Southern Door Fire Department Considers First Budget

In preparation of the Southern Door Fire Department (SDFD) having one fewer municipality to financially support it starting this fall, a proposed budget of $249,815.24 has been put together by the department’s fire board to consider for final approval at the Sept. 27 annual meeting.

Fire Chief Rich Olson and the board members revised the income and expense line items in the fiscal year 2024 budget during the board’s monthly meeting Sept. 13 at the Forestville station, which will be the SDFD’s only station after the Town of Nasewaupee splits off Sept. 28 to form Nasewaupee Fire Rescue (NFR).

Olson said putting together a budget in SDFD’s first year having three instead of four municipalities is “pretty much a guess – a good guess.” 

In contrast to having budgeted more than $430,000 for 2023 with four municipalities part of the SDFD, the department will now have less income with three municipalities and fewer expenses, with one less station and fewer pieces of equipment, along with fewer firefighters and emergency medical responders, as some in the SDFD join NFR.

On the income side, the SDFD will be without more than two-thirds of the property taxes that previously funded it, based on equalized value of the four municipalities that formed the department, with Nasewaupee’s share for 2023 having been around $293,000 – more than what’s proposed for the overall 2024 budget.

The Village of Forestville and the towns of Forestville and Clay Banks remain in the SDFD, but their property tax contributions, though increasing with equalized values, would only provide $143,282.85 of the department’s income with the tax rate remaining at 55 cents per $1,000.  

Given the other major portion of the SDFD’s budgeted income for fiscal year 2024 amounts to slightly more than $20,000 coming from the state program that provides the department a 2% rebate from fire insurance premiums collected in the SDFD’s coverage area, more than $85,000 would need to be transferred from the department’s reserves to be able to cover budgeted expenses.

Fire board treasurer Chuck Schley said the SDFD would be able to transfer that amount with the department now having around $400,000 in reserve funds.

Olson said the SDFD is making payments on a new truck the department purchased, which annually amounts to the amount of reserves that will have to be transferred for the department to cover its expenses for next year.

“The difference in the budget is the truck,” he said. 

Other major expense amounts in the 2024 budget include $47,700 in payroll expenses, which is about half of the amount budgeted for 2023, and $27,600 for apparatus expenses, which include repairs, maintenance and fuel.

Funds from Nasewaupee for SDFD

To own the Nasewaupee fire station and equipment in it, 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.”

Based on Nasewaupee’s support for the SDFD being 68%, Nasewaupee will pay 32% of the fair-market value the municipalities ended up agreeing on, with 15% going to the Town of Forestville, 12% to the Town of Clay Banks and 5% to the Village of Forestville.

Forestville Village President Terry McNulty, who is also on the fire board, said Nasewaupee will be paying $285,751 on what it will be purchasing from the SDFD.

The boards of the three remaining municipalities in the SDFD approved resolutions last month in which each of those municipalities agreed to place their portions of funds received from Nasewaupee for the purchases into an escrow account to support the SDFD’s future needs.