By BILL POEHLER/Salem Statesman-Journal
DETROIT — After a slate of contentious meetings, all five board members – and the fire chief and the acting fire chief – of the Idanha-Detroit Rural Fire Protection District have resigned since the beginning of the year.
As of Feb. 25, all that was left in the department were dozens of volunteer firefighters and one part-time employee. And this on top of the district losing its Detroit fire hall in the 2020 Labor Day wildfires.
Without any board members, which are volunteer positions, state law requires county commissioners to appoint a new slate. So the Marion County Board of Commissioners was forced into a situation it has never faced: choosing, all at once, the new leaders of a rural fire protection district.
It all started when the part-time fire chief pleaded guilty to assaulting his wife.
Turnover in small staff
The Idanha-Detroit Rural Fire Protection District covers seven square miles in Marion and Linn counties, including the cities of Detroit and Idanha. It has two paid part-time employees, including the chief. Most of its services are performed by volunteers. It has a budget of $295,778 for the current fiscal year.
The district’s fire station in Detroit and a fire engine were destroyed in the fire. Its remaining station, which was built in the 1950s, is in Idanha.
It has been seeking money to build a new station.
Will Ewing of Toledo, the district’s fire chief since 2018, resigned Jan. 5, about two months after pleading guilty in November 2021 to assaulting his wife by choking her for 15 seconds. Ewing’s sentence was deferred on the condition he takes domestic violence classes and doesn’t enter a bar or use alcohol or controlled substances.
Ewing said he left the job because of a dispute over the terms of his employment, which he said included being paid $3,600 for 20 hours of work per week,; concerns about the district’s contract with a design studio to build a new fire station due to ties with a firm his son works for; and a rumor he was trying to end the district’s paramedic response.
He is now the chief of the Seal Rock Fire District.
The district named Chad LaVallee, a volunteer firefighter, as its acting fire chief immediately after.
At its board meeting on Jan. 18, board member Walt Collier resigned. On Feb. 23, the board chose Don Tesdal to replace him, but he wasn’t sworn in.
According to the draft minutes of the Feb. 23 board meeting, LaVallee said the board was not going to allow public comment, then proceeded to discuss how the district could eliminate one of the two part-time positions, the one held by Lt. Laura Harris, at the end of the fiscal year in June.
After community member Vicki Spier objected during the meeting to eliminating the position, she said upsetting comments were made following the January meeting.
Spier said she wanted the fire district to move forward and the way to do that is not to call the community members “A**holes,” according to the minutes. LaVallee apologized, according to the draft minutes.
Board member Linda Stice said she felt like she was being attacked at the prior meeting, according to the draft minutes.
Eric Page, also a Detroit city councilor, then asked for board member Lyn Schultz, who did not return a call for comment, to step down.
On Feb. 24, board members Schultz, Stice, Charene Ziebert and Jeff Skeeters resigned. LaVallee said he resigned the same day. Reached by phone, LaVallee said a reporter needed to contact the district for more information.
With no board members in office, someone had to appoint new members.
According to state law, it fell on the Marion County commissioners to determine who would fill out the board.
One at a time at the county’s office in Salem on Wednesday, the three county commissioners gave the names of their four choices from among the five candidates for positions on the Idanha-Detroit Rural Fire Protection District board of directors.
The commissioners gave their reasoning for their choices. They eventually decided to appoint former Aurora fire chief Gregory Dyke, former Sublimity city councilor and career fire chief Brandon Hamilton, mechanic Matthew Lofton and accountant Serena Morones.
The department is still without a fire chief.
“There’s just been this (butting heads) up there, and I think they’re going to get the support of community members around them,” Marion County commissioner and Detroit resident Kevin Cameron said.
Cameron said he received a message from state fire marshal Mariana Ruiz-Temple that she was aware of the situation at Idanha-Detroit. The message said she had gotten support for nearby districts to back up Idanha-Detroit if help was needed.
All four of the new board members will serve terms to June 30, 2023, when the positions will be up for election.
- Bill Poehler covers Marion County for the Statesman Journal. He can be reached at bpoehler@StatesmanJournal.com
