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Charlevoix Twp. and City Fire Finalizing Agreements to Combine Departments

"It’ll be good for the community to bring the resources and manpower together," Charlevoix Township Fire Department Chief Dan Thorpe said.

Two Charlevoix County fire departments are getting closer to joining forces.

City and township officials have been working closely for months to determine the most efficient way to run the departments.    

Charlevoix Township has approved and submitted an agreement to the City of Charlevoix to take over their service.

The city has had two serious downtown fires recently.

The first started in Johan’s Bakery in November.

Then, on Christmas Eve, a fire broke out at the Cherry Republic building.

The city and township responded to both.

9 & 10’s Blayke Roznowski and photojournalist Noah Jurik look into the reasons for a fire merger.

The Charlevoix Township Fire Department says they’ve been talking about combining the township and city fire departments for a few years now, but after the fire at Johan’s Bakery the talks became more serious. 

"It’s to help provide better protection and have a lot more resources available for that," Chief Thorpe said.

At the township’s most recent meeting, they approved an agreement to combine their fire department with the City of Charlevoix Fire Department.

"We have been reviewing with our attorney and some of our folks and I expect to present that to city council next Monday night," City of Charlevoix city manager Mark Heydlauff said.

The document says the Charlevoix Township Fire Department would take over the city department’s building, equipment and offer any of their current firefighters to apply with them.

It would cost the city a little more than $130,000 a year.

That’s less than the nearly $250,000 they spend now.

"It’s going to be a positive thing for both the city firemen and our guys," Chief Thorpe said. "We work well together and we’ve been training over the last several months together and doing meetings together." 

"The color of our trucks doesn’t fight fire," Heydlauff said. "It’s the men and women of our fire departments who do and how can we effectively use our public resources best?"

City council could choose to accept the agreement as early as their next meeting on April 3 or continue their discussions. 

The owners of both buildings where the downtown fires happened are still in the process of cleaning up and repairing them.

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