Bean Blossom added to Monroe fire district, sparking sharp words from Ellettsville leaders

Starting in 2027, Bean Blossom Township will start receiving fire protection services from the Monroe Fire Protection District (MFPD), and property owners there will start paying taxes roughly four times higher than they do now for fire service.

That’s the outcome of a 3–0 vote taken at a special meeting of the Monroe County commissioners on Monday night (Dec. 22), to enact an ordinance adding Bean Blossom to the MFPD.

The impetus towards some kind of change in Bean Blossom’s fire protection were the increasing challenges faced by the township’s volunteer fire department to provide responses to fires in the township.

All three county commissioners—Julie Thomas, Lee Jones, and Jody Madeira—attended Monday’s meeting in person.

Thomas summed up the perspective of the commissioners by saying, “The current Bean Blossom fire department cannot continue to operate as it is. It has been relying on volunteers who have done a magnificent job—many thanks to them. That’s the first thing we know is that the current fire protection is inadequate.” Thomas also said that current volunteers are welcome to apply with the MFPD.

Thomas also said she assumes that the mutual aid arrangement between Ellettsville and Bean Blossom Township will continue. The move will be “putting folks in a safer position than they are currently,” Thomas said.

Bean Blossom forms the northwest corner of Monroe County. Monday’s action means the MFPD now covers, through membership or contract, all of Monroe County except for the city of Bloomington and Richland Township, which includes the town of Ellettsville.

Monday’s vote by commissioners also came with a clear indication that in the spring of 2026 they’ll be considering Richland Township and Ellettsville for inclusion in the MFPD, along with Salt Creek and Polk townships which currently get their fire service from MFPD through a contractual arrangement.

In fact, the commissioners were poised on Monday to take a vote on adding the other townships besides Bean Blossom to the MFPD—the public hearing notice for Monday’s meeting includes all of them as the subject of an ordinance.

Immediate criticism from Ellettsville

Monday’s move by commissioners prompted sharp criticism by some members of the Ellettsville town council, which convened a regular meeting on Monday night shortly after the special meeting of the commissioners.

Ellettsville councilmember William Ellis pointed to the context of the MFPD vote, which included a third meeting that same night—of the committee that has been formed to review a potential consolidation of the town of Ellettsville and Richland Township. For commissioners to schedule their special meeting on the same day and the same time as the reorganization committee’s meeting, Ellis said, was a “shot across the bow.”

The concern by Ellis and others is that the county commissioners would use their statutory authority to add unincorporated areas to the MFPD, and interfere with a potential consolidation by Ellettsville and Richland Township. Ellis called it a “hostile takeover of what we’re doing” that was meant to “put a roadblock in for reorganization.” Ellis was undeterred: “Well, guess what? It’s not going to stop us. It’s just going to make us double down …” Ellis said Ellettsville could not be “kicked around anymore.”

Ellettsville town council president Scott Oldham added that he’d already heard from 10 to 15 residents of Bean Blossom, who were interested in pursuing voluntary annexation into Ellettsville as a result of the action by county commissioners. Oldham said that for his part, not that he was speaking for the town council, would be supportive of moves to help people undergo voluntary annexation to Ellettsville.

Part of the context for Monday’s vote also includes Bean Blossom’s rejection of a potential contract for fire service with the town of Ellettsville. Ronald Hutson, Bean Blossom township trustee, told commissioners on Monday that he and the Bean Blossom Township board had decided not to enter into a contract with Ellettsville for fire protection.

Based on Hutson’s remarks on Monday, the big sticking point was the idea that under terms of the contract, Hutson believed that Ellettsville’s fire department would retain ownership of the volunteer department’s fire engines, even if the contract ended.

Later, at the Ellettsville town council meeting, Oldham said about Bean Blossom residents and the action by commissioners to add the township to the MFPD: “It’s just an unfortunate circumstance that they’ve been kind of left out in the wind because somebody sees them potentially as the easiest target, particularly after Ellettsville extended what I think is a very good offer to continue the same degree of fire protection that we have been giving them for years.”

Oldham said, “It’s just going to be expensive—a lot of people who are struggling already. And I wish them the best.”

Arguing for the Ellettsville option in front of the commissioners on Monday was Carl Salzmann, a former elected prosecutor for Monroe County, who spoke against the ordinance.

Salzmann introduced himself as a resident of Bean Blossom Township. He said he learned of Monday’s meeting only over the weekend. Like Ellis, Salzmann criticized the scheduling of the Richland–Ellettsville consolidation meeting on the same night.

Salzmann recounted the process last year when commissioners contemplated adding Bean Blossom Township to the MFPD. That ended, from Salzmann’s view, with a successful remonstration. “In other words, we won. I don’t know why this is back on the agenda again,” Salzmann said. He also said the preference of Bean Blossom residents would be to contract for fire services with Ellettsville.

What was the Ellettsville option?

According to a study by Baker Tilly, under a proposed contract with the town of Ellettsville, Ellettsville would have become the primary responder for fire and EMS calls in Bean Blossom Township starting in 2026.

The township would make no cash payments in 2026 or 2027, but would transfer ownership of its existing firefighting equipment to Ellettsville. Starting in 2028, Bean Blossom would pay Ellettsville $90,000 annually, with future increases tied to the state’s maximum levy growth quotient, which is projected to be 4%.

According to the Baker Tilly analysis, the Ellettsville option has a kind of baked-in shortfall, because, according to Baker Tilly, Indiana law “does not allow new property-tax levies to be imposed to fund contractual fire service.” That means the township would have to cover the contractual costs by using existing fire revenues and cash reserves.

But Baker Tilly says that by 2028, projected annual fire receipts would fall short of the $90,000 payment, requiring drawdowns of reserves—a deficit that would be expected to get bigger over time, especially under the property-tax revenue reductions anticipated from SEA 1.

Monroe Fire Protection District option

Starting in 2027, the township’s existing property taxes that fund fire protection will be eliminated and replaced with the same uniform fire tax rate that all MFPD members pay.

MFPD would staff the existing Bean Blossom station with two full-time firefighters on duty 24/7 and integrate the township into its countywide system of stations, personnel, and equipment. Baker Tilly estimates that Bean Blossom taxpayers currently pay the equivalent of about $0.0686 per $100 of assessed value for fire protection through township property taxes.

Under the MFPD proposal, to include Bean Blossom in the MFPD would require an additional $1.1 million.

To generate that much additional revenue the projected 2027 MFPD rate, which is uniform across all members, would be $0.3588. The cost of fire protection for Bean Blossom property owners will work out to $0.2902 more than they pay now ($0.3588–$0.0686). That works out to more than a fourfold increase in the amount Bean Blossom property owners currently pay for fire protection.

By comparison, taxpayers in other townships already within the MFPD will see estimated overall increases of about 5.5% in fire protection costs, because the new costs associated with Bean Blossom would be spread across a larger tax base. About half of the extra $1.1 million in needed additional revenue would come from other member townships besides Bean Blossom.

According to Baker Tilly, for a median-value home of $250,000 in Bean Blossom Township, the increase in the price for fire protection is estimated at about $355 per year, or about $30 per month, assuming the property is not already at a constitutional tax cap. Commercial and agricultural properties would see proportionally larger dollar increases tied to assessed value.

Supporters of the idea of adding Bean Blossom to the MFPD point to the fact that fire protection is only one component of a total property-tax bill. Materials provided by MFPD indicate that the expanded fire district would result in a 19% increase in the total property-tax bill for Bean Blossom Township properties.

New Richland Township fire station

In addition to Salzmann, a member of the Richland Township board, Jay Thrasher, weighed at Monday’s meeting of the county commissioners in support of a contractual relationship between Ellettsville and Bean Blossom Township for fire protection. But Thrasher was there mainly to get confirmation that the commissioners were, at least on that night, not planning to make a decision to add Richland Township to the MFPD.

The commissioners gave him the confirmation he was looking for. Commissioner Julie Thomas said: “ Tonight is solely Bean Blossom.” But she added, “We do intend, in the spring, to consider those other townships [including Richland] to be added to the [Monroe Fire Protection District].”

For Thrasher, a complicating factor is the current plan that Richland Township and Ellettsville have to replace the fire station on Curry Pike with a new one to be built at the intersection of West Vernal Pike and North Hartstrait Road.

Thrasher told county commissioners: “This is pretty important to Richland Township, because we are considering building a new fire station at this time, and I’m not going to vote to approve the funds to build a new fire station, if this is what’s going on.”

Thrasher continued, “The trustee did not have much information to provide for us, and none of the township board members had any idea that this is going on until this past weekend—which I’m on the township board, so I guarantee that as a fact.” Thrasher added, “So we’re kind of being left in the dark, is what I’m feeling like. I’m not real happy about that.”

At its meeting on Monday night, the Ellettsville town council approved a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between Richland Township, Ellettsville, and North American Minerals, Inc., which is the owner of the property where the new fire station is planned to be built. The MOU covers the leasing arrangements.