{"id":37225,"date":"2026-06-02T21:43:55","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T01:43:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/?p=37225"},"modified":"2026-06-02T21:43:56","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T01:43:56","slug":"township-fire-protection-fees-rising-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/02\/township-fire-protection-fees-rising-again\/","title":{"rendered":"Township fire protection fees rising again"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By BOB SHRALUKA<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

WZBD.com<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fire protection fees for four townships being served by the Decatur Fire Department are going up again next year, although by a smaller percentage than this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The increases are an ongoing effort by the city to \u201ccatch up\u201d after years of stagnant fees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Following some discussion at its latest meeting, the city’s board of works and safety agreed on a 1% increase for 2027. That’s 1% of the city’s fire department budget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt’s just a matter of everyone paying their fair share,\u201d Mayor Dan Rickord said at the meeting. \u201cAs of now, people in the city are subsidizing those outside.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fire protection rates were boosted a year ago from 6% of the city’s fire department budget to 9% for the current year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The increases followed the discovery that the charges had been unchanged since some time in the 1970s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The four townships were providing just 10% of the city’s fire department budget while 20% of the city’s fire (and some medical) runs were being made to those four townships: Root, Union, St. Marys and Washington.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the 3% was added on for 2026, it was made clear that more increases were in the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe decided to raise it (the fees) a bit each year,\u201d the mayor said at that time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rickord pointed out that the 1% increase would probably amount to an extra $4,000 for Root Township, $3,000 more for Washington, and an additional $2,000 each for Union and St. Marys.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The department’s budget for this year amounts to $1,154,546.00.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clerk-treasurer Eran Hackman said she should would notify the trustees of the four townships \u201cso they can budget accordingly.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At an earlier meeting, Decatur Fire Chief Jeff Sheets released<\/p>\n\n\n\n

statistics which showed the department’s total run volume for 2025 was 683, as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

City, 536; Root, 66; Union, 20; St. Marys, 24; Washington, 31. (Note: 6 other runs were for mutual aid.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Current fire contract fees are as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

St. Marys Twp.: $11,934.23.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Union Twp.: $10,608.25.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Root Twp.: $25,124.48.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Washington Twp.: $18,564.36.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By BOB SHRALUKA WZBD.com Fire protection fees for four townships being served by the Decatur Fire Department are<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":37226,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[14,15,21],"class_list":["post-37225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-decatur","tag-featured","tag-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wzbd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Decatur-firefighter.jpg?fit=1274%2C1403&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37225"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37225\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37227,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37225\/revisions\/37227"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}