Questions about the merging of administrative operations for the Empire and Glen Arbor township fire departments dominated the 35-minute Empire Township Annual Meeting Saturday.

Before an audience of 12 people, Empire fire chief Ryan Deering said the townships are looking at merging the operations sides of the fire and rescue departments. Empire and Glen Arbor township boards authorized their fire administrative boards to hold discussions about linking the two departments.

Deering said discussions are just starting. “Before any final decision is made by either township board there would be public hearings so everyone gets a chance to speak,” he said.

After the conclusion of Annual Meeting, Deering said that while the Empire department has seen its membership numbers increase over the last three years, only four members are able to respond to daytime calls.

Empire contracts around-the-clock for emergency medical services with Glen Arbor. Glen Arbor has a contract with North Flight, Inc., a semi-private EMS provider based in Traverse City that provides basic life support and advanced life support ambulance service. Empire Township covers half of the cost through a millage approved by township voters in 2003. The millage allows the township to levy up to five mills to cover the cost of EMS contract with Glen Arbor.

Deering said talks with Glen Arbor would begin next week since Glen Arbor EMS chief John Dodson is on vacation this week. While no formal proposal has been made, Deering said the idea is to have administrative operations of both departments streamlined. Each township would keep its own existing fire station, and the departments could be renamed the Glen Lake Fire and Rescue Department and Glen Lake EMS.

“We would each have our members, our own equipment and be responsible for replacing vehicles as needed,” he said. The command structure would change in that Dodson most likely would become the chief of the new department, and the fire stations would have “administrators” as opposed to officers. As an example, Deering said he would become fire operations administrator for Empire.

At the Annual Meeting, Deering said the move is being considered as a way to continue providing comprehensive service to township residents while keeping costs to a minimum. One possible change is that Empire would have to build an addition to its fire hall to provide living quarters for two employees. Deering said the idea would be to have two full-time day-time EMT/Firefighters at the building seven days a week, 24 hours a day.