Wis. city denied grant, left without funding for new station

By Darryl Enriquez
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

WAUKESHA, Wis. — A grant to defray $659,000 in salaries and fringe benefits of nine new firefighters for a fire station being built on the west side did not come through, leaving the city with a five-alarm budget hole for 2009, city officials said Wednesday.

"I don't know what's going to happen," Ald. Carrol Waldenberger said. "They haven't come forward with a contingency plan," he said, referring to Mayor Larry Nelson and City Administrator Lori Curtis Luther.

Waldenberger was one of the few aldermen who spoke out against opening the station and staffing it late this year because financing for the project was uncertain when approved in 2006.

The city has borrowed about $4.5 million to build and equip the station that's now under construction on Summit Ave., east of Merrill Hills Road.

Curtis Luther said she is working to find solutions to pay for staffing, and will present to the Common Council as early as July a list of options "with significant reductions on our operation costs."

The council could halt the project, ending the need for the $659,000, but that step will not be a recommendation from Nelson's office, Curtis Luther said.

"As far as putting off that station, I figured it could have been put off for another year," Waldenberger said.

Curtis Luther said she will meet with union officials today about employee health care costs.

"Obviously, this isn't news that we're happy about, and it will certainly affect what we're trying to do next year in the budget," she said. "It is my intent to provide council with options that will allow them to staff the fire station as planned."

Also affecting budget plans is a state-mandated 2% cap on spending increases, she said.

Former City Administrator Jim Payne warned aldermen that the city likely would have to hold a referendum to get public approval for the personnel costs. The expense likely would propel city spending beyond the cap, he said.

A popular vote through a referendum allows spending beyond the cap.

The city attempted to negate the expense of nine new firefighters by applying for a federal SAFER grant through the Department of Homeland Security.

Waukesha came up short when competing with more than 1,500 other applicants that requested a total of $706 million, Curtis Luther said in a May 2 letter to aldermen.

Assistant Fire Chief Steve Howard said the council knew that the grant "wasn't a sure thing" and that there might be a need to provide full funding for new personnel.

The council budgeted $154,000 for salaries for the last three months of this year to enable the Fire Department to train the new hires before the station opens, scheduled for late December or early January, Howard said.

The station is being built to improve response times for fire and emergency medical vehicles on the west side.