Major Cedar Area Fire & Rescue Amendment on the Table in Busy Week of Public Hearings

A year after voters in Kasson Township rejected a $5.8 million bond proposal to build a new fire station, the township and the other members of the Cedar Area Fire & Rescue (CAFR) interlocal agreement are mulling an amendment that would change how the townships share the burden of future growth. All four participating townships will host public hearings this week to hear feedback on the new amendment, which is a direct response to last November’s failed bond proposal.

Four Leelanau County townships – Centerville, Cleveland, Kasson, and Solon – have an interlocal agreement under Michigan’s Urban Cooperation Act of 1967, where they jointly cooperate in funding and “furnishing fire protection/emergency medical services throughout their respective jurisdictions through a single fire department.” That fire department, CAFR, operates out of a single fire station in Cedar, in Solon Township. However, due to growth in Leelanau County – and a resulting increase in demand for CAFR services across the four participating townships – the need for a second fire station has become a recurring topic of conversation in recent years.

Speaking to The Leelanau Ticker last September, Kasson Township Supervisor Greg Julian said July 2025 had seen the “largest call volume month ever” for CAFR. “To meet those needs, we need a second station to spread the distance, add staff, and make response times better,” Julian said at the time.

Kasson Township took the matter to voters last fall, proposing a $5.8 million bond to build a new CAFR station at the intersection of M-72 and Maple City Road. While the station would have served all four townships, and while operational expenses would have been shared, the cost of actually building the station would have landed entirely on the shoulders of Kasson Township and its taxpayers, due to the way the CAFR interlocal agreement is written. The proposed millage carried an estimated levy of 1.8311 mills for the first year, or $183.11 for a property with $100,000 of taxable value.

The extra tax burden – and the perceived unfairness of Kasson Township having to bear the weight of an asset that would also benefit three other townships – caused a stir among voters, and the bond proposal ultimately failed by a 394-279 vote margin last November. In the wake of the wake of that outcome, Julian and Kasson Township Clerk Dana Boomer both told The Ticker the next step would likely be to reexamine the CAFR agreement and consider changes that could make it more equitable. The CAFR board has spent much of the year since considering an amendment to the interlocal agreement.

“The consensus is that we need to continue to move forward with these services for the citizens,” Julian tells The Ticker, adding that the CAFR board has taken “a very thorough and in-depth look at the condition of the existing building in Cedar” as part of the process. “We realized that the building in Cedar needs almost as much attention, monetarily, as the ballot initiative did,” he continues. “So, now we’ve got the task of fixing that Cedar building properly, but that doesn’t resolve the need for better coverage for the western side [of the CAFR territory].”

Cleveland Township Supervisor Tim Stein, who chairs the CAFR board, outlined a loose plan for the future of the department at a meeting in June. As Stein explained, the Cedar fire station was originally built to serve as the home for a small volunteer fire department. And while CAFR has grown substantially over the years, it is still operating out of that same station intended for volunteer use. Modifying the interlocal agreement and adding new measures for cost sharing and collaboration, Stein said, would present the best path forward – both for adding a second “auxiliary station” in Kasson Township and improving or even rebuilding the Cedar station. Stein estimated that the four townships together could finance $12 million in bonds for the construction of two stations, with 0.95 mills per township.

The new Kasson station would likely be rebuilt first, so it could house CAFR crews and equipment while the existing station is renovated or rebuilt. Julian says the CAFR board has engaged the services of Cunningham Limp to explore engineering, design, and cost prospects for the projects.

But the first step, Julian says, is approval of the amended interlocal agreement, which would split cost-sharing and ownership responsibilities evenly among the four townships. Right now, Solon and Centerville townships own the Cedar fire station and cover the cost of repairs and maintenance there. The amendment would give all four townships equal ownership of the rebuilt Cedar station, and would split capital improvement costs equally among the parties.

Additionally, the amendment states that the “financial burden” of any bonds or “indebtedness” to build or buy new stations – or to remodel existing ones – would be shared equally among the four townships. That structure means any future CAFR bond proposal would appear on the ballot in all four townships. If even one township’s electorate voted no, the bond would not move forward.

For his part, Julian is hopeful a united front from the four townships will achieve what Kasson Township couldn’t achieve on its own last November – even though he acknowledges that many locals will likely still balk at the price tag.

“None of this is cheap,” Julian concludes. “You want services? Then you have to fund them. It's just as simple as that. So, hopefully we'll be able to do that and get this thing rolling and have two premium stations for our four-township department. We've got an excellent crew, we've got a great staff that are extremely committed. I really believe we can put this together and make it happen.”

The amendment to the interlocal agreement will get public hearings in all four townships this week, outlined below:

>Cleveland Township: Tuesday, November 10 at 6:45pm
>Centerville Township: Wednesday, November 11 at 6:30pm
>Kasson Township: Wednesday, November 11 at 7pm
>Solon Township: Thursday, November 12 at 6:15pm