St. Joseph County commissioners are looking to stop providing advanced ambulance service to unincorporated parts of the county. The coming change has some township fire departments looking to merge.
Half of Greene Township and all of Liberty Township, including the town of North Liberty, already operate a fire territory. They’re considering adding the rest of Greene and Centre townships.
That’s because the county plans to stop paying the South Bend Fire Department to provide advanced ambulance service to their areas, saving the county about $3.5 million a year.
Greene Township attorney Pete Agostino said representatives from the townships met Wednesday night.
“I think there’s lots of questions like how’s it going to roll out, who’s going to be in charge, what’s it do to my property taxes, and those questions all have to be answered," Agostino says.
Agostino said the law requires townships to tell taxpayers about how changing fire territory boundaries will affect property taxes. Steve Dalton, the county’s financial consultant, said Thursday that he didn’t yet have those figures finalized but he will have them in time for public hearings Feb. 12 and March 5, with a final adoption March 19 at the Liberty Township Community Building.
