency to make things run better.
“A lot of us thought things were starting to smooth out and turn a corner with many steps of progress,” he said. “Our neighboring [fire] departments have also told me that things were improving. We will never be a perfect department, but we must try every day to do the best for our community and for our department.”
Olson said differences of opinion when it comes to the department purchasing a truck involve reaching a compromise.
“Not everyone can get everything they want in a truck,” he said.
Olson said the fire board approved a truck purchase on a 5-3 vote, with both representatives from Nasewaupee opposed.
“That is how democracy works, and although the Town of Nasewaupee is the largest contributor to the department budget, the decision was made,” he said. “The fact is, Nasewaupee is the largest township with the most land area and land value, and it is only logical that it would write the biggest check for fire protection.”
Olson suggested a change to the department’s bylaws, in which a vote on what he called a “major purchase” would require at least one fire board member from each municipality to support the majority vote.
“It thereby gives equal voice to all municipalities to be in favor of a proposal, regardless of their financial contribution,” he said.
Olson said “minor modifications” could be made to the operating agreement, which has worked well for more than 40 years, “to give a fairer and more equal representation.”
The Withdrawal Process Outlined in Operating Agreement
The process for a municipality to leave the Southern Door Fire Department (SDFD) is outlined in the operating agreement and would take more than a year to finalize.
A municipality wishing to leave is required to give the other municipalities a year’s notice, with the notice “to be made at an annual meeting and to run until the time of the next annual meeting.”
If Nasewaupee would leave the SDFD, the agreement further states the town would have the first option to purchase all the department’s assets located in Nasewaupee “at their then–fair-market value.”
Nasewaupee would be required to pay the remaining municipalities “an amount equal to the percentage of the then–fair-market value of the property contributed by the remaining municipalities.”
Nasewaupee Town Board Chair Steve Sullivan said that would involve paying the other municipalities around one-fourth of what the equipment that Nasewaupee would hold on to would be worth.
