As the area continues to grow, Scio Township is asking voters to approve two millages on Election Day to expand firefighting services.
The two questions are separate but related. The capital question is requesting .75 mills over 20 years to borrow money to build a new fire station and purchase equipment to go with it. The operating question is a millage increase that will be gradually applied over 10 years from the current 1.3 mills to a maximum of 3.75 mills. That will allow the Scio Township Fire Department to fully staff that new fire station.
Since the 1980s, the department has operated out of the station on Zeeb Road near I-94. But with population growth in Scio Township in the last few decades, Fire Chief Andy Houde says it’s long overdue for a second fire station.
“We looked at several variables, one being response times. Being that that is quite a distance from our township’s fire station. Our response times are not what we’d like them to be. Our objective is to be there in under six minutes the majority of the time.”
Chief Houde says if the questions are approved, he expects the new fire station on Wagner Road, near the intersection with Liberty Road could be opened in 2025.
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