Voters Approve New Station for MI Fire Authority

MUSKEGON COUNTY, MI—Voters in the Whitehall area on Tuesday approved a property tax to pay for a new fire station.

It was the second try in four months by the White Lake Fire Authority to get the money for a $2.7 million, 12,000-square-foot station.

Unofficial results of the March 10 vote show the four-year, 1.65-mill property tax increase was approved by an unofficial tally of 1,569-1,377, according to results posted by the Muskegon County Clerk’s office.

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The tax request, which amounts to $1.65 per $1,000 taxable value, will raise an estimated $781,302 for the first year. Owners of a home with a $150,000 market value, and taxable value of $75,000, will pay an additional $123.75 per year in property taxes.

“I am elated right now,” White Lake Fire Capt. Pete McCarthy said Tuesday night after results were in. "I’ve never been described as a guy who can’t find words for a situation, but I’m that guy right now. I’m over the Moon.

“The community came out and said ‘We support you.’”

According to unofficial results posted on the Muskegon County Clerk’s website, the tax increase passed in all four precincts that voted – one each in Whitehall and Whitehall Township and two in Fruitland Township.

The new station No. 1 will be constructed on a lot in the Whitehall industrial park at the corner of Cogswell Avenue and Ullman’s Way. That is a more central location than the current Station No. 1 located at 115 S. Baldwin in downtown Whitehall that was constructed when the department only served the city of Whitehall.

At 3,500 square feet, fire officials said the current station is cramped, with no kitchen, sleeping or training areas. It also has no exhaust removal system, meaning turnout gear and other personal protective equipment is constantly exposed to carcinogenic diesel exhaust.

McCarthy said the fire departments’ supporters were successful in educating voters about how outdated the station is.

The new station was designed with a diesel exhaust removal system, a bay layout to fit all firefighting apparatus, a kitchen/lounge area, separate restroom/shower facilities for men and women, offices, a small training room and a bedroom for firefighters working the overnight shift.

“The real work begins now because we have to build a station,” McCarthy said.

It’s hoped the station will be completed by the fall of 2021, he said.

Voters in November 2019 rejected the same millage increase that would have been in place a year longer, for five years. That proposal would have paid for two pumper/tanker firefighting vehicles in addition to the new station.

A similar proposal also was defeated in 2015.

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