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CURTIS OSTRANDER	DUAINE HARDING
ELEANOR TODD	ELMER "BUD" HAHN
GERVASE KILEY	MARIAN SUTTON
ORLO KIRKUM	SLAVA KOKOTOVICH
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WT asking for Ambulance
and ALS millage renewal

by DENNIS A. SETTER
Observer Managing Editor

      Voters will be asked Aug. 3 to approve a millage renewal allowing Washington Township to fund the operation of its Ambulance and Advanced Life Support (ALS) services for another five years at the same level.
       The millage question will ask voters to fund the services at a annual sum not to exceed 2 mills ($2 for every $1,000 in taxable value). That amount is the most the township can ask for according to law.
       According to Fire Department Chief David Poterek, the township has been funding Ambulance and ALS at 1.589 mills for the last three years. Prior to that, the millage levied was 1.736 mills.
       "We've kept it that way for three years and we intend on keeping it that way," said Poterek.
       Helping to keep the millage lower was a plan Poterek put in place in 2007 to charge insurance companies for ambulance runs if a township person needing assistance was insured or charging non-residents for ambulance and ALS services.
       "If you do not have insurance and you are a resident you do not pay," said Poterek. "If you live outside the township, there is a charge."
       Emergency or transport runs covered by insurance brought in almost $350,000 last year, said Township Clerk Kathy Bosheers.
       "This is kind of unique from what firefighting used to be because firefighting never generated revenue," said Poterek. "Now it's become at least part of the revenue."
       The 1.589 mills levied last year brought in about $1.72 million for Ambulance and ALS. All money in the Ambulance and ALS budget is brought in through these two sources only. No money is used out of the township's general fund.
       That means if the department needs to buy or replace a vehicle, it can't ask for it out of the township's general fund.
       "They have to manage their money based on their millage, so if they want to buy a truck then that comes out of the money collected through the millage," said Bosheers.
       Washington's Fire Department and Ambulance and ALS service is made up of 39 employees. Twenty-five are full time and 14 are paid-on-call.
       Ambulance and ALS has four ambulances and provides both emergency runs and transport. Department employees are trained for both firefighting and emergency response.