News Photo by Steve Schulwitz Alpena firefighters/paramedics Dean Rivard, left, and Jeff King perform daily inventory and stocking of one of the department’s ambulances.

ALPENA — Alpena and Alpena Township have reached an agreement that will buy the township time to replenish its staff and avoid the closure of one of the township’s two fire stations.

At a special joint meeting on Monday, the two community’s governing boards approved a six-month agreement, pending some minor tweaks to the proposed plan, that will allow the city to staff the township’s north side station for up to six months and respond to emergencies in the township.

Alpena Township Trustee Cash Kroll was the only one on the two boards to vote against the move. Kroll was hopeful the township could have enough people hired more quickly to only need the city for 90 days, and wondered what that would cost.

Alpena Fire Chief Bill Forbush said hiring new employees, training them accordingly, and getting them used to manning a department is ambitious, and he isn’t sure that could be done in such a short period of time.

“I don’t think it can be done in three months, and I’m really not sure it can be done in six months,” Forbush said. “My concern, for you, (is) that, if you try to hire people off the street, train them up to the level where they can operate alone in a station, that is going to take some time. When we hire people off the street, even if they are already paramedics, it takes a year to get them off probation.”

The deal needed to be completed by the first of the year, as the township Fire Department staff would drop to only two employees after a host of retirements and resignations.

The township will pay the city $125,000 for six months, which officials say will be enough time for the township to hire and train new employees. The city will station one advanced life support ambulance at the township’s north side station and a two-man crew consisting of one fire officer/paramedic and one firefighter/paramedic or emergency medical technician.

If a fire broke out in the northern part of the township, the city crews, Alpena Township paid-on-call employees, and Presque Isle Township Fire Department crews would respond on the first alarm.

The township will pay the city monthly. The contract will include a 30-day exit clause allowing either side to get out early if needed.

If an extension is necessary, both parties will review the plan and make changes, if warranted.

There was little discussion about the deal between city council members and township trustees, and there was no public comment during the meeting, which was held virtually.

After the boards and attorneys review the final version of the deal, expected to be completed by about lunchtime today, it will be signed and go into effect.

Both township and city officials reminded people that the plan approved Monday is not a merger of the two departments, as was proposed in November and was ultimately nixed by the Alpena Municipal Council.