Committee to Review Chesterfield Fire Tax Renewal

A committee evaluating millage needs is forming and will likely meet this spring.

Trustees Brian (Scott) DeMuynck, Michele Ficht and Gerald Alexie will join Fire Chief Doug Charbonneau, Union President and firefighter Gordon Tuzinsky as well as Union Vice President Fire Lt. Brian Hubbert, the chief said Monday.

The committee designation comes on the heels of a special board meeting Friday in which community leaders discussed the millage renewal.

"The millage expires; it's completely gone," Charbonneau said. "We can collect in December 2012 to pay for the following year's tax but, after that, the doors are shut unless we have a new millage in place."

DeMuynck said of the department during the regular board meeting Monday night, "Because it's expiring, it has to be renewed or we're not going to have one."

Residents who own houses with a market value of $120,000 or a taxable value of $60,000 currently pay $140.85 annually for the fire department, according to township Finance Director Victoria Bauer.

That money is collected under the approximate two mills for operations and half mill for equipment—which currently come to about 1.9 mills and .46 mills, respectively, because of declining home values, Charbonneau said.

That means less and less money is projected to come into the department each year under the current mills if they are renewed.

The chief said he hopes for the to be on the November ballot during the general election. That means township officials have until August to decide on what amount to seek from taxpayers.

Ideally, the language would lump the different mills together, with any added mills, for 10 years, he said.

"We're going to try and have one common millage," he said. "We're doing long-range planning rather than crisis management."