Centre Township voters will choose a trustee and three township board members on Tuesday. Whoever they elect will run a fire department that answered 1,044 calls last year from one station on Kern Road. In April, Fire Chief Zach Mark reported that the department was fully staffed.
That is the record the incumbents are running on. Trustee Judith Galloway, Board President Tom Lindenman, and board Secretary Gail Figg, all Republicans, are seeking another term. Rhett Harris, a Republican who does not hold a seat, is running with Lindenman and Figg for the board.
For trustee, Galloway faces Democratic challenger Ron Baker. Christopher D. Bowman, Karla Kreczmer-Baker, and Brandon Wardrip are the Democratic challengers for the board.
For about 16 years, Centre and Portage townships shared a fire department through the Southwest Central Fire Territory. That arrangement ended in 2024. The territory’s fire tax applied to property in both townships, and Centre Township’s property made up about two-thirds of the total, Lindenman said.
When Portage Township left, Centre Township kept its fire tax close to what residents had been paying. That money now goes to one station instead of two, and it pays for five full-time firefighters on duty at all times, Lindenman said.
Since then, the township board has twice looked at merging with a neighboring fire territory and both times chose to stay independent.
The township ended 2025 with $2,100,908.68 in the bank, according to its December financial report. Of that, $1,327,305.03 was in the fire and EMS fund and $455,366.29 was in the cumulative fire fund. The report lists no debt. In July, the board approved spending $650,000 of that cash this year, $450,000 of it on capital purchases.
Now the township board wants to fix the Kern Road station. “We haven’t made any upgrades or any significant improvements to this facility since 2008,” Lindenman said in September. This year the board set aside cash from the township’s reserves for upgrades to the station.
If the incumbents are reelected, the work on the Kern Road station will be theirs to finish.
Logan Foster
Logan Foster is the founder and editor of Redress South Bend, an independent news outlet covering local government, courts, and public institutions in South Bend and St. Joseph County, Indiana. He reports from primary documents: public records requests, court filings, state audit reports, and campaign finance disclosures. His reporting has examined city and school district payments made without competitive bidding, school board spending, and the records of candidates in county races. Redress South Bend obtained the South Bend Police Department's ShotSpotter coverage map after the department initially denied public access. The outlet is a member of the Society of Professional Journalists and the Online News Association. Reach him at info@redresssouthbend.com
