Politics & Government

Plymouth Township Firefighters Face Layoffs at Special Meeting

Township Board of Trustees expected to cut up to 30 percent of department personnel.

Plymouth Township firefighters face substantial cuts at a special Plymouth Township Board of Trustees meeting tonight.

Less than 48 hours after a special assessment proposal to fund existing fire and EMS services at the polls Tuesday, a special meeting will take place to scale back the department's personnel.

The meeting is 7 p.m. at , 9955 N. Haggerty Road, and will immediately go into closed session to discuss the cuts before the trustees publicly vote.

Find out what's happening in Plymouth-Cantonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

According to Greg Mangan, treasurer for the Plymouth Township firefighters' union, the department could lose up to 30 percent of its staffing.

The cuts come after the City of Plymouth, which shared services with the township, to join services with the City of Northville. This left the township with a nearly $1 million shortfall and approximately 30 percent less coverage area.

Find out what's happening in Plymouth-Cantonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The City of Plymouth's partnership with Northville . The township's 2012 budget calls for to the fire department.

The Citizens Action Group of Plymouth Township collected signatures throughout the summer of 2011 to district for the township to levy one mill over five years to continue to fund the department's staffing as it was under the agreement with the city.

While the petition effort failed to get on the November 2011 ballot as the citizens group had planned, it after some extensive litigation, but with several changes. Rather than the one mill the petitioners requested over five years, the ballot question would have authorized up to ten mills for an indefinite time period.

Both the citizens group and the firefighters of the ballot question before Tuesday's vote, and the measure was soundly defeated, 84 percent to 16 percent.

Stay tuned with Patch as this story develops.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here