Councilmember Smith moved to approve our agenda with this report removed from our packet. Fortunately, there is no censorship here!

Council Member Report from Zach Michels

For October 12, 2020, City Council Meeting

Fire Station Visits

I wanted to update Council on my visits to fire stations.  This calendar year, I have visited 8 fire stations and will continue to visit additional fire stations every week or two.  A summary of the fire stations I have visited and some thoughts from those who I met with are below.

Hartland Township Area Fire Department, Station #61

This station was originally built in 1976 and had a significant apparatus bay and living/office space addition after 2001.  This station had a classroom that they used for weekly training sessions and outdoor space for training on roof surfaces and with hydraulic rescue tools.  Inside, they converted a hose tower they no longer needed for training, including indoor ladder work, and they have a rig for practicing incident management.  They have a small exercise room available to all shift and on call fire fighters and require a certain amount of time exercising each week.  They also mentioned the importance of building design to help foster a strong sense of community.

Brighton Area Fire Authority, Station #31

This station was built in the 1970s and is due for a remodel or reconstruction.  They bays provide adequate space for most of the apparatus in the station.  The station was built when before the department had 24/7 staff, so the living quarters are a challenge.  The floor drains run perpendicular to the bays, which is peculiar.  They had an area for landing air flight helicopters in the driveway/apron.

Brandon Fire Department, Station #1

This station was originally a car dealership, which has been added onto over the years to meet new needs.  Most notably, the main apparatus bay was extended significantly.  They emphasized the need for adequate storage space; there were many storage areas that had been added within the building over the years.  Due to the challenge of working with an older building, storage space is not located next to the area it is most useful, requiring smaller secondary storage spaces and extra time from staff.  They had a program to loan mobility aids (walkers, crutches, wheelchairs) to community residents.  They mentioned that a well-designed station that encourages fire fighters to spend time in the building, even when off duty, is important to building a strong culture.

Reflections on Reflections

In his report for the September 28^th Council Meeting, Mayor Keough claimed that the only real issues with the City’s current fire station are that it is “an older building” and that the only area of the station that “really needs to be improved” is the living and daily work area.

From what I have learned, such an assessment is not based on any real understanding of the needs of a fire department.  I offer my observations to the Mayor’s comments below.

• “Are we as a Council really addressing what we need to improve at our fire station as it relates to the services we are providing?”

Rather than listening to the fire chief and other experts, who know the needs of modern fire service better than any member of council, the Mayor voted against adopting the needs assessment prepared for the Dexter Area Fire Department using industry standards.  The needs assessment provides a basis for facility needs based on the service the departments provide and the space needed to store the equipment and provide space for staff.

When we undertook extensive improvements to our sewage treatment plant, City staff toured other facilities.  We listened to their recommendations and to those of our engineers for the project.  Can you imagine if we, as a Council, tried to micromanage that project as much as have done with the fire station?  “We don’t need a filter that size, just redo the filter that’s already there.”

• “At the basic root of all these discussions is the fact that our current fire station is an older building.”

The age of the building doesn’t matter.  The fact that the building can no longer support the necessary fire operations is at the root of the issue.

Presently, the Dexter Area Fire Department has to purchase the smallest size trucks to fit into the station.  Even with this, the trucks are less than 6 inches from the garage doors and less than 5 feet from the back of the station and the other trucks.  The industry standard calls for at least 5 feet of clear space surrounding every apparatus.  Additionally, there is no space for a ladder truck, which is needed in the City. 

The construction of the building and the limitations of the current site prevent any reasonable accommodations or modifications. 

Addressing the living and daily work areas will not provide any relief for this problem.

• “The building provides four apparatus bays and houses very modern apparatus and equipment that are deployed from the station.”

It is my understanding that the limited size of the station requires the Dexter Area Fire Department to store equipment in the basement and equipment that should be in the City at other stations.

The short depth of the station requires the Dexter Area Fire Department to purchase the smallest size engines and tankers that are available.  This limits the equipment that can be loaded onto the fire trucks.  Additionally, smaller vehicles hold less water.  Less water complicates fire fighting in areas without adequate water.

The self-contained breathing apparatus service area should be in a separate room from the apparatus bay.  This is to prevent any contamination of toxic and cancerous materials. 

There should be a separate room for storage of fire fighters’ turnout gear.  Keeping them within the apparatus bay exposes them to contamination with toxic and cancerous materials.

Addressing the living and work areas will not provide any relief to these problems.

• “The building is located in a good location on a major roadway that provides excellent service response to all three of the member communities that it serves (City of Dexter, Dexter Township and Webster Township), along with excellent support to parts of Lima Township and other areas where we provide mutual aid outside our service area.”

As an elected official serving the citizens of the City of Dexter, it my duty is to provide the best possible fire service to the citizens of the City of Dexter.  Dexter Township and Webster Township made similar decisions with the siting of the facilities that they built for the Dexter Area Fire Department to use.

The bigger issue with this statement is the Mayor’s apparent conflation of distance with response time.  Drive time is only one element of response time.  Travel time through a station and travel time to a station for on-call/volunteer fire fighters can contribute significantly to response time.  Additionally, a slightly-shorter response time is worthless if the fire fighter is not well trained.  (The current facility and a remodel/expansion of the living quarters will do nothing to improve training.)

•  “For many years, our fire station was the main station and the only station with full time staff.”

The station was built when the department served only the Village of Dexter, and the entire department was on-call volunteer fire fighters.  The truck was smaller than a modern Ford F-150 and had a crank starter.  The location and size of the building were dictated by the location of the foundation for a grist mill.

•  “Today, our station is one of two operational fire stations within our district, and there is a third station that is currently being constructed in Webster Township. A little over 5 years ago, Dexter Township built a modern fire station in their Township. That new station added 3 full double long apparatus bays plus living and sleeping quarters for four fire fighters. It also contains a large meeting room, several areas for equipment storage and a modern decontamination area for cleaning fire fighter protective gear.”

All fire stations with full-time staff or the potential for full-time staff should have living and sleeping quarters.  All fire station should have equipment and supply storage.  All fire stations should have decontamination areas. 

The fact that other stations within the Dexter Area Fire Department have these things does not mean that the City’s fire station can exclude these items.  It is laughable to think it acceptable to schlep contaminated turnout gear from the City station to another station for cleaning and shows a lack of understanding for how decontamination should be done.

A main station should have space and supplies for vehicle and equipment maintenance.  A main station should have bulk storage area for records and supplies.  A main station should have office space for administrative staff.

Addressing the living and work areas will not provide any relief to these problems.

• “Webster Township is constructing a new station in their Township that will add two full double long bays and provide additional living and sleeping quarters.”

It is my understanding that this station does not include any administrative offices and will have very-limited storage space.

•  “As I reflected on all of this, my thoughts brought me back to the living and daily work area at our current station. This is really the area at our station that really needs to be improved.”

Addressing the living and daily work area will do nothing to improve the ability of the DAFD to provide the necessary services.  It will do nothing to improve training and readiness of the DAFD.  It will do nothing to provide the necessary storage space, maintenance space, decontamination space, or space for a ladder truck.

•  “I feel that we can do this cost effectively and within our current means, without adding another large millage to our current tax structure.”

When I was young, my family was poor.  My mom insisted on buying the $10 tennis shoes from K-mart that were held together with the plastic tie.  The shoes didn’t provide much support and would fall apart after a month.  So, after a year she had spent roughly $120 on shoes that weren’t very good.  If she would have bought a better pair of shoes, which cost around $60 at the time and last more than a year, she would have saved $60 over the year and had happier feet.

When the City undertakes a significant project, it should make a long-term investment that reduces future costs for residents and businesses rather than going cheap and ensuring greater costs in the future.

As of the 2019 Washtenaw County Apportionment Report, Dexter City had a lower millage rate for both homesteaded and non-homesteaded properties than any other city or village in Washtenaw County.  Here are the homesteaded millage rates for the cities in the county.

Ann Arbor: 48.9396

Chelsea:       47.8505

Dexter:         47.1340

Milan:           51.2791

Saline:           49.1063

Ypsilanti:      69.2485

The Mayor’s plan to redo the living and daily work space would be a temporary fix that does not even address all the current needs.  Ultimately, we would pay the price for this with higher construction costs in the future, and we would pay for this daily with a less-ready fire department.

The largest cost associated with the plan that has been adopted as Council’s preferred plan has been the result of delayed action.  Over the course of the past 5 years, construction escalation costs have doubled the cost of the fire station.  We could have built the preferred station 5 years ago for roughly $3.5M.

• “With Webster Township’s station projected to open in April 2021, we are approaching a time where these improvements can be made and the fire fighters will have two other stations within our district to live/sleep while our station improvements are made.”

The Mayor appears to support shutting down the City’s fire station for the 12-18 months it could take for his proposed project.  There is no universe in which I would support such a scheme.

That would mean the closest fire response would be roughly 9 minutes from the station in Dexter Township and 10 minutes from the station in Webster Township.  That additional response time does not include additional time for responders to drive out to the station, so we could see full response times increase by up to 20 minutes for the City of Dexter.  That’s supposing there isn’t a truck jammed under the rail road bridge or a train stopped on the tracks.

For reference, it is roughly 7 minutes from the Scio Township fire station and 13 minutes from the fire station in Chelsea.

It would be criminal to not provide a space for the fire department for any length of time.  (It would also likely be a violation of the interlocal agreement that created the Dexter Area Fire Department.)

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or would just like to chat!

Zach Michels

zmichels@dextermi.gov

734 726.0095 (mobile)