By Joanne Bailey-Boorsma
Officers at the schools, property checks at businesses and residences, the re-opening of the Gezon Fire Station — these are just some of the accomplishments that the Wyoming Department of Public Safety has been able to complete in the last eight years when a public safety millage was approved.
This Aug. 7, residents are being asked to provide a permanent renewal of the annual levy of 1.25 mills for public safety. For a resident with a home valued at $100,000, the cost will remain at $62.50 per year.
“We would like to maintain the level of service we have been able to provide this far and in order to do that those funds would be needed to continue the operations and maintain the efficiencies built into some of our models here for public safety,” said Wyoming Department of Public Safety Chief Kim Koster during a recent interview with WKTV.
Police and fire services account for 65 percent of the all spending from the city’s general fund. In 2010, when the millage was first proposed and passed, the city was facing declining state funding, the loss of the General Motors Stamping Plant and falling property values. Voters approved a renewal in 2014. Today, while home values have started to increase, Wyoming has faced continued cuts in state funding and its revenue status remains largely the same.
Through its new Pubic Safety service delivery model, the department has created many efficiencies and cost savings. One of those measures lead to the re-opening of the Gezon Fire Station which also now houses the Metro Health – University of Michigan Heath’s helipad.
“So through some creative staffing models we have been able to staff this Wyoming fire station out here on the south end of Wyoming for 24 hours, seven days a week,” Koster said. “In addition to that we have added two quick response vehicles. They are able to respond from [the Gezon] Fire Station as well as our central fire station that way we don’t have to take an engine to a medical call, and get there a lot faster and more efficient that way.”
The opening of the Gezon Fire Station and the addition of the quick-response vehicles has helped to reduce response times, according to a recent city report. Other accomplishments by the department include:
· Achieved and maintained Gold-Standard police accreditation from the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies, Inc., putting the department in the top one percent of law enforcement agencies nationwide.
· Provided a professional public safety response to more than 37,000 calls for service every year
· Implemented efforts to visit every school in Wyoming each school day, totaling 5,738 school visits last year
· Conducted daily and nightly visits to businesses, making 8,606 contacts and 6,852 closed business checks in 2017
· Equipped every police cruiser with an automated external defibrillator, or AED, as well as supplying every officer with Naloxone, which reverses the effects of overdoses
· Increased forensic laboratory capabilities providing faster, more comprehensive results which have contributed to a higher success rate in solving crime
· Added three full-time fire fighters
· Utilized part-time employees to implement a peak load staffing model which employs more staff during times of high call volume
· Crossed-trained and licensed 22 City employees as firefighters and utilized paid-on-call staff
· Secured grants that allowed staff to become licensed as EMTs and purchase CPR assisted compression devices
Residents can learn more about the millage on the city’s website at wyomingmi.gov/publicsafety or by calling 616-530-7272.
