By Teddy Rydquist
Leader Staff Writer
During their regular monthly meeting the Oxford Township Board of Trustees voted 7-0, on July 8 to place a four-year, 4.5-mill property tax proposal on the November 3 General Election ballot.
If approved by Oxford voters, this funding increase will allow the Fire Department, which has two stations, one at 96 N. Washington Street and the other at 1565 W. Drahner Road, to hire five additional full-time firefighters and replace some of their rapidly aging fleet of emergency response vehicles.
One mill equates to $1 for every $1,000 of a property’s taxable value, meaning this proposal would be $4.50 for every $1,000.
Per Oxford Township Communications and Grants Manager C.J. Carnacchio, the Oxford Fire Department originally had a 3.5-mill request approved in November 2014, but cutbacks mandated by Michigan’s Headlee Amendment have reduced this fire tax to its current rate of 3.3472 mills. This existing fire tax expires in December, meaning the department will be even more strapped for funds without voter approval.

To save you the quick math, this November proposal represents a 1.1528-mill increase.
Oxford Fire Department Chief Pete Scholz, who has served his community since 1976, joined the Board of Trustees meeting, held virtually via Zoom video conference because of the coronavirus (COVID-19) restrictions, to make his case for why this additional funding is needed.
“Being as this is a national election year, I’m looking to renew our millage, with a one-mill increase on top of that,” he said. “What this one-mill increase would allow us to do is hire four additional shift members and a full-time fire inspector. Also, our trucks are becoming an aging fleet, most of our fleet was purchased in 2002, with the exception of a tanker we got in 1996 and an engine we got in 1996.
“It would be my intention to replace the engine in 2021 and the tanker in 2023 with this money.”
A new fire engine costs approximately $525,000, with a tanker running roughly $450,000.
Exemplifying the need for additional firefighters, the department has had issues keeping themselves fully staffed in recent years, resulting in an increased reliance on assistance from neighboring departments.
“Our staff, on the paid-on-call side, is continually getting to the point where we don’t have numbers showing up,” Scholz said.
“There’s multiple reasons for it, they all have extremely busy lives, like we all do nowadays. It’s different than it was 15-20 years ago, when everyone was available all the time. Now with families, lives changing all the times, everyone is busy and can’t commit.
“Also, we barely get personnel trained. We have four right now in paramedic school, as soon as they finish up their paramedics, they’ll be leaving for career positions at other departments, so that again keeps dwindling away at our paid-on-call staff.
“For example, we had to assist in Metamora for a possible structure fire last night (July 7), and I had two paid-on-calls show up to go on that call. That’s all we had available for it, and that’s continuing to happen quite often.
“Mutually, from other departments, they assisted us last year a total of 70 times because we didn’t have enough personnel to cover our own calls and cover us while we were on other calls.”
Scholz rounded out his appearance by pointing out the importance of the role a full-time fire inspector would fill.
“Right now, we have close to 500 commercial structures we’re required to inspect every single year. It’s difficult for one person right now to get around and do all those.
“It makes more sense to put more effort into fire prevention, fire inspection, than it does actually fighting fires. So, definitely the inspector would be a great benefit to the department.”
The millage appearing on the November ballot would begin with this December’s tax levy and end with the December 2023 levy. If given the green light by you, the voters, it is expected to raise an estimated $4.28 million for the department.
Oxford residents with questions or concerns are encouraged to contact Chief Scholz at (248) 969-9483 or pscholz@oxfordfiredept.com.

  Oxford Fire Department