BUTLER TWP — Butler’s interest in charging other municipalities for assistance calls has caught township officials by surprise.

They say no one from the city has contacted them about the proposal.

Butler City Council members on Jan. 20 discussed the idea for municipalities to pay the city when the city fire department responds to an incident outside the city.

Council said the city’s paid fire department responded to 89 calls outside the city in 2014, 83 of which were to Butler Township. Meanwhile, city officials said the city’s department only requested help from the township’s volunteer departments twice.

Officials at the township commissioners meeting Wednesday night said that city officials never talked with the township about the issue.

“We have yet to be contacted by the city,” said board Vice President Dave Zarnick.

Township officials noted many of the city’s responses into the township are right on the border of the two municipalities, citing Butler Memorial Hospital and the Sunnyview Nursing and Rehabilitation Center as two notable locations.

Butler Mayor Tom Donaldson said this morning that city officials followed the appropriate process by discussing what should be done at their meeting first.

“We were discussing our end of it,” Donaldson said in an interview. “We don’t do anything behind closed doors.”

He expects that a meeting between the city and the township will be scheduled.

“We need to work with them,” Donaldson said.

Zarnick stressed there is not a problem between the township’s fire department and the city’s department, just that the township is disappointed in how city officials have dealt with the situation.