Fire department study: Menomonie should hire 15 more firefighter/paramedics
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By LeAnn R. Ralph
MENOMONIE — The Menomonie Fire Department should hire an additional 15 firefighter/paramedics along with two full-time staff members to adequately staff all shifts, according to a study completed by Public Administration Associates, LLC.
The Menomonie Fire Department is a combination volunteer and career department that leans more toward the career side with 28 career personnel along with the fire chief, said Tim Franz of Pubic Administration Associates at the Menomonie City Council’s March 24 meeting.
Franz is the retired chief of the Oshkosh Fire Department and has been in fire service for 40 years.
The fire department’s 28 personnel cover three 24 hour shifts with nine personnel on each shift, and the fire department also has 17 paid on-call firefighters, Franz said.
The Menomonie Fire Department has two fire stations, one downtown and one on the north side, and has two fire engines, three ambulances, two tenders/tankers, one ladder truck and some speciality apparatus, he said.
Over the years, the Menomonie Fire Department has experienced increasing calls for service, Franz said.
Before 1997, Menomonie did not have an emergency medical service, and the fire department averaged about 400 calls per year. After EMS was added in 1997, the calls steadily increased so that by the year 2000, the department responded to 1,378 EMS calls and 547 fire calls, he said.
By 2023, the Menomonie Fire Department responded to a total of 3,904 calls for service, of which 3,038 were EMS calls, Franz said.
Departments around Wisconsin and across the country are experiencing increased calls for service, he said.
Personnel pressure
The increased calls for service are, in part, due to an aging population, while at the same time, there has been a decrease in full-time staff available for call-backs and a decrease in paid on-call volunteers, Franz said.
The lack of personnel, along with increased training requirements, contributes to difficulties in recruiting firefighters and paramedics, creates difficulties in retaining staff and puts a high overtime demand on current staff, he said.
When someone is out sick or wants to take vacation time off, and with increased call volume, that creates an overtime demand on other staff. The difficulties are compounded because people want more work/life balance, Franz said.
The Menomonie Fire Department also experiences increased pressure from calls for service in the contracted areas for structure fires, vehicle fires and brush/grass fires, although the overall calls for fire and EMS are lower in the contracted areas, he said.
In addition to providing service for the City of Menomonie, the Menomonie Fire Department provides contract service to all or part of the following: Town of Menomonie, Town of Red Cedar, Town of Tainter, Town of Dunn, Town of Lucas, the Village of Knapp, the Town of Spring Brook, the Town of Sherman and the Town of Weston.
The Menomonie Fire Department also provides mutual aid to other fire departments that operate in Dunn County.
Readers should note that the other fire departments operating in Dunn County provide mutual aid to the Menomonie Fire Department as well.
Other difficulties
The combination of more calls and more demands on overtime along with not as many staff members as there should be, creates additional problems, too.
With so much pressure on existing personnel, there is no time for officers to prepare for training, Franz said.
The Menomonie Fire Department also does not have an administrative staff position to develop and deliver training, he said.
When there are not enough firefighters/paramedics, then fire apparatus is inadequately staffed as well, Franz said.
Firefighters believe that it is not an option to not respond to calls, so that creates safety issues, he said.
When other firefighters/paramedics are out on a call, and there is one person left at the station, what happens where there is a vehicle fire on Interstate-94? The one person left at the station believes it is not an option to not respond, so he goes out on the vehicle fire by himself, which creates a situation that endangers that person’s safety, Franz said.
Those kinds of conditions also affect recruitment and retention of staffing, he said.
Menomonie Fire Department personnel have been very good at adapting to the situation — to the point of where they are putting their own safety in jeopardy, Franz said.
State law requires four personnel, not including the fire chief, to respond to all fire alarms, and two licensed EMS providers are required to go on all EMS calls, he said.
Additional demand on the EMS personnel involves transfers to larger hospitals, too, as well as providing mutual aid to other communities, Franz said.
At times, when the Colfax Rescue Squad’s ambulance is out on a call and the Boyceville ambulance service is out on a call — and there are not enough EMTs at either station for the second ambulance to go out if it is needed — Menomonie will be called to be on standby.
Menomonie also is called to do intercepts when certain drugs are needed for the patient that Colfax or Boyceville cannot dispense.
Recommendations
The recommendations are to increase staffing from nine firefighters/paramedics per shift to 14 per shift, so that there is a minimum of six personnel at each fire station in Menomonie, Franz said.
Two additional personnel per shift should be added so there is coverage for other personnel to take paid leave, he said.
A training officer also should be added so that there is standardized training for all personnel, and a fire prevention/inspection officer should be added, Franz said.
The current staff “has gone above and beyond” to maintain the service, and some have been coming in on days off to get other work done, he said.
Another recommendation is renovate the fire station downtown, Franz said.
The downtown fire station is hurting recruitment and retention because it is designed for all-male firefighters. The fire station is in a good location, but it needs renovating, he said.
The report included in the city council packet states that “the fire apparatus are generally adequate, but the aging fire engine supplied by the contracted municipalities needs immediate replacement. Additionally, the department lacks a formalized apparatus replacement plan, which risks long-term operational sustainability.”
Good news?
Where is the good news? asked Menomonie Mayor Randy Knaack.
The good news is — Menomonie has a dedicated staff, Franz said.
On a few occasions, the city has been lucky because the dedicated staff have not been harmed when there was lack of personnel to respond, he said.
If more of the calls are for EMS, then why not have more paramedics on staff instead of firefighter/paramedics? asked Ryland Erdman, representative for Ward.
Firefighter/paramedics work 56 hours per week, and they have to work 52 hours per week before they are paid overtime, while paramedics must be paid overtime after 40 hours per week, said Jim Austad of Public Administration Associates.
Austad has devoted 36 years to fire service.
Fire departments “get a bigger bang for their buck” for paramedic/firefighters, Austad said.
Recruitment is difficult for all fire departments, but people have more opportunities if they can do more than one job, like a firefighter/paramedic, Franz said.
Firefighter/paramedics are maximizing their standby time. There are fewer fire calls, but if they are needed for a fire call, then they are available, he said.
Cory Scheidler of Cedar Corporation also was on hand to answer questions, and Mayor Knaack asked Scheidler about any information he would like the city council to know.
The downtown fire station is in a “great location,” but it is not a modern station. It is well-built, but it needs updating, Scheidler said.
Station 2 can serve well into the future, but Station 1 needs attention, he said.
The take-aways from the study then, is that the Menomonie Fire Department needs more staffing, more equipment, maybe another fire station at some point and will need more funding, Mayor Knaack said.
Is there a dollar analysis? the mayor asked.
A dollar analysis was not part of the study, Franz and Austad said.
Maybe the city council should be looking at buying lottery tickets, Mayor Knaack commented..
If the city follows the recommendation on personnel, the cost would be $1.8 million and that would include the renovations for Station 1, said Eric Atkinson, city administrator.
There “will be some hard conversations. We do not want to put firefighters in danger,” Mayor Knaack said, adding that the Public Administration Associates study would be a subject for discussion in the months to come.
