Fire board aims to grow

Five commissioners improve representation

Matt Baide | Jul 20, 20230

Central Mason Fire & EMS has a ballot measure Aug. 1 to expand its board of commissioners to five members.

“We are a growing department and we are covering a lot of extra ground and having more representation across our entire district will better serve our community and our citizens,” CMFE executive secretary Norma Brock told the Journal.

The board had six commissioners after the merger with Fire District 11 brought in the three commissioners from Island Lake Fire. By law, it has to be reduced to three because it was what the voters approved for CMFE. If the Aug. 1 ballot measure passes and increases the number to five, it would allow two commissioners to stay and complete the five-member board.

All five positions would be considered at-large and people within the fire district would be eligible to run for a commissioner seat.

Dan Hora was a commissioner for Fire District 11, but he announced his retirement at the June 21 CMFE commissioner meeting, leaving five commissioners who would be in place if the ballot measure passes. Kelly Frazier and Kevin Ward were the two commissioners from Fire District 11 who are still commissioners, along with commission chair Steve Pierce, Tom Taylor and Pete Butkus.

According to Brock, the terms of Butkus and Frazier are set to expire this year, and if the measure is approved, they would be up for election next year. If not, the two commissioners would not be retained after Jan. 1.

Division Chief of Logistics Brandon Searles, former Fire District 11 chief, said the merger has been great.

“We were already working together very closely over the years and this just made it seamless and now we’re just one big happy family,” Searles told the Journal.

Since the merger June 1, CMFE has been busy.

“Fire season has definitely started earlier than normal,” Searles said. “We expect it to go long this year into October. Normally for us, it’s August time frame we see this sort of activity but seeing it the first week of July is early for us.”

The biggest fire was the McEwen Prairie Road fire on July 4. CMFE is proud of the response and saving houses.

“Our fire district, along with DNR, and all of our partner agencies that showed up on initial attack made all the difference,” Brock said. “They were able to shift from attacking the fire to structure protection seamlessly and no structures were damaged, which is a testament to all those hardworking firefighters out there.”

The fire is still burning, Brock said Monday, who said within the bounds, they are still out there working to contain hotspots.

Searles said it’s the same landscape as the Powerline 2 fire in October 2012, so the crews were familiar with the area and how the fire would progress.

Searles said the biggest benefits of a five-member commission are better representation, accountability and transparency for CMFE.

“By having a five-member board, it allows two commissioners could now meet and work on projects, discuss needs of the fire district because having two is not a quorum,” Searles said. “You’d have to have three or more for that so it allows two to meet to be able to do that. Today, with three members, you can’t do that. So going to five allows two commissioners to be able to meet and the big thing is having more commissioners on board allows that transparency for more folks for the citizens to go to to talk to their elected officials and allows more people to be an elected official at the fire district to have that voice and have more of a say.”