By Jennifer Eberbach
mlive.com
SALINE, Mich. — Four communities in southern Washtenaw County are on board with creating a new regional fire authority, with an intention of asking local voters to approve a property tax levy to fund it.
The city of Saline, and Lodi, York and Saline townships have been partnering for fire services since the 1970s. Following months of negotiations, local officials in all four communities have approved articles of incorporation for a new Saline Area Fire Authority.
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Next steps include forming a board for the authority and submitting the necessary paperwork to the state. While there is a board currently in place for Saline area fire services, with representatives from the four communities, a new board for the authority will form.
There is a clause allowing 180 days after the articles of incorporation go into effect for the transfer of all operating and capital funds to the authority. The current fire board will continue to govern during that period.
“When it really comes down to it, the Saline Fire Department has been failing financially for a number of years,” York Township Supervisor Dave Ludwig said.
“They don’t have the budget coming from the four municipalities because we can’t afford what they need,” Ludwig said.
Needs include replacing aging trucks and equipment, and repairs and a new roof for the fire station, he said.
A fire authority can seek grants through state, federal and private sources that Saline’s fire department was not eligible to pursue.
The intention is to fund the authority through a millage. A millage proposal could be put before voters in the fire authority’s coverage area on Tuesday, Nov. 3 .
“The goal ultimately is, if the millage passes, they will be looking to build substations in the three townships … and equip them with a minimum of two trucks and full-time staff so that they can get better response times,” Ludwig said.
While a property tax levy rate would be determined at a future date, officials have discussed asking voters to approve between 2 and 3 mills.
“If in York Township, for example, (fire) gets called south down towards Milan, we’re closer than them coming all the way from downtown Saline to get there,” he said.
York Township is currently served by fire services from both Saline and Milan, but the township will become a full member of the new fire authority.
If a millage passes, the city and York and Lodi township would reduce or suspend existing tax levies that support the fire department.
Saline Township does not have such a tax levy. As part of a lawsuit settlement after hyperscale data center developer Related Digital and property owners sued the township over a rezoning denial, Related Digital agreed to contribute $7 million to the Saline Fire Department. However, those funds are meant for equipment.
If voters reject the millage proposal, the fire authority would make budget asks to the four communities, similar to how it is currently done.
Lodi and Saline townships approved a change to the bylaws, which sparked some concern among Saline city officials. If there is no authority-wide millage in place, officials in all of the four communities would have to approve annual budgets for the budgets to be adopted.
Saline City Councilmember Dean Girbach, who serves on the current fire board, expressed concern over the change but accepted it as a “compromise,” he said.
“One municipality or township has the authority to basically kill the budget and force it to go back” to the fire authority board, if there is no millage in place, Girbach said during an April 20 city council meeting.
“Could that jeopardize the bonding and the financial aspects of what is happening with the new authority?” he said.
“And if something happens, is there a risk there related to that, being that some outside entity has the ability to kill the budget when you’re planning on doing debt servicing and all those kinds of things. That could be a trigger that we probably should have talked about.”
If the millage does not pass, the issue will become how the municipalities will fund it, he told MLive/The Ann Arbor News.
He said communities with public safety funds still have to draw money from general funds to cover the fire budget.
Saline city officials also expressed concern that Lodi Township approved the change and then forwarded it to Saline Township, instead of sending the change first to the fire board.
Craig Swenson, chair of the current fire board and one of Lodi Township’s representatives, said the township faced a “perfect storm,” including the recent death of its supervisor Jan Godek, who was the other representative of the township, and him being out of town on spring break, he told the Saline City Council.
“I don’t think this is Lodi’s reputation. I think Lodi will be a good partner in this, and unfortunately it didn’t work out well this time,” Swenson said.
It will be important to give voters an opportunity to improve fire service “because we have fallen behind,” he said.
If voters do not approve the millage, “it would definitely send us into a scramble mode,” Saline Township Trustee Tom Hammond, who serves on the current fire board, said.
“I think, unfortunately, (a millage) is going to cost (local taxpayers) money, but it’s for your first responders, your emergency services,” Hammond said.
“I think (a millage) is going to remove the politics of each municipality coming up with the money,” he said.
Without a millage, “it doesn’t mean we won’t pass the budget, but we would have to figure out where the money would come from,” he said.
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Each year, the NFFF carries out a responsibility entrusted to it by Congress: honoring America’s fallen firefighters and standing alongside the families they leave behind. In 2026, that mission is at risk.
