By Max Bryan
The Detroit News
WATERFORD TOWNSHIP, Mich. — Noting a “measurable increase” in non-emergency calls coming in from elder care facilities, Waterford Township’s fire department wants to change township policy to impose fees after a certain number of such calls.
Township Fire Chief Matthew Nye has proposed amending Waterford Township’s cost recovery ordinance to require facilities to pay for the cost of non-emergency calls after the first five such calls in a calendar year. If they don’t pay within 60 days, the bill will be added onto their taxes, said Township Director of Development Services Jeffrey Polkowski.
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Sterling Heights and Bloomfield Township have implemented similar ordinances to recover these costs, said Polkowski.
Nye said in a memo to the Township Board of Trustees that the fire department “has experienced a measurable increase” in calls for non-emergency services such as lift assistance, non-emergency transport and false alarms from personal devices in recent years. He told the board Monday that this is due to a decrease in staff at the facilities, which is a trend nationwide.
“While the Fire Department appropriately responds to all calls for service, repeated non-emergency responses divert personnel and equipment away from emergency readiness and other essential public services,” the memo reads.
Responding firefighters, who are first responders in the township, would determine if a call qualified as an emergency, Polkowski said. The facilities may appeal expenses levied against them if they believe it was issued in error, according to the memo.
Facilities that repeatedly make non-emergency calls would be required to submit a corrective action plan to the township, according to the memo.
Nye and Polkowski emphasized that the costs would not be passed on to residents.
At the Board of Trustees meeting, Nye said he’s reached the point where he’s threatened the facilities with a charge. He called the way they use the fire department “overwhelmingly terrible.”
“It’s not abuse because they can’t handle it. It’s because they want their bottom line to be better, and so that’s the problem for me,” said Nye.
“(With) the amount of money they charge people to live in those facilities, they should have staff on hand. And I did share that when I met with three homes here in the township,” said Trustee Gary Wall .
The Detroit News called four assisted living facilities for a response to the proposed ordinance. A Waterford Oaks Senior Living representative declined to comment on the ordinance.
Township Clerk Kim Markee told Nye and Polkowski she believed giving the facilities five free non-emergency calls before the fees are enforced was too generous. Nye noted that most of the other communities with a similar ordinance give the facilities three chances before they charge them.
“I thought, let’s give them five when they’re starting out,” said Nye. “I’m fine with three, whatever the board’s preference will be.”
The township board will consider adopting the amendment at its Jan. 26 meeting.
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