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Baldwin newsletter on fire department topic stirs reactionBy Joel Stottrup A newsletter to Baldwin households last week regarding Baldwin's intent to start a fire department has drawn a response from City Administrator David Minke. The source of the newsletter is the Baldwin Citizens Fire Advisory Committee consisting of Baldwin supervisors Bryan Lawrence and Lester Kriesel and four other Baldwin residents. Baldwin started the committee about a year ago to study the idea of starting a fire department to serve Baldwin and possibly other townships. The newsletter is the first of what will be a series of such mailings, the committee wrote. The newsletter gave the committee's "brief history" of Princeton Fire and Rescue Department. "We used to have two fire departments operating out of Princeton," the letter said. It described one as a rural department that bought and maintained its own equipment and was supported by a fire number system in which subscribers bought a fire number each year and paid a fee. The second department, according to the newsletter, was the city's own, the newsletter saying both were "housed in the same building and manned by the same trained firefighters." The newsletter went on that "in about 1995, the state passed legislation allowing cities to take over those rural departments and incorporate them into one unit. The rural equipment was appropriated by the city of Princeton and is still part of their equipment list." Minke, on Monday, gave this response to the above newsletter statements: "Were there ever two fire departments? At one time fire number revenue was used to purchase vehicles. The fire number money was not used for training, maintenance, insurance, fuel, or the cost of garaging the equipment. "Also, the title to the vehicles was held by the city and the firefighters were employees of the city under the law, and there was not a separate management group made up of the rural areas which directed the operations of a rural department. Therefore, it is difficult to believe that there were two separate departments." Minke agreed there was a decision to consolidate the rural parts at some point, but that it was for the rural and urban fire equipment. Jerry Bieringer, former fire chief, was asked what he remembers of the rural and urban sides of the Princeton firefighting operation. Bieringer noted how at least one auditor for the annual auditing of the city's books said the city should bring all the rural equipment and bookkeeping of those revenues under the city's domain. Minke said in his response to the newsletter that any money for selling used equipment that was purchased with rural revenue was put into a fund for buying equipment that would be used for fighting fires anywhere, whether rural or city. Bieringer did recall how it was once required that one city pumper truck always remain in the city in order for the city to maintain its ISO rating. That rating has an effect on the amount of premiums many insurance companies charge. The Princeton Department has worked over the years to bring it down to a desirable lower number and has succeeded. Minke said in regard to the 1995 legislation referred to in the Baldwin Citizen Fire Advisory Committee that he wasn't aware what it was. More background The Baldwin newsletter also reviewed how at the township's last annual meeting last March, resident Paul Volkommer made a motion to have the Baldwin board ask the city to enter a joint powers agreement with Baldwin for fire protection. Lawrence, who was not yet a supervisor but would find out later that evening that he had been elected as such, seconded the Volkommer motion. Resident Betsy Wergin added an amendment to the motion asking the city to use a fire protection assessment formula that included a "per improved parcel." Supervisor Jess Hall seconded the motion for that amendment. The amendment and the amended motion were then passed. The City Council rejected the idea of a joint powers agreement with Baldwin in which Baldwin would have voting power. Baldwin's newsletter noted Baldwin's population at about 5,000 and the city's at about 4,000 and went on: "Our property values are higher compared to Princeton's so we get assessed for a higher fee. We pay a higher percentage of the department's budget than the city does but they refuse to form a joint powers board to give Baldwin a say in the decision-making process that spends our tax dollars. The city claims 100 percent ownership of all equipment, makes 100 percent of the final decisions regarding expenditures and, in 2000, paid 22 percent of the budget, while Baldwin paid 34.2 percent. Administrator Minke, in response to the Baldwin fire committee statements on assessments said this: "The memo uses figures from 2000 to demonstrate that Baldwin Township pays a disproportionate share of the costs. It is worth noting that for 2002 the total cost for the department is $191,000 and is broken down by jurisdiction as the box below shows. Minke continued that based on the calls that Princeton Fire and Rescue responded to during 2001, that usage will be part of a three-year-average to bring about a shift in cost distribution for 2002 that will be better for Baldwin. Minke's projections for a percentage of the total fire department assessment in 2003 shows Baldwin being assessed 25 percent, Blue Hill, Bogus Brook and Santiago townships each two percent, Greenbush, Spencer Brook and Wyanett townships each five percent, the city of Princeton 42 percent and Princeton Township 11 percent. The formula the city uses to figure the assessment for each jurisdiction uses a usage based on an average of three former years, and tax capacity. "It is clear that from 2001 to 2002 there was a significant shift from the township to the city regarding the distribution of cost," said Minke. Princeton Union-Eagle |