Mackinaw City Seeks Firefighters, Considers Ways To Upgrade Department
By Paul Gingras

To maintain current funding levels for fire service, the Village of Mackinaw City is planning to change the way it collects funds from area townships. The fire department, in association with village planners, is also working on ways to recruit new members, and the village is beginning to make plans to build a new fire station, planners hope within the next five to 10 years.

Mackinaw City's fire department also serves Mackinaw and Wawatam townships, but it has been an unwritten rule for years that volunteer firefighters should live within village limits, said Fire Chief Fred Thompson.

Owing to a growing absence of manpower in the department, however, he feels that expanding membership to include residents outside of the village will help the department.

Mr. Thompson has served on the Mackinaw City Fire Department since the mid-1970s. He is alarmed that the ranks of the department have dwindled to the point that, sometimes, only four or five firefighters respond to calls for assistance.

"It was more like 12 to 20 back in the '70s," he said. "There just aren't as many [firefighters] available as there used to be."

The core of Mackinaw City's department includes 12 firefighters, he said. The entire department has 18 members, which includes firefighters who serve in other municipalities.

Chief Thompson began pressing fire department issues to the Village Council in recent months. He emphasized that his department continues to respond to emergencies effectively, but there are several ways that the department should be improved.

The single biggest change needed to bring township residents into the ranks of the fire department is to increase communication between the village and area townships, he said.

Township boards do not receive fire reports from the village, Chief Thompson said, and providing reports would be easy to do.

"It would include a few more fire reports per year," he said. These reports would be presented at township meetings by Chief Thompson or Village Manager Jeff Lawson.

There are "good people just outside the village who could join up," Chief Thompson said. The best way to recruit new members is by word of mouth. If fire department issues are discussed at township meetings, the word will spread from board members to community members, he said.

People who talk to community members and think about what they are getting into prior to becoming firefighters, he said, improves retention.

Joining is a serious venture, he cautioned. Firefighters must undergo extensive training, and they are always on call. Firefighters in Mackinaw City are paid volunteers. They make $13 per hour for each run.

In a related issue, to keep the fire department funded at its current levels, the village and townships recently consulted with Dr. Lynn Harvey, a retired Michigan State University professor, who is considered an expert in fire department matters.

Dr. Harvey has produced a draft Intergovernmental Fire Protection Agreement, which describes how the Mackinaw City could change its formula for funding its department.

Planners are considering basing the amount of revenue they collect from townships for the fire department on real estate values, the number of fire runs in each township, and their populations.

The new formula is likely to mean that townships will pay more for fire service, Mr. Lawson said

The existing agreement has been unchanged for decades, he added. Revenue collected from townships is based on a millage levied by Wawatam Township. In 2006 it was 0.2692 mill and is likely to be the same this year.

Someone with property worth $100,000 in taxable value would pay under $27 per year, said Wawatam Township Supervisor Roger Moore.

Mackinaw Township, which does not levy a millage for fire service, matches the amount of funding Wawatam generates each year.

Another major issue under discussion by the Village is the need for a new fire station.

Firefighting equipment is spread out across the village, Chief Thompson explained, and the equipment should be consolidated into one facility to enable the department to run more efficiently. Further, conducting department business would be more comfortable, and it would give firefighters an enhanced sense of pride in their jobs, he added.

Constructing a new fire station is likely to cost more than $1 million.

Building a new station in the village has been on the back burner for decades, but Mr. Lawson has proposed a schedule for constructing a new facility within the next five to 10 years, "which is closer than it's ever been," Chief Thompson said.

In two years, village money should become available to begin the process, when Mackinaw City completes payments on existing road and infrastructure bonds, he said.

The bulk of the fire department's equipment is housed in two bays at the Village Hall in downtown Mackinaw City. However, some of the department's equipment, including trucks, is housed in a heated facility adjacent to a Department of Public Works cold storage building behind Mackinaw City Public Schools.

Moving equipment there was a quick fix 20 years ago, Chief Thompson explained. Finding a place to consolidate the department has been a low Village priority ever since.

Fire department members train in the village council room and have no office.

Chief Thompson, who is also director of the area's emergency medical service, wants to bring the area's ambulances under the same roof as the fire trucks.

The village has a paramedic on call at all times, but he lives at a distance from the fire hall, where the ambulance is stored.

Providing space for a full-time paramedic near the ambulance would inevitably decrease response time, Chief Thompson said, and ambulance service members working in proximity to the fire station could also help maintain fire equipment.

The first step toward consolidating the fire department and ambulance corps will be to buy a piece of land for a new facility, Chief Thompson said.

Anyone interested in serving on the Mackinaw City Fire Department can contact Mr. Thompson by calling the Village Hall at (231) 436-5351.