Officials of the Sturgeon Lake Fire Department, chief Mike Mikrot and assistant chief Dave Landwehr, met with council members of communities it services on October 1 to discuss the budget and equal distribution of funding from each entity. “We’re hoping to start the budget high enough now, so we can maintain with inflation,” said Mikrot.

The four communities in contract with the fire department, including the cities of Denham and Sturgeon Lake and the townships of Birch Creek and Sturgeon Lake, have raised alarm in recent months over anticipated amounts that are expected of each entity to fund next year’s proposed fire department budget of $50,000. “They don’t think it’s fair,” Mikrot said at a Sturgeon Lake city meeting last spring, when concerns of an insufficient budget, currently at $30,600, were first brought to the city’s attention.

Last April the fire department reviewed its expenditures and determined that total funds needed for next year exceed $39,000. “And that still does not leave us with a capital improvement fund,” said Mikrot. The department operates with several older trucks, and since a new truck can cost upwards of $148,000 with annual payments of $21,000, said Mikrot, “There’s no way we could even get a new truck on our budget.”

The city of Sturgeon Lake, which oversees the fire department, recently set the proposed 2010 budget at $50,000, with the dollar share of revenue to be distributed at $15,267 for Birch Creek Township, $1,947 for Denham, $14,756 for city of Sturgeon Lake, and $18,030 for Sturgeon Lake Township. With a significant raise in contributions from the current cumulative amount of $23,000, along with some state aid, the entities question the fairness in distribution figures based on net tax capacity.

The city currently calculates each amount due based on the county’s net tax capacity for each area. It was suggested last week that equitable fire protection rates also factor in market values for all homes and structures on the properties serviced by the department, including hunting shacks. “We still have to protect them,” said Mikrot.

Council members requested that Mikrot obtain from the county assessor information on each of the communities serviced, including number of structures and values for each structure, both net tax capacity and market values. “At least we’ll have numbers that will be fair to everybody,” said Bernard Mikrot of Birch Creek Township.

Value information is expected to be forwarded to the towns and townships for consideration by each council prior to the next joint meeting with the fire department on October 13 at 7:00 pm in Sturgeon Lake city hall. It is the hope of all parties to strike an agreement for an equitable distribution of funding to meet the anticipated fire budget and before the contracts expire on January 1, 2010.

Councilors talked of alternatives to raising revenue and suggested that the fire department seek monetary compensation from homeowners’ insurance companies following fire calls. The estimated $500 per call that the companies are expected to pay could help cover some departmental expenses.

Landwehr cited lack of administrative manpower to seek compensation, saying, “That’s not a level of bureaucracy we’re at yet.” And at about ten home fires a year, he said, “It’s not a substantial enough amount anyway to cover expenses.”

Other suggestions for raising revenue included seeking individual contributions from residents. “If we got $100 from each household (in the service area) each year, we’d have enough,” Mikrot maintains. “To me, it isn’t much.” It was also mentioned that the fire department could become its own taxing entity, as is the Moose Lake Fire Department.

In facing a probable hefty raise from last year’s amounts, the townships request that in the future they be notified of the expected contribution for fire protection prior to the annual meetings, which are usually in the spring. “If we know what it’s going to be before the annual meeting, then we can levy enough with the townships,” said Stanley Peterson of Birch Creek Township.

Mikrot acknowledged councilor angst, saying, “It’s a lot to take on now, but the rates should have gone up years ago.”

The service contract with the fire department has been in place since 2000, when the initial total rate of $16,000 for the communities was drawn and renewed five years later, allowing for net tax capacity adjustments and a five percent inflation raise each year. “What started ten years ago isn’t working anymore,” said Landwehr.

Next year’s $50,000 budget includes basic costs of trucks and equipment maintenance and fuel, fire hall usage, administration, insurance, and first responders. “We’re trying to operate to make it work,” said Mikrot. He asserts that the department would like to add a budget category to include nominal pay for staff, which would amount to slightly more than $2,000 for the year.