Dissolve, resolve or reorganize.

Those are the three options facing Grand Traverse Rural Fire Department, the intergovernmental agency providing emergency services to eight townships and nearly 30,000 residents. Rural Fire board members will meet today (Wednesday) in a day-long mediation session at the Hagerty Center that could determine the agency’s future after two townships threatened to withdraw.

Citing frustration over shouldering a disproportionate amount of the agency’s funding load, Long Lake Township board members gave written notice in June of an intent to withdraw at the end of 2015. Green Lake Township shortly followed suit, requesting mediation to help address the funding formula. Long Lake, which makes up 40 percent of Rural Fire’s annual budget at $325,000, argued that it is subsidizing other townships – including Fife Lake, Grant, Mayfield, Paradise, Union and Whitewater – which pay anywhere from several thousands dollars up to $170,000 annually for emergency services.

“The main concern is the financial amount we’re paying,” says Long Lake Township Supervisor Karen Rosa. “It’s come to light at our budget sessions the last few years that maybe we should be doing something different."

Rural Fire Chair Tim Trudell notes that the same formula is used to determine every township’s contribution: one third is based on population, one third on taxable property value and one third on station runs. Long Lake Township – which unlike other townships does not pay for its own ambulance service - has seen a spike in its costs due to its growing population and increased run numbers produced by fire trucks leaving on calls normally handled by ambulances.

“The issue with Long Lake is that since they don’t have an ambulance, every time they go out it increases their run numbers and how much they pay,” says Trudell. At Rural Fire’s first mediation session on July 20, members considered a compromise to recategorize Long Lake’s runs, reducing the township’s annual payment by $50,000.

On Tuesday Long Lake board members voted to reject the offer. The board instead reviewed a potential budget for starting their own fire department, estimating the cost at $418,000 annually. Long Lake’s fire and rescue millage generated $420,000 in revenues this year, three-fourths of which went to Rural Fire; the millage is expected to generate $441,000 next year.

But Trudell questions Long Lake’s numbers, pointing to “hidden costs” involved in running a fire department. He also notes that if Long Lake withdraws from Rural Fire and the remaining townships choose to stay, the agency agreement requires Long Lake to surrender all equipment. That could necessitate anywhere between $500,000 and $1 million in new investment for the township, costs not reflected in the projected budget.

“The agreement was set up to make it painful to leave - and it could really hurt,” says Trudell. “I really don’t want it to come to that. I’d also be concerned about a township leaving and failing. What about the residents?”

If Long Lake continues on its path to withdrawal, Rural Fire could consider options, including overhauling the agency budget with the remaining townships, dissolving and letting each township fend for itself, or restructuring. Trudell favors considering a path similar to that taken by Grand Traverse Metro Fire Department, which reorganized and incorporated under Michigan’s Act 57 to become the Grand Traverse Metro Emergency Services Authority in 2008.

However, Trudell hopes that townships can reach a compromise that will keep Rural Fire intact, addressing not only financial but political concerns – like the degree of control townships exert over decision-making and personnel conflicts – that have surfaced in mediation.

“I think we’ll have some answers by the end of the day (today) in terms of what direction we’re going to head,” he says.

Photo credit: Joe Clark/Glass Lakes Photography