April timetable for Dousman-Summit fire merger
Boards will review draft merger document
Village of Dousman - An agreement that will merge the Dousman and Summit fire protection districts may be ratified by the three municipal "owners" of the consolidated district by the end of April, according to Dousman Fire Chief Steve Totzke.
Totzke said the Dousman Fire District board has reviewed and approved a proposed draft of bylaws that would merge the two fire districts to serve the villages of Summit and Dousman and most of the Town of Ottawa.
The draft of the bylaws is going to be reviewed by Attorney John Macy and then distributed to Dousman and Summit and Ottawa municipal boards.
After the three municipal bodies have had an opportunity to separately review the proposed bylaws, according to Totzke, they will hold a joint meeting - probably in March - for the municipalities to vote on final ratification of the agreement.
Once the municipalities take action approving the document, the Dousman Fire Board is expect to finalize the consolidation at its annual meeting that will be scheduled in April, said Totzke.
Totzke said the newly consolidated district will be crafting a 2013 budget and the two fire departments will begin training with each other and doing other work to prepare for implementation of the consolidation agreement which would begin in 2013.
The newly consolidated fire department and fire district would be governed by a five-member board. The two municipalities with the largest number of emergency calls and the largest assessed tax base would each have two representatives on the board. The third municipality, the one with the lowest number of calls and smallest tax base, would have one representative on the board.
Each community would agree to share in funding the operations of the fire district based on the number of emergency calls in each community, the population of each of the communities, and the total assessed value of the residential and commercial structures in each community.
The term of the agreement shall be for seven years. A community which wishes to end the agreement will notify the other communities by end of the fifth year of the agreement.
The agreement will also define how the district would be dissolved and its assets distributed to each of the communities in the event of dissolution.
Totzke anticipates that within five years the district may be provided paramedic level emergency medical services. Totzke told the Dousman Fire Board at its meeting on Jan. 25 that he and department volunteers intend on planning fundraising events to raise money for paramedical training to those volunteers interested in the program.
Totzke said there are enough emergency calls that require paramedic-level services to justify the additional expenses involved.
Totzke said achieving the required training for an adequate number of personnel could take up to a year or two. In order to achieve a state license, the paramedic program must deliver around-the-clock paramedic-level emergency response for at least two years.
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