Remaining SDFD Municipalities Back Nasewaupee Split

A resolution backing a negotiated separation of the Town of Nasewaupee from the Southern Door Fire Department (SDFD) was approved in August by the boards of the three municipalities that will remain within the department.

The Village of Forestville and the towns of Forestville and Clay Banks backed a resolution on the settlement reached with Nasewaupee on the division of SDFD properties and payout costs.

The north station will go to the newly formed Nasewaupee Fire Rescue, and the south station in Forestville will remain with the SDFD. To own the Nasewaupee fire station and equipment, the town exercised an option in the original operating agreement 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.”

With Nasewaupee paying more than two-thirds of the cost to run the SDFD, based on equalized value, all four municipalities decided that Nasewaupee would pay 32% of what was agreed upon to be the fair-market value for what the town decided to purchase.

That will result in the percentage Nasewaupee will pay being slightly less than than a third of the agreed-upon value of the north station priced at $257,500, for instance, and the negotiated price for the newest truck kept in Nasewaupee ended up being $295,000.

The resolution spelled out how the 32% would be split among the remaining three municipalities in the SDFD, with 15% going to the Town of Forestville, 12% to the Town of Clay Banks and 5% to the Village of Forestville. Each of those municipalities agreed to place the funds received from Nasewaupee for the purchases into an escrow account to support the SDFD’s future needs.

The split is set to take effect at the end of September, when the SDFD holds its annual meeting and the department’s yearly budget receives final approval.

SDFD Chief Rich Olson is putting together an annual budget that he has projected will be around 40% of the current budget of more than $400,000. Gone will be the funding from Nasewaupee, which this year contributed about $293,000 in property taxes to support the department. Olson said SDFD’s fire board will put together next year’s department budget during its Sept. 13 meeting.

Nasewaupee town chair Steve Sullivan said that Nasewaupee Fire Rescue’s annual budget will be around $200,000, not including equipment purchases, and it will become part of the town board’s annual budget process.