The Niles Township Board of Trustees unanimously voted Monday to officially establish the role of the special assessment district, with the intent to defray some of the cost of Southwestern Michigan Community Ambulance Services.

If approved by all six owners of SMCAS, residents will pay a renewed $20 fee per parcel or unit for five years. Parcels assessed will include residential units and commercial, industrial and agricultural land.

Before the vote, trustees hosted one final public hearing to garner public feedback on the matter.

Treasurer Jim Ringler invited the more than 20 people in attendance to share any objections they had about the SAD. Three people in the audience shared feedback.

One man who spoke up said he owns two parcels, one of which is a vacant lot. He said he would like to object to paying for both.

Jim Stover said that the special assessment must be spread equally among all parcels. Therefore each parcel or unit will be levied a $20 assessment. Stover said those who did not wish to pay on more than one parcel could make an appeal to the Michigan Tax Tribunal, if the township did not grant their approval to combine parcels.

Judy Nowak, a township resident, questioned how the funds would help the ambulance service.

“It is not a whole lot and I am not complaining about it,” Nowak said. “I guess I just want to know what it is being used for.”

Ringler said that, due to the makeup of the communities that SMCAS serves, many of the bills are written off, because of the amount of Medicare and Medicaid users. SMCAS Executive Director Brian Scribner said the non profit ambulance service writes off about 56 percent of what is billed out, largely for that reason.

Trustees also received two written objections, one from a woman who lived in a trailer park on Ontario Road, who said that the park should be responsible for the fee. The other objection was from a man who lives in South Bend, but owns two vacant properties in Niles Township.

“We feel, along with all the other entities, that, for the benefit of the community, we want an ambulance service here,” Ringler said.

Trustee Terry Eull emphasized that the assessment was a renewal that would now include parcels that had formerly been included in the assessment. Through the creation of the SAD, he said more parcels would be included in the assessment.

The SAD is expected to raise about $135,000 more a year.

Trustee Chris Vella, who is also the treasurer for SMCAS, added that she had heard many residents voice concerns about the Tim Gray embezzlement. Gray was sentenced earlier this year after he was charged with embezzling more than $50,000 from the company.

Throughout the public hearing process, many residents across the city and township questioned their trust with the service after the crime. Vella said she wanted residents to know that,  since Gray had been caught and tried, SMCAS had taken more precautions.

“For all of those internal type of auditing things, the way that it is set up, it will not happen again,” Vella said. 

Also Monday:

• Trustees approved a bid of $21,900 for Tree Works Incorporated to remove dead trees north of Florence and south of U.S. 12; north of Yankee and south of Cass streets; and north of E. Main and Yankee streets.