Dear Editor,

As some of you are aware, Groveland Twp. is in the process of deciding whether or not to continue on with our current Groveland Twp. Fire Department (GTFD) or merge it with the North Oakland County Fire Authority (NOCFA). Since the GTFD is the only service provided by Groveland Twp. I am highly skeptical that giving up something that we all paid our hard earned Tax dollars to an unknown Fire Authority would or could be beneficial to all of us. I believe in the old adage – “You get what you pay for.” We worked hard to get the ISO rating we have with our Fire Department, and we did approve a millage .44 mills back in 2011 to support our GTFD. The ISO rating is very important to us as homeowners, our House Insurance rates are based on our ISO rating and ours recently improved from a 4 to a 3. The overall savings we enjoy plus the safety and security our GTFD provides, more than offset’s a potential savings by consolidating with the NOCFA. I also believe that our ISO rating and Fire service would continue to drop since NOCFA is spread out over a much wider area with no additional resources and not Groveland specific.

One of the reasons why our GTFD cost is higher than the surrounding communities is that we have our own Ambulance/Paramedic service vs. private ambulance services that other communities in the area use. I understand that Groveland did study using a private service, but due to our relatively small community (in terms of population) it wasn’t cost effective.

We control our GTFD and once you delegate your responsibility to someone else, you lose control, therefore these resources will be distributed elsewhere. Just like everything else, once you give something up, it’s practically impossible to get it back.

The Community Assistance Response Evaluation (CARES) has rated the GTFD, a far better rating than the NOCFA, in terms of patient survivability. Bottom Line: This is off utmost importance to our families and community.

When it comes to the Groveland Township concern about not having a sustainable budget that is totally false. I was shocked to find out that our Twp. is sitting on $7.2M in cash reserves. Not bad for a community with 5,600+ residents. The annual Groveland Twp. budget is just under $1.13M. So we have more than enough funds on hand. I’m very conservative, and I commend the Twp. for not wasting our taxpayer’s dollars, however, having 6.3 years worth of annual spending on hand is a bit excessive (but that’s another issue). As a Municipality, we should be re-allocating these resources to the Fire department as necessary. Our Township was also disingenuous when it was said, that we spent ½ of the Fire dept. reserve fund over the last couple of years. But forgot to mention that our Chief Steve Mcgee rightfully thought it wise to pay off the loan for a fire truck instead of paying interest which would have cost the taxpayer’s more money. Especially in light of having $7.2M on hand!

In addition, I was surprised that Station 1 is being considered for closure, since it is old and needs to be replaced. If it is not replaced, I’m confident that we will further reduce our ISO rating. Which means our insurance rates will go up substantiality. Hopefully, we can develop a business case and by being creative – keep the cost impact down to a minimum.

When I saw the Groveland Twp. survey that was sent out to our residents, I was personally very disappointed in the way it was slanted, which leads our residents to come to the conclusion to proceed with the NOCFA proposal, without all the pertinent facts – such as ISO ratings, insurance costs, survivability, reverting back to our status quo, etc. There are to many unknowns to make a drastic change such as this. As I was writing this article, I found out that the residents who returned the survey agreed 53 percent to 47 percent to keep the GTFD, which is a good sign. But we still need to convince the Groveland Twp. Board not to proceed with the NOCFA.

I’ve had numerous discussions with residents in our community along with my neighbors and they have raised additional concerns as well….To many to list, however, Fern Ogans who wrote a letter to the editor at The Citizen newspaper highlight a lot of them in detail. I highly recommend that you take the time to read her online article (see Link below) and attend the next Groveland Twp. Board meeting on July 9, 2018 at 7:00 PM.

In closing, I think we should take our time to make an informed decision such as this, and wait till the next township fire department millage comes up on the ballot so we as citizens can vote on such an important manner. I would also like to thank The Citizen newspaper with keeping us informed.

Regards,

Groveland Twp. Resident and Zoning Board Member