Emergency Services Contract Solution Elusive
Negotiations enter new, public phase
Norwich Township Trustees during the week of Nov. 19 are expected to deliver their latest proposal to continue providing EMS and fire suppression services to approximately 1,500 residences in Brown Township.
No fewer than 10 proposals and counter-proposals, since the start of the year, have been traded between Brown and Norwich townships, each represented by legal counsel as the respective boards work to forge a continuation of a contract that started in 1998, one year before the opening of Norwich Station 82, owned and constructed by Brown Township.
Norwich Township trustees met Nov. 14 to discuss their latest proposal.
Brown Township trustees were not present at the meeting.
Norwich trustees “continue to discuss solutions to present to Brown” township and expect to do so “early next week,” Norwich Township Trustee Tim Roberts said Nov. 14.
Brown Township pays Norwich Township for EMS and fire suppression services through the renewal of a 5.12-mill fire levy voters in Brown Township approved in 2014 on a third attempt.
Brown Township constructed and owns Station 82, at the corner of Roberts and Walker roads, but it is equipped and staffed by Norwich Township.
One of the sticking points in current negotiations in the amount of money that Brown Township desires to hold back from its fire levy revenue before passing on the remainder of the revenue to Norwich Township for the equipping and staffing of Station 82, said Brown Township Trustee Pam Sayre.
Brown Township is financially responsible for the maintenance of Station 82, which included mold remediation in the recent past.
Currently, Brown Township keeps a maximum of $100,000 annually for the maintenance of Station 82 and others expenses related to the fire station.
Brown has instead proposed keeping only 3%, or $60,000, each year from the annual revenue of the fire levy, but that amount would be accumulative, Sayre said.
But Norwich is asking for the entirety of the fire levy revenue and would reimburse Brown Township for expenses related to the maintenance of Station 82, Sayre said.
The absence of withheld revenue from its fire levy would put Brown Township in a precarious place if Norwich Township were to move to end the service contract as Brown Township would have no cash reserve to enter into a new contract with another agency, Sayre said.
The current contract ends Dec. 31, 2024 but requires either entity to provide a 12-month notice if it wants out of the contract- which means Brown and Norwich have but until the end of 2023 to reach an agreement.
If no notice is provided, the contract automatically extends for one more year.
The possibility that Brown Township might look to other departments was publicly voiced- to the apparent dismay and surprise of Norwich Township- via an announcement by Brown Township Trustees.
In a prepared letter stemming from a Nov. 3 meeting with Norwich Township, Brown Township Trustee Joe Martin wrote Brown Township left meetings “believing a clear path to a new agreement had been forged” but that Norwich continues “moving the goalposts.”
Martin wrote, “Brown Township Trustees fear the future of its partnership is more uncertain than ever (and) must explore a range of options regarding fire and EMS protection for its residents, including new partnerships.”
When asked for a response, Norwich Township responded with its own prepared statement from Norwich Fire Chief David Baird.
“Norwich Township was recently surprised by comments from a Brown Township trustee to the press that negotiations for a new fire and EMS services contract have stopped. That is simply not true,” Baird wrote Nov. 11.
Baird wrote that Norwich sent a proposal to Brown on Oct. 16 to which Brown did not respond but instead returned a proposal concerning issues Norwich thought resolved.
Further, attorneys for Brown and Norwich conferred during the same week Martin sent his statement, Baird wrote.
“Norwich remains, as it always has, diligent in attempting to find an agreement that makes sense for both communities,” Baird said.
To that end, Roberts said the latest proposal to Brown Township is expected to be delivered before Thanksgiving.
