WAUPUN — BJ DeMaa will be reinstated as Fire Chief and Director of Emergency Management for the City of Waupun, according to a press release from the Waupun Municipal Government posted to Facebook Friday afternoon. The City had previously announced that DeMaa was resigning earlier this month, but the decision was reversed and the City was able to reinstate the Fire Chief in an effort to retain experienced employees.
The Waupun Police and Fire Commission held a series of meetings this week regarding DeMaa’s position. The Commission concluded that the upcoming changes to Waupun’s EMS program, including the purchase of a new fire truck and ambulance, the hiring of new emergency staff, and potential staffing reorganization, would be difficult without DeMaa’s experience and passion for the community.
“According to Waupun City Administrator Kathy Schlieve, several factors lead to the reversal,” the press release explained, “including a strong focus on retention of top talent across all city departments, and two recently announced grant awards that the City received to strengthen EMS capacity that fall within the essential responsibilities of this position.”
In the last two years, both EMS and the Fire Department have reported rising call volumes and have struggled to meet emergency standards such as staffing, response time, and ambulance capacity. The grants the City of Waupun has received will allow the EMS program to meet the increasing emergency demands.
Mayor of Waupun Rohn Bishop commented on the matters, crediting DeMaa for his tireless work for the City’s Fire Department and Emergency Services.
“Under DeMaa’s leadership the city recently added an Emergency Medical Responder program and the latest EMS grant award is a major turning point for our city,” Mayor Bishop said. “With this grant, there is a significant amount of work that must be done on a short timeline to advance our response capabilities. The hiring of a new Chief would have prohibited progress in this area because of the timeline, and it was essential that we retained the talent needed to meet this need for the good of our community.”
“BJ has done an outstanding job in his current role, and I’m pleased that we were able to retain him to continue serving our needs,” Mayor Bishop concluded.
