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Wausau emergency management reports no city disaster declarations in 2025, outlines ICS trainings and exercises
Summary
Philip Rentmaser, Marathon County emergency management director (serving the City of Wausau by agreement), told the Public Health and Safety Committee about 2025 trainings and exercises, an upcoming hazard mitigation plan update in January 2026 and continuity-of-operations planning for city departments
Philip Rentmaser, director of emergency management for Marathon County who by agreement serves as emergency management director for the City of Wausau, updated the committee Oct. 20 on the office's 2025 activities and planned work for 2026. He said the City of Wausau had "not have any [disaster declarations] so far this year."
Rentmaser reviewed a sequence of 2025 trainings the county ran or hosted: amateur-radio workshops, ICS-300 (Intermediate Incident Command System) and ICS-400 (Advanced) trainings, a basic inland search-and-rescue class with the Air Force, volunteer and donation management sessions, volunteer reception center training with United Way of Marathon County, evacuation planning and reentry training, and a practical applications class held elsewhere.
He described exercises the county conducted with external partners: a FEMA-supported Northern Lights long-term power-outage tabletop exercise, a tornado drill in April, a Wisconsin River HAZMAT tabletop with SAFER and an upcoming joint emergency-response tabletop in November with Wausau Police and Wausau Fire that will simulate a tornado striking Marathon Park (with a planned hazmat element). Rentmaser said the Wisconsin cyber response team will hold a session this weekend that individuals may attend.
For planning, Rentmaser said counties are advancing continuity-of-operations planning and that the county will kick off a five-year hazard-mitigation-plan update in January 2026. He said the city emergency management plan is due for revision and that he intends to assemble a group to update it in 2026. He also mentioned active-shooter and Central Wisconsin Airport triennial exercises scheduled in the coming months.
Rentmaser closed by encouraging city departments to undertake continuity-of-operations planning and by noting training opportunities he said are open to city staff and volunteers.
