WAUPUN — A body of regional representatives from the City of Waupun and the surrounding townships met for an Intergovernmental Meeting last Thursday to discuss the current state of the emergency services programs.
The primary goals for the meeting were to discuss the Fire Staffing Study and the current state of Fire and EMS Response for the Waupun and surrounding area. The Waupun EMS district covers a wide area of townships on the north side of Dodge County and the southeast side of Fond du Lac County.
The Intergovernmental body consisted of members of the Waupun Common Council, City of Waupun Fire and Police Commission, Dodge County Emergency Government, Fond Du Lac County Emergency Government, Town of Chester, Town of Waupun, Town of Trenton, Town of Alto, Town of Oakfield, Town of Springvale, Town of Metomen, Village of Brandon, and Village of Oakfield.
“This is an important meeting to have to get the discussion going for the future of Fire and EMS for both the City and the surrounding townships,” Mayor Rohn Bishop said.
Mayor Bishop gave a short explanation of the issues that the Waupun Fire Department is facing, including the aging ladder truck that needs to be replaced and the rising number of fire and emergency calls and response time delays.
Last week, the Waupun Fire Department released reports of two recent incidents where the contracted ambulances were unavailable to immediately respond to new calls. This has led the City to consider adding an EMT Ambulance service to the EMR program run out of the Safety Building.
“These are the challenges we’re facing as a city, and with how our fire department and ambulance services are shared with the surrounding towns it’s important that we all get on the same page and how we’re going to go moving forward,” Mayor Bishop continued.
Mayor Bishop then turned it over to Waupun City Administrator Kathy Schlieve to discuss Fire Department staffing and call volume.
“It’s not a local problem by itself,” Schlieve said. “It’s certainly a statewide problem, and a national problem at that, if you follow the headlines and news stories.”
According to the statistics provided at the meeting, emergency fire calls more than doubled from 2012 to 2022. Another issue is that the number of volunteer responders for the Waupun Fire Department has been below nationally recommended numbers for several years.
On top of that, the number of new volunteers joining the Fire Department hasn’t outweighed the loss of several experienced members who have since retired, with only a few being under the age of 35.
“If you look at volunteerism across America, this isn’t a problem that’s specific to just Fire Departments or EMS groups,” Waupun Fire Chief BJ DeMaa said. “Talk to your softball, baseball associations, talk to any of your sports leagues, they can’t get help. All these organizations that rely on volunteers, they’re all feeling the same pinch.”
The members of the meeting then heard from Chuck Butler and Timothy Franz, Public Administration Associates (PAA) brought on as Fire Department consultants. Butler has over 30 years of experience in Fire and EMS Management and retired as the Sheboygan Assistant Fire Chief in 2021. Similarly, Franz has over 30 years of experience and is a former Fire Chief at the Oshkosh Fire Department.
Franz discussed a variety of issues, including volunteer trends at the state and national levels, and commended Waupun for being proactive in trying to fix the problem.
Following the consultants, leadership from the various townships introduced themselves and expressed their own concerns. The meeting then went into discussion.
Over the next several months the PAA will put together a report about the City’s options going forward. The following is the schedule presented at the meeting.
May 2023 – Interviews / Data Gathering. Your feedback is essential – PAA will schedule interviews with City of Waupun elected officials, town chairs, and relevant staff.
June 2023 – Data Analysis.
July 2023 – Define Future Service Delivery Alternatives.
August 2023 – Develop Model and Budget Implications.
September 2023 – Report of Findings / Intergovernmental Report Out.
October 2023 – Joint Meetings to Discuss Implications and Determine Next Steps
