Dorr Township voters again will be asked in the Aug. 2 primary to approve millage requests for fire equipment replacement and for repairing, maintaining and improving local roads.
Both have been rejected in the past, but township officials insist they both are critical to meet local future needs.
I plan to turn my attention to the fire department’s request and save remarks about the roads proposal for later.
The fire equipment millage will be for a half mill for five years with a four-year renewal. The request was rejected in 2012 and again two years later.
Dorr Township Fire Chief Gary Fordham has explained that the local fire department periodically must replace its equipment when it wears out or when vehicles are no longer usable. After the most recent millage request failed, equipment needs have been paid for as a result by dipping into the general fund. The special millage request is earmarked specifically to fire equipment.
The millage, if approved, would cover the years 2016 through 2020, and revenue from the first year has been estimated at $115,500.
In my four years since starting this on-line community news service, this may be the most perplexing and difficult to understand development I’ve covered. It could be the best example of “cutting off your nose to spite your face.” It makes absolutely no sense to me to dry up funding for a department dedicated to saving life and limb.
As individuals, we cannot afford to hire a firefighter to protect our houses. So we must pool our money together through taxes to pay for fire protection, as well as police protection. Taxes often are the costs of having a civilized society and the process by which we can receive services we can’t afford on our own.
The people of Dorr Township, during those awful and tumultuous days in 2012, twice rejected a millage renewal for fire equipment replacement. They did it again since, rejecting a half mill that would be spent for nothing other than fire equipment. Its defeat only means the department has to ask the Township Board to dip into the fund balance to make up the difference.
Talk about robbing Peter to pay Paul. Or cutting off your nose to spite your face.
I urge the citizens of Dorr Township to come to their senses and support the half-mill request by the fire department Aug. 2.
The editor of this august publication is calling for the approval of the Dorr fire millage. Please vote for it even if the editor of this august publication supports it; do not condemn a good and needed millage because of the endorsement of a person who is a left-wing big-spending liberal. There are times when even liberals and conservatives can agree on a good cause. Dorr has a fine Fire Department that keeps our fire insurance payments low and protects our community. The good folks in the Dorr Fire Department have earned our support.
//s//Traxler, Dorr