Copyright 2005 Journal Sentinel Inc.
By LAWRENCE SUSSMAN
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Grafton expects to pay nearly $13,000 less than Thiensville next year for fire protection and emergency medical service even though Grafton has more than three times Thiensville’s population and a much larger area to cover.
Volunteer fire departments serve both communities, but Grafton firefighters and emergency medical technicians are not paid. Thiensville does, however, pay its volunteers.
At a time of strained municipal budgets, the two villages serve as examples of the different ways communities are providing emergency services. Volunteer fire departments traditionally have protected smaller communities and have been less expensive than paid departments.
The good feeling and camaraderie that people get fighting fires and responding to emergencies is a strong inducement for volunteering, several fire chiefs in Ozaukee and Washington counties said.
But it is harder to staff these departments, especially on weekdays, when many of their firefighters work in other communities, the chiefs say. And departments are forever scrambling to keep enough people on board.
The chiefs say, though, that paying people to fight fires and train as EMTs helps keep the volunteer pipeline flowing. The pay - no matter how minimal - eases somewhat the inconvenience and disruption that members of a volunteer’s family feel when a firefighter or EMT is called away at odd hours or during holiday get-togethers.
“Before I became the full-time (paid) chief, I told my wife that we could use paid on-call for something for us to do together,” Jackson Fire Chief John Skodinski said. “And at Christmas time, the money came in handy.”
Pay in Thiensville
Thiensville normally has no trouble finding volunteers for ambulance runs, Fire Chief William Rausch said.
Currently, the Thiensville department has enough volunteers on weekdays to staff two ambulances, he said. There also are about 10 people on a waiting list to get on the department, and these people include registered nurses.
Thiensville compensates its volunteers. Firefighters, EMTs and members of the only paramedic unit in Ozaukee County get $21.72 for the first hour they are called to duty, Rausch said. After the first hour, the pay is broken down into 15-minute increments.
Having a paramedic unit “shows the commitment by the members to provide the best service available for Thiensville residents,” village administrator Dianne Robertson said.
The 2006 Thiensville village budget includes $271,604 for the fire department.
As of last January, the state Department of Administration estimated that Thiensville had 3,278 people.
Staffing in Grafton
Not every volunteer department is as well-staffed as Thiensville’s. Earlier this year, Grafton Fire Chief Dave Harvey said, on weekdays, his department was having trouble getting enough EMTs for emergency medical calls.
That’s because some volunteers had become full-time firefighters for other departments, and two volunteers moved out of state, Harvey said.
Volunteers often are trained as firefighters and EMTs.
In recent months, the department has recruited four new members who are enrolled in emergency medical training, and Harvey expects the recruits soon will be available on weekdays.
“I’m not saying that this will be a long-term fix and we will have to look at other options in the future,” he said. “The ability to get responders during the day is still a concern.”
Harvey also underscored that his department is based on providing community service.
“The people in my department, when they joined, they knew that we were a volunteer department and were not getting paid,” Harvey said. “They wanted to volunteer.”
The 2006 Grafton village budget allots $258,735 for the Grafton Fire Department, which is a private department and not connected to the village. The village had an estimated 11,310 residents as of last Jan. 1.
The department also serves the Town of Grafton.
The Mequon Fire Department has a paid full-time chief, and the city has budgeted $853,838 next year for the department, which covers about 47 square miles and serves an estimated 23,468 residents.
“We have been very blessed,” Fire Chief James Wucherer said about his department not normally being strapped for volunteers, even though it handles about 1,250 emergency calls a year.
The department pays its firefighters and EMTs $20.50 per hour for the first hour of work at fire and ambulance calls, Wucherer said. To be paid for the second hour, the volunteers have to work at least 15 more minutes.
At any time, the department can count on having 18 firefighters and 11 EMTs available, the chief said.
“But during the daytime, these guys and gals are at their regular jobs, and normally most of them make more on their regular jobs,” Wucherer said. “If they come here, they actually lose money.”
“We have nurses come in who are making more than being an EMT, possibly $23 to $25 an hour, and still they come in,” Wucherer said.
“There is a lot of dedication here because they could be sitting home having dinner or going to a Bucks game,” the chief said. “But when the pager goes off, they respond.”
The Jackson Fire Department pays its volunteer firefighters and EMTs as much as $13.40 an hour, based on their skill levels, Skodinski said.
He does not, however, believe it is easier to get volunteers because they are paid.
“There’s a lot of commitment and training time involved,” he said. “So it’s more than pay. They need to have a commitment to the job, and it’s got to be something that they want to do.”
The proposed 2006 Jackson budget calls for the village to spend $219,300 for the fire department. The Jackson Village Board was expected to approve the budget Thursday night.
The Jackson department also serves the Towns of Jackson and Polk, which together are expected to pay another $212,400 for the department.
The department covers about 50 square miles in which about 10,650 people live, Skodinski said.
Port Washington has budgeted $511,920 next year for the volunteer Port Washington Fire Department, which is headed by Chief Mark Mitchell, who is paid by the city. The city has an estimated 10,785 residents.
Mitchell was hired last year and is the city’s first paid fire chief.
The Port Washington department pays its EMTs. Those with intermediate skills get $12.50 an hour, and those with basic skills earn $8.36 an hour, Mitchell said. The ambulance driver is paid $4.16 an hour.
In addition to the on-duty pay, the city always has three EMTs on standby, and these people are paid $2.79 an hour.
“I don’t have to worry about having enough people (three) on a first (ambulance) call,” Mitchell said. “On most of our second calls, we have no problems getting our ambulances out any time of the day.”
He also said he can count on getting between six and eight people to fight fires during weekdays.
“But with firefighters,” he said, “many of our volunteers don’t work in the cities they live in. That’s the problem that many volunteer departments are having these days.”