“Why can’t we come to the table as adults and negotiate so we know what we’re voting on and put aside [our] differences for the good of the village?”
That was the question of the hour for many Port Sanilac and Sanilac Township residents who gathered Saturday afternoon in the Carsonville-Port Sanilac High School’s gym for a town hall regarding the Sanilac East Fire Authority (or SEFA).
With another town hall previously held by Sanilac Township officials, the September 30 meeting saw Port Sanilac village president Damien Falcon and the village council answering pressing questions from residents for a little less than two hours. Also fielding questions were Sanilac Township trustee Jeff Lyall and Port Sanilac Fire Chief Doug Moran.
Falcon, who once served on the Port Sanilac Fire Department, noted during Saturday’s meeting that he doesn’t believe there was a compelling reason to start a fire department from scratch, despite some council members’ previous opinion that the positive aspects of SEFA could still be retained in a new fire department. Port Sanilac Fire Chief Doug Moran stated both at Saturday’s meeting and several times before that the almost 20-strong department would not be able or comfortable with serving under a noncompliant fire department, a likely proposition if SEFA dissolves.
With firefighters risking their lives for only $5 per emergency call, Moran wants to keep his crews compliant and thus safe, with the high costs of training, equipment and more costing the village greatly and preventing full compliance before SEFA’s formation. That being said, there is no inclination to stop any services, with both residents and officials noting that Port Sanilac and the surrounding area very much need the fire and medical services.
The fire authority began in 2017 with Forester and Sanilac Townships teaming up with the village of Port Sanilac to provide better funding for necessary services. The two townships had previously contracted the village for fire protection. However, the cost of operations and whether or not the three municipal members of SEFA could continue to pay rising costs plagued the promising partnership from the beginning.
Ways of addressing this question have varied— whereas Sanilac Township proposed and passed a millage in August 2022, to be levied for the first time in 2024, to raise money for fire protection and emergency service costs, Forester Township elected to leave the authority, with the township’s needs not necessitating the high costs. They announced their intention back in February, two months before a 6-1 vote saw Port Sanilac following suit in withdrawing from the authority.
Though the original withdrawals and the authority’s articles of incorporation meant that decision-makers would have a year to determine a solution, a May vote by the authority’s board saw a 5-2 decision to dissolve the authority entirely, cutting their decision time in half and requiring action–soon.
With six more meetings for the fire authority planned before the end of the year, with the next on Thursday, October 5, officials say only one is needed to turn SEFA around and stop it from ending on December 31. Falcon also said during the meeting that though it will not be easy for Port Sanilac to rejoin SEFA, he does believe there are enough votes for the fire authority, and that it could be able to move forward with only two members.
“Ignorance may have slowed things down,” he noted, sharing that he believed the village’s withdrawal vote may have been due to concerns on how to move forward with only two members.
At Saturday’s meeting, it was reported that if the fire authority stays, Sanilac Township’s millage will pay everything, though the budget presented currently requires more. It was also noted that it still needs to be determined how much the village would receive of the township’s millage, as Sanilac Township encompasses the village.
It isn’t clear when this will be determined, with Sanilac Township council requesting, via letter, a meeting in late September between themselves and their Port Sanilac counterparts. This correspondence is on tomorrow’s agenda for the Port Sanilac council, who will be meeting at the Bark Shanty Community Center at 7:00 p.m. in Meeting Room Three.
Reporting by Katherine Conlee
Written by Arica Frisbey
