At a special meeting on Monday, the Brighton City Council finalized and approved documents between the city, the volunteer fire department, and the townships they serve. Revisions were made to meet requests from the department, which had threatened to discontinue service by today if certain matters were not addressed. 

The council changed language in the Memorandum of Understanding and 28E Agreement to now allocate $2,000 annually to the department for maintenance and repairs to the fire station. With the council previously stating that they were unable to commit that amount from Brighton’s general fund, the money will instead come from the local option sales tax fund. 

Council member, Cathy Rich, explained the purpose of the fund to KCII following the meeting. “Those dollars we collect monthly from the voters. That money is to be used for infrastructure. The need to take care of repairs and maintenance of the fire station are considered infrastructure and so that gives us a place to get the money without increasing property taxes on the taxpayers.”  

Another notable change with the 28E Agreement is that each township served by the department will have its own. This reverses a February 14 decision by the council to continue using one agreement for all involved parties. While there will be multiple agreements, the language will largely remain the same. 

As a result of these actions, the city received a letter from Brighton Fire Chief, Bill Farmer, yesterday stating that the volunteers of the department “rescind the potential resignation of all members voted on March 13th, 2023 by unanimous decisions.” All parties involved in this months-long dispute now hope to work together to move forward.