By: John Fryman
THE VILLAGE REPORTER
john@thevillagereporter.com
The Jefferson Township Trustees met in a regular session on Monday, July 20. Trustees present were Austin Poynter, Brian Batterson and Scott Oberlin. Also present were Fiscal Officer Linda Beck and Maintenance Supervisor Mark Bowers.
Poynter called the meeting to order at 7 p.m. The minutes from the June 15 and July 6 meetings were approved.
Trustees had earlier requested Montpelier Fire Chief Brian Fritsch to speak about the number of fire runs his department had responded to in the township and the costs involved.
Montpelier is one of four area fire departments that provide the township with fire protection, along with Brady Township, City of Bryan and Madison Township/Kunkle.
Fritsch said he didn’t know how Montpelier compares to the other three departments as far as call volume.
Poynter responded by saying Montpelier has the most call volume, followed by Bryan, Brady Township and Madison Township/Kunkle.
Fritsch pointed out that in 2025, Montpelier Fire Department responded to 35 fire calls involving three different call categories: regular, emergency and non-emergency.
Of those calls, 28 were actual emergency calls when the entire department gets called out, and seven were non-charged calls, whether that be lifting assistance, carbon monoxide or a burning complaint.
The fire chief said when an unauthorized burning complaint is reported, most of the time it’s initiated by someone who is driving down the road, sees a huge fire and then calls 911, saying hey, I think somebody’s house or something is on fire here.
“If we get called out by the EMS for lifting assistance out in the township, that is a non-charged call, as the firefighters who get called for that are not getting paid,” Fritsch said.
“It’s not a paid call for us. When we get calls for an emergency, we do get compensated for our time on the fire department.”
He then added, “But when we go to lifting assistance in Superior Township or Bridgewater Township, Jefferson Township, we are not getting paid for doing that.”
The fire chief said all of the emergency call reports from Montpelier involving the township are placed in the township’s drop box.
As of July 20, there have been 22 calls from the township already received this year involving the Montpelier Fire Department.
Poynter told Fritsch the township is trying to figure out how they are covering the cost of fire protection.
“The problem is like when the Village of Montpelier makes the changes of raising the cost of their yearly expenditures, like when Bryan built a Taj Mahal of a fire department and it didn’t raise our cost a dime,” pointed out Poynter.
“If Montpelier they do this and they change this and their expenditures goes over $100,000 a year, we just take on that cost. I just don’t like the way they do their calculation.”
Poynter added, “If you take our other three fire departments (Bryan, Brady Township, Madison Township/Kunkle), and you add what it costs to run those three departments, it’s less than half of what we pay for Montpelier.
“We’ve been blessed with good fire departments because you guys do a great job; Bryan does a great job, and we have no issue on how any of these fire departments are running. It’s just the way Montpelier Council makes these calculations.
“We want to have them look at recalculating this to maybe make us a little bit more not so one-sided, I think.
“We’re in a tough spot because it takes up our entire fire levy,” Poynter commented. “It’s easy enough to just go out there and say, ‘we’re going to put that on the ballot’ to give us a $100,000 fire levy to cover Montpelier and all the other fire departments. That’s where we are in the boat right now.”
Trustees addressed the issue of the drainage problem on the corner of County Roads 16 and M. They are hoping to obtain a couple of quotes to do the work.
In other action, the trustees:
-Approved a resolution for 2027 township tax rates to be submitted to the county auditor, which will go into effect January 1, 2027. It includes a 1.1-mill general fund levy, a 1.7-mill road and bridge levy, and a 1.0-mill for the 2010 fire levy.
-The township will hold its annual Trash Day on August 7-8. There will be two 30-yard dumpsters available for township residents.
The meeting adjourned at 8:15 p.m. Next meeting will be on Monday, August 3, at 7 p.m.
