Next Fire District Meeting Will Get Down to Business

On Jan. 29, the Northern Door Fire District Exploratory Committee will start getting into the nitty gritty details of what it would take to make a Northern Door Fire District work.

Right now, the municipalities involved – Gibraltar, Sister Bay, Ephraim, Liberty Grove, and both the Town and Village of Egg Harbor – are going through the process of approving a $5,000 transfer of funds to the exploratory committee. That money could be used for any number of purposes related to determining whether it’s worth setting up a fire district.

“It could be spent on a consultant or on starting to acquire information from other departments on how best to set this up in terms of a structure,” said Village of Egg Harbor President Nancy Fisher.

Fisher said her village board has already approved the fund transfer, as has Gibraltar. The rest of the municipalities should have the item on their agendas before the Jan. 29 meeting.

At its last meeting, the exploratory committee set up two subcommittees, one to delve into budgetary issues and one to explore equipment-related issues. Those subcommittees haven’t met yet, but they will before the Jan. 29 meeting.

Fisher said that’s where the real work of determining whether or not a fire district is worth the trouble will start.

“Some of that’s going to be sensitive conversations,” said Fisher, “but we need to start drilling down to show our boards whether or not this makes financial and practical sense.”

The members of the equipment subcommittee will be taking a look at each department’s equipment and deciding if, should the district go forward, any reallocation is necessary to cover gaps at other departments.

Gibraltar Town Board Chairman Brian Merkel said the committee isn’t any closer yet to deciding if a fire district is worth forming, but he’s looking forward to moving ahead with the discussion.

“I just know that eventually it’s going to come down to the dollars and cents of it all,” said Merkel.

The Jan. 29 exploratory committee meeting will take place at 5 pm at the Egg Harbor Village Administration Office.