By Jonah Beleckis
The Janesville Gazette
ELKHORN, Wis. — When Elkhorn Finance Director James Heilman thought back to 1991, he remembered hearing the fire whistle blow and seeing lines of volunteer firefighters leaving their stores and factories to respond.
The days of fire departments relying on volunteers are ending, he said, and Elkhorn needs to find a new way to provide emergency services.
Employers today are less likely to let fire and EMS volunteers drop their full-time work and respond to emergencies on a moment’s notice, leading to staffing concerns for the Elkhorn Area Fire Department.
That reality is leading city officials to seek ways to boost fire department staffing.
“It’s not going to get any better in today’s environment,” Heilman said. “The way businesses operate, to let an employee run out and jump on a truck when the fire whistle goes off really doesn’t work anymore … it’s an issue that needs to be addressed.”
Heilman and City Administrator Sam Tapson did not blame volunteers but rather factors outside of their control. Work schedules and locations are limiting what volunteers can do and how fast they can respond.
“It’s not that people don’t want to volunteer,” Heilman said, “it’s that in today’s environment they’re not able to.”
Volunteers will continue to be a part of the future, but the city will look into beefing up contracting services, Heilman said.
The fire department is paying for the equivalent of one Paratech Ambulance Service staff member to help provide 24/7 ambulance coverage, Fire Chief Rod Smith said.
One option, Tapson and Smith said, is to expand the existing contract with Paratech and adopt a paid-on-premise approach. Firefighter and EMT staff could cover Elkhorn for 12 hours shifts during the daytime hours for five or even seven days of the week.
Paid-on-premise programs, which Smith said improve response times, could be available for the routine fire alarms or car accidents. Paid-on-call staff, Smith said, could respond and provide more help for bigger calls, such as large structure fires.
Heilman said he did not want to estimate costs until the city decides what options it will pursue.
The city is financially handcuffed by state-imposed levy limits that cap city income, Heilman said.
“The state needs to somehow loosen the 2 percent levy cap and let the local people, cities, towns and villages surpass that to provide emergency services,” Smith said. “That’s the biggest hurdle right now.”
Heilman said the city should look at what type of increases in operational revenues might come in the future and when as well as what resources the city can forgo.
Tapson said the city might consider a 2018 referendum to ask voters for permission to exceed the revenue cap.
The city has the option of us money from the capital project fund or vehicle replacement fund, for example, but Tapson said that approach does not solve the problem.
“Everyone understands fire and EMS are critical services. They have a priority. It’s about addressing that priority with available resources,” he said. “You begin this robbing Peter to pay Paul approach, which simply just doesn’t work in the long term.”
Heilman said the city needs a comprehensive plan.
“You can’t go off half-cocked and say, ‘Well, I have enough money for this year and next year, and we’ll figure it out after that.’ That’s just a plan for disaster.
“This is a plan that has to be perpetually forever,” Heilman said. “It’s the new way of doing public safety because the volunteer world is going away.”
Copyright 2016 The Janesville Gazette