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Marshfield Fire Rescue presents five-year strategic plan to Police and Fire Commission; final vote deferred
Summary
Marshfield Fire Rescue Department Chief presented a five-year strategic plan including NFPA- and ISO-aligned staffing, training, and facility recommendations. Commissioners asked for more time; final consideration was carried to a later meeting.
Marshfield Fire Rescue Department Chief presented a draft five-year strategic plan to the Marshfield Police and Fire Commission on a proposal to change staffing, training, facilities and code-adoption over the next five years.
The plan, Chief Miller told commissioners, lays out goals to implement NFPA 1710 deployment and staffing guidance, improve the department's ISO rating, adopt more current code language and create new positions including a fire inspector/fire marshal, a public information/community risk reduction officer, a division chief of training and an assistant chief. "This gives us some time to update this," Chief Miller said during his presentation, adding that the document is intended as a living plan to be refined with the commission and common council.
Why it matters: The plan touches on issues that affect response times, insurance costs for local businesses and the fire department's capacity to handle increasingly complex calls (hazardous materials, mass casualty incidents, confined-space rescues and EMS demand). Chief Miller highlighted ISO scoring and NFPA compliance as pathways to lower commercial insurance costs and to align staffing with modern standards.
Most of the presentation described measurable objectives, timelines and proposed organizational changes. The plan recommends moving toward a minimum on-duty strength model aligned to NFPA 1710 (the presentation referenced nine-on-duty minimums and an eventual target of 12 on-duty personnel), building a training center, standardizing equipment replacement timelines and pursuing an updated International Fire Code or newer NFPA code adoption.
Commissioners questioned costs and timing. One commissioner asked which of the proposed positions would be new hires; Chief Miller said four positions are envisioned across the five-year horizon and that two (fire inspector/fire marshal and a division chief of training) could be prioritized and possibly funded via fee schedules or multi-year staging. Another commissioner asked for the plan to be split into smaller approval blocks so the commission and the public could consider finance and operational impacts in stages.
Rather than approving the plan at the meeting, commissioners voted to carry final consideration forward. A motion to carry final consideration of the strategic plan to a later meeting was approved on roll call with commissioners recording "yes" votes; the precise meeting month was discussed and scheduled for follow-up. The commission asked staff to return with more-detailed job descriptions, pay-study information and phased cost estimates before a final vote.
The commission also asked for follow-up material focused on the two earlier-priority positions (public information/community risk reduction and the fire inspector/fire marshal) to be discussed at a subsequent meeting.
