FD Ready to Cover WI Town after Fire Contract Canceled

TOWN OF WATERFORD, WI—Tichigan Volunteer Fire Co. officials said Tuesday that the company is ready to take on the challenge of picking up coverage of the entire Town of Waterford when the current fire and emergency medical services contract between the town and Village of Waterford expires at the end of this year.

In a more than hour-long interview with The Journal Times, Assistant Fire Chief Bill Miller and EMS Lt. Stephanie Miller addressed concerns that the company is being asked to step up its coverage too quickly. The Waterford Fire Department currently covers about 1,000 homes in the southern half of the town, and the Rochester and Tichigan fire companies are set to inherit that area. Tichigan has long covered the northern part of the town.

The Town Board voted last month to cancel the contract with the village, leading to arguments and political strife between the two municipalities.

Just as things seemed to be taking a more civil turn, a divided Town Board voted last week against reopening contract negotiations even after the Village Board extended the current terms through 2020.

The Town Board approached the private fire company for a proposal for covering the entire town after the village proposed forming a fire district to cover the village, town and Rochester.

Tichigan Fire Co.’s estimate of $179,000 to cover the entire town came in more than $77,000 higher than the village Fire Department’s $101,940 estimate, but the town still decided to go with Tichigan.

“We’re a third party, we’re on the sidelines,” Bill Miller said. “All of a sudden we just get thrust into the game. Yeah, we can provide service. It’ll be a little bit more money. We can do it (but) it’s not optimal because we’re not in a physical position to cover the areas to the best of our ability. Let’s get real, if we were planning for this, we would plan way differently.”

Teri Jendusa-Nicolai, one of the two town supervisors who voted to reopen negotiations, was skeptical after the final vote that the Tichigan Fire Co. could develop and implement a viable plan to take over fire protection for the town in just a few months.

“Tichigan didn’t ask for this, so I don’t think they should be rushed into (the decision),” Jendusa-Nicolai said.

Rochester Fire Chief Jack Biermann previously said he is confident in the Rochester Volunteer Fire Co.’s ability to fill the gap in conjunction with the Tichigan Fire Co.

“The reason that we’re having Rochester assist with it is that there were so many concerns on station location, our Station 2 staffing and everything else,” Stephanie Miller said. “With all the concerns, we kind of sat down with Rochester and they’re willing to come and help us cover that area. So, we’re going to both be responding.”

Response times

Tichigan Fire Co. has two ambulances currently in service and a third that the company plans to introduce once the contract ends, Stephanie Miller said, and the company will start utilizing the unstaffed Station No. 2 in the Caldwell area of the town more.

Station No. 2 has one fire engine on site. The company does not keep more equipment there because the station’s coverage area yields a low call volume. Through Sept. 6, the station had responded to 20 calls this year, while Station No. 1 had responded to 209, according to a presentation prepared by the fire company.

“You don’t want to put all your resources in the wrong area,” Stephanie Miller said.

Response times have been a concern since the Town Board canceled the contract.

The Waterford Fire Department arrives on the scene of a call within seven minutes 89% of the time, village Fire Chief Rick Mueller said during a presentation this month.

The Tichigan Fire Co. has an average response time of eight minutes, Stephanie Miller said.

The longer response time can be attributed to the sheer amount of area — over 33 square miles — the company covers, Bill Miller said.

“I can’t click my heels together and make the mileage go away,” Bill Miller said.

Waterford Fire Department is staffed 24/7 with five to eight personnel at a time, and it has 66 total members, Mueller said in his presentation.

Tichigan Fire Co.’s main station is staffed with two members only during daytime hours, but members who live throughout the community directly respond to scenes or the firehouses with their personal vehicles. The company has 28 “regular members” who live in the village or town, according to the company’s presentation. Those members average 7.6 years of experience, according to the presentation.

Paramedic service

Another talking point of the village’s Fire Department was that it is a paramedic-level service, the highest emergency medical services certification, while the Tichigan Fire Co. is an Advanced EMT service, one certification lower.

The Tichigan Fire Co. does, however, have an intercept agreement with the neighboring Wind Lake Fire Company, meaning the company can operate as a paramedic company if a certified paramedic is on a call.

Bill Miller is a full-time firefighter with the South Shore Fire Department and one of eight paramedics on the Tichigan Fire Co. But he said paramedic service does not automatically equal better service.

Waterford Fire Department has a higher turnover rate because many leave for full-time departments once they are trained to the paramedic level; the average experience of the company’s volunteers is valuable, Bill Miller said.

“The paramedic level isn’t the end-all, fix-all,” he said. “Ultimately, a good basic (EMT) is more valuable than an inexperienced paramedic, because let’s get real, a bad paramedic will kill you.”

The Tichigan Volunteer Fire Co. is also hosting an open house at 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Oct. 19 at Station No. 1, 8205 Big Bend Road (Highway 164) in Tichigan.

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