A new fire authority could be coming to the Manistee area.
Rising costs and rising call volumes mean the City of Manistee is looking to combine multiple municipal fire departments into a new fire authority — an idea that’s drawn mixed reactions.
Fire departments here and around the country are dealing with sweeping changes in who responds to emergencies. Volunteer firefighters, once a mainstay for staffing, have been on a long decline in numbers. At the same time, call volume has skyrocketed – specifically, emergency medical calls. And it doesn’t look like either trend is likely to change in the near future.
So fire stations are looking for ways to pool resources and prepare for a future where more people are calling 911, but fewer emergency personnel are available to respond.
To combat these challenges, three townships in the Manistee area — Filer, Onekama, and Stronach — will be voting on millages that will fund their existing fire departments. Property owners will be asked to pay 1.5 to 2.5 mills to support their fire departments.
If the millages pass, those township boards could decide to join the proposed new fire authority, combining efforts with other participating townships, including the City of Manistee and possibly the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians.
Manistee Township, just north of the City of Manistee, recently pulled out of talks to join the fire authority.
Community buy-in hard to come by
Proponents of the new fire authority say residents will receive better emergency coverage. More firefighters would be working around the clock, resulting in faster response times and advanced support for people in emergency situations.
Fire Chief for the City of Manistee, Tom Hernden is the driving force behind the proposal. He says the new fire authority would also make it easier to attract firefighters to the area with more competitive pay and benefits.
“We can hire more people to use between each other's areas,” he said. “Then the boundaries disappear.”
Some residents speaking out against the millages aren’t necessarily opposed to the idea of establishing a new fire authority, but question if the fire chief and city officials are up to the task of gathering support and developing a workable plan.
Manistee Township recently pulled out of talks to establish the new fire authority.
Read the letter signed by 25 emergency personnel opposing the proposed new fire authority.
Manistee City Council members have expressed opposition for the fire authority during recent public meetings. And 25 emergency personnel in the area signed a letter opposing the new fire authority.
Some of the people who signed the letter currently work for Mobile Medical Response (MMR), a private ambulance service that operates in the area. Should the fire authority go into effect, MMR stands to see a decrease in call volume – which would mean a decrease in revenue.
Current staffing losses
Manistee Fire Department has lost 8 staff members since Chief Hernden took over three years ago. Two of those resignations were captains, and three of the eight resignations have come in the last four months.
According to Chief Hernden, the department is working to hire more firefighters. But in the meantime, he’s not worried about his department’s ability to respond to emergencies.
“We have a good group of people,” he said. “They will stop at nothing to provide good service to this community.”
Former Glen Arbor fire chief and current MMR employee John Dodson is worried about the staffing shortage at the Manistee Fire Department. He says hiring and training new firefighters is a process that can take months or even years.
“The loss of experienced captains capable of providing training and mentorship leaves these newer members without the institutional support necessary to develop into independent, fully qualified providers in a timely manner,” he said in a letter to the Manistee City Council.
He pegs the blame for the resignations on Chief Hernden and City Administrator William (Bill) Gambill, saying the current staffing crisis is the result of “a severe dereliction of administrative duty.”
Firefighters who left the station speak out
“I went on our union Facebook page and made a post saying that our fire chief has created a toxic and hostile work environment,” said former Manistee firefighter Jordan LaPoint. “And at that point (Chief Hernden) no longer wanted me to work for the city.”
LaPoint is the most recent staff member to resign. His father was a firefighter in Manistee, so he grew up around the fire station.
“I absolutely love the city of Manistee,” he said. “I imagined that once I got the job there, that I'd retire from that fire department.”
Another firefighter, Anna VanDuinen, was the department’s first female firefighter. She quit soon after completing her training because of her interactions with Chief Hernden.
She made a sexual harassment complaint about him that involved a trip to his home to retrieve a Christmas tree and decorations for the fire station.
Van Duinen said she felt uncomfortable being asked to go to Chief Hernden’s private residence. After she declined an offer to go back into the house to grab more ornaments for the tree, she said Chief Hernden treated her differently at work.
The investigation found that “no violation of the city’s harassment policy occurred."
Chief Hernden said the accusation was “unsubstantiated.” He said that while he and VanDuinen were retrieving the Christmas tree, his wife and son were home, but in a different part of the house.
VanDuinen confirmed hearing another person’s voice just before they left.
There if you need it
In instances where staffing shortages affect emergency coverage, the Manistee Fire Department has mutual aid agreements with nearby fire stations, allowing firefighters from nearby departments to respond to emergencies.
MMR also has a mutual aid agreement with the Manistee Fire Department. MMR does not respond to fire related emergencies, but is often dispatched to medical emergencies. MMR provides fee-for-service emergency response, meaning the people who need help could pay out-of-pocket if their insurance company won’t cover the cost.
Emergency response by the fire department is billed to the insurance company. If the person that needs help doesn’t have insurance, according to Chief Hernden, the fire department will cover the cost.
Fire department work culture
Firefighters are together on round-the-clock shifts, sleeping in the same room, eating the same food, and then being called into dangerous, high stress situations at all hours of the day and night.
Work culture and cohesion within a fire department is vital to providing good service.
Chief Hernden says he inherited the problem of low-morale in 2023 when he joined the station.
“We are trying to create a new culture and a new normal for the Manistee Fire Department,” he said. “And I believe some of that change was hard for some individuals.”
The previous fire chief had been at the station for 20 years.
The City of Manistee Fire Department was once in the Guiness Book of World Records for being the “oldest continuously manned fire station in the world.”
The Manistee Fire Station has been staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week for 137 years. That streak has not been broken, but according to the Guiness Book of World Records, in 2022, a fire station in Sweden was given the distinction after 146 years in service.
