For the chiefs of the Glen Arbor and Solon-Centerville fire departments, a county-sponsored "intergovernmental cooperation" meeting scheduled for Nov. 29 may come just in the nick of time.

Glen Arbor chief John Dodson has informed Solon-Centerville fire chief Albin Rosinski that, effective Dec. 1, Glen Arbor’s full-time, professional staff will no longer respond to fire calls within Solon-Centerville’s area of responsibility.

That’s partly because Solon-Centerville’s nearly all-volunteer staff cannot reciprocate within Glen Arbor’s area of responsibility.

In addition, Glen Arbor’s ability to respond is being underwritten by Glen Arbor taxpayers who pay far more for fire and rescue services than taxpayers in Solon-Centerville’s area of responsibility.

In a very carefully worded Oct. 31 letter to Rosinski, Dodson stressed that his plan to scale back Glen Arbor’s support for Solon-Centerville “in no way infers the organization will not respond or honor the County Mutual Aid agreement,” which requires fire departments to aid neighboring departments in emergencies.

Dodson told Rosinski: “You and your staff’s diligence have resulted in Cedar (Solon-Centerville) being one of the last county fire departments that handle the majority of its call volume with one full-time equivalent (FTE) employee. Cedar Fire Department has the largest geographical coverage area within Leelanau County. You can pride yourself on the fact that it does so with one of the smallest budgets. This has afforded the citizens in four of the county’s townships (Solon, Centerville, Cleveland and Kasson) to receive a significant service at a very low cost per parcel,” Dodson wrote.

The Glen Arbor fire chief also pointed out that his department had seen its calls nearly triple while its “part-paid” or volunteer membership had declined. Glen Arbor now employees five full-time personnel and 17 on-call members.

Empire Township, with which Glen Arbor has been partnering for several years, has also struggled with personnel recruitment and retention. An expanded arrangement between Glen Arbor and Empire could increase call volume for Glen Arbor substantially, Dodson said.

“This year, the Glen Arbor Fire Department has responded numerous times inside Cedar’s protection district,” Dodson wrote. “While some of these calls were for automatic and mutual aid alarms, a few were as a result of your department’s inability to respond initially … Should we continue to allow (Glen Arbor’s fulltime ) staff to cover an area greater than that for which it was designed, it would create vulnerability for the very citizens who fund the organization and who have grown to expect a rapid turnout and response,” Dodson wrote.

Asked to comment on Dodson’s letter, Rosinski said he plans to improve the situation in the near future. In the meantime, Rosinski said, his department has added a second “full-time equivalent” employee and “tightened up” a daily schedule for the department’s on-call “part paid” personnel.

“I can see where John Dodson is coming from and agree we need to work something out,” Rosinski said.

The Cedar fire chief noted that the Solon-Centerville Fire Board was slated to meet next Tuesday and would likely finalize a formal response to Dodson’s letter. Rosinski added that Centerville Township supervisor Leonard Kelenski and Solon Township supervisor Carl Williams had also asked him to attend the county’s Nov. 29 “intergovernmental cooperation” meeting.

The supervisors of each of the county’s 11 townships and officials of numerous other government agencies have been invited to attend the county meeting.

In a Nov. 9 letter inviting officials to attend the Nov. 29 meeting, county administrator David Will Gill noted that all of the invitees had been identified at the initial “Intergovernmental Cooperation Summit” on Sept. 5 during which a variety of topics were discussed.

Gill said that the first meeting of the summit’s “fire and emergency medical services committee” will be held at 7 p.m. on Nov. 29 at the county’s River Office Meeting Room in Leland. The same Michigan State University Extension educator who facilitated the Sept. 5 meeting, John Amrhein, will facilitate the Nov. 29 meeting.

The president of the Suttons Bay-Bingham Fire and Rescue Authority, Suttons Bay Township supervisor Rich Bahle, noted that Glen Arbor may be facing some of the same issues that Suttons Bay-Bingham may be facing with neighboring departments in Leelanau and Leland Township.

Like residents of Glen Arbor and Empire Townships, taxpayers in Suttons Bay and Bingham Townships are paying for 24/7 Advanced Life Support ambulance service and fulltime professional staffing at the fire hall while taxpayers in neighboring townships are not.

Meanwhile, residents of neighboring townships frequently benefit from services provided by departments with fulltime professional staff.

“I’m looking forward to the Nov. 29 meeting because fire and rescue service is very important issue not only for Suttons Bay-Bingham but for the entire county,” Bahle said.

“It’s extremely important that we start a conversation on this topic; and any effort like this to improve communication about items of mutual interest is a good effort.”