DAFD, Fire Station, and New Trail | Mayor Keough Reports to City Council

| 4 min | from Dexter Mayor Shawn Keough |

Dexter Mayor Shawn Keough submitted his report to the City Council at its Sept. 28, 2020, meeting.

Hello Residents and Council,

Happy Fall 2020!

Here is my report of recent activities and my calendar of planned Dexter activities looking ahead:

Recent Activities since the September 14, 2020, City Council meeting

September 16, 2020 – Collective Bargaining meeting with DAFD (Dexter Area Fire Dept) Chair Jim Seta, DAFD Board member Dan Munzel, and Chief Robert Smith in preparation for our next meeting with the firefighters of Dexter Area Firefighters Local 4090. All discussions have been productive. We are hoping to get the negotiations wrapped up this fall.

September 17, 2020 – Dexter Downtown Development Authority (DDA) meeting – the DDA Board discussed the Social District and Common Area concepts that council has been reviewing.

September 17, 2020 – Dexter Area Fire Department (DAFD) Board meeting – Libby Brushaber stepped down (off) from her DAFD position, so the Board welcomed Mark Mesco, a Trustee from Dexter Township to take her place. Since Libby Brushaber was the former treasurer of DAFD, new appointments were made. I was appointed to DAFD Treasurer and Harley Rider was appointed to Secretary (to fill my former position). The Board discussed goals for the upcoming budget including finding a way to add a fourth firefighter to each shift. This discussion is ongoing but adding the fourth firefighter seems to be a priority of most DAFD board members.

Reflections on our Fire station

It has been many meetings since City Council spent any real time discussing the actual needs at our current fire station as it relates to the fire and rescue service that we are providing. In recent years, our conversations have focused on land purchases, large facility bond amounts, and whether we need a construction manager or not. We have also discussed the needs for a new City Hall space, which in my opinion is the most important current need.

All those discussion topics are important, but today’s reflection is focused on our fire station. I keep asking myself, “Are we as a Council really addressing what we need to improve at our fire station as it relates to the services we are providing?” I feel we need to focus on what we really need. I have been reflecting on our past discussions and sorting through the many conversations that we have had over the past 6 years. There certainly were a lot of conversations. What was it that set us out to have these discussions about our fire station?

So I started my reflection with some basic thoughts:

• At the basic root of all these discussions is the fact that our current fire station is an older building.
• This is true, however, our building is structurally very sound; we have verified that.
• The building provides four apparatus bays and houses a very modern apparatus and equipment that are deployed from the station.
• The building is located in a good location on a major roadway that provides excellent service response to all three of the member communities that it serves (City of Dexter, Dexter Township and Webster Township), along with excellent support to parts of Lima Township and other areas where we provide mutual aid outside our service area.
• For many years, our fire station was the main station and the only station with full-time staff.
• Our fire station is no longer the only station within the DAFD coverage area.
• Today, our station is one of two operational fire stations within our district, and there is a third station that is currently being constructed in Webster Township. A little over 5 years ago, Dexter Township built a modern fire station in their Township. That new station added 3 full double long apparatus bays plus living and sleeping quarters for four firefighters. It also contains a large meeting room, several areas for equipment storage, and a modern decontamination area for cleaning firefighter protective gear.
• Webster Township is constructing a new station in their Township that will add two full double long bays and provide additional living and sleeping quarters.
• The result of these investments by our partners in DAFD is that our service area will soon have a total of 3 stations, with 9 large apparatus bays (some double in length) to house our current and future apparatus. We will also have three locations within our service area that provide living quarters for several firefighters. All of this is good, as our DAFD Board is considering adding a fourth firefighter to our daily staffing.
• As I reflected on all of this, my thoughts brought me back to the living and daily work area at our current station. This is really the area at our station that really needs to be improved.
• The living area of our station needs to be modernized. It needs to be improved so that we have separate sleeping and restrooms for male and female users. Our opportunity is approaching. We can tear down the small living area on the east side of the current station and construct modern living, sleeping, and daily work areas to serve our department now and into the future. I feel that we can do this cost-effectively and within our current means, without adding another large millage to our current tax structure. We are also at the appropriate time in our DAFD history to make these improvements. With Webster Township’s station projected to open in April 2021, we are approaching a time where these improvements can be made and the firefighters will have two other stations within our district to live/sleep while our station improvements are made.

New Mill Creek Park Trail is open – thank you to all those that contributed to this new community asset

If you haven’t heard yet, the City was able to open up our newest recreational trail segment, which we call the Mill Creek Park – Phase 2 Trail. This newest segment starts at the southern end of Mill Creek Park and continues southeasterly along the east side of Mill Creek until it bends east along the northside of the Creekside Middle School where the trail connects to Baker Road. I recently walked the trail and it is fantastic!

The views of Mill Creek and the surrounding natural areas are excellent. We have opened up access to more natural area within our community and I feel this will be a much-used community asset. Due to the pandemic, we were not able to have a grand opening, but I would like to take this opportunity to thank our partners and team members that helped make this happen.

On behalf of all City Council members, I would like to start by thanking the Dexter Community School Board and their staff for cooperating with the City and allowing the City to place a portion of the new trail along unused school property. I think this trail will be a huge asset for our school district and have already noticed that the men’s and women’s cross country teams are already safely using it for their daily training.

I would also like to thank all of our City staff as well as the contractor (LJ Construction) and our engineering consultants (Smith Group and OHM) that put so many hours into designing, permitting and constructing this new path. All of you deserve much credit for doing such a good job! Thank you!

I look forward to seeing you around our town (wearing your favorite mask).

Please feel free to contact me at any time.

Please stay safe and enjoy Dexter!

Shawn Keough

Mayor, City of Dexter

skeough@DexterMI.gov (313) 363-1434 (cell)