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Onalaska fire staff brief council on Wisconsin Task Force 1; council approves $2,000 toward joint fire facilities study
Summary
Assistant Fire Chief Jeremy Southworth briefed the Onalaska Common Council about Wisconsin Task Force 1 membership and training opportunities; later the council approved a not-to-exceed $2,000 contribution toward a joint facilities and staffing study with neighboring municipalities.
Assistant Fire Chief Jeremy Southworth presented the council with an overview of Wisconsin Task Force 1 and Onalaska Fire Department’s possible involvement. He said state budget changes allow Task Force 1 to grow and that the team is a deployable technical rescue resource that can respond statewide or nationally.
Southworth told the council the task force is expanding from roughly "40 ish to like 80, 90" members and that Onalaska has about six firefighters already trained in elements of the task force. He said the city could nominate one or two members to apply; nominees would receive specialized technical-rescue training (about 240 hours per member) paid for by the program, and travel, lodging and door-to-door time also would be compensated. Training and deployments would be based at Volk Field in Camp Douglas.
Councilors asked how long deployments might last and what cost the city would incur. Southworth said deployments can be up to about 16 days and that the city would not pay training or travel costs, but it could be economically affected by the temporary loss of local availability for up to two weeks. He also said the city retains the ability to decline a deployment if local staffing levels made it impractical.
Separately, the council considered whether to contribute financially to an expanded shared-services study being led by the Town of Holland and the fire district. The study would incorporate data from neighboring municipalities to evaluate facility siting and staffing options for a potential north-area fire district or other shared arrangements. City Administrator Rick Niemeyer and Assistant Chief Southworth said combining data could avoid poor station siting and may yield larger cost savings.
Alders moved and seconded a motion to provide up to $2,000 toward the joint fire facilities/staffing study, with the fund to be taken from the fire department contractual-services budget rather than from the general fund. The motion (moved by Alder Steven Knott, seconded by Alder Diane Wolf) passed unanimously. Roll-call participants recorded yes votes from Jim Benash, Kathy Lowendorf, Steven Knott, Mike Milke, Larry Jurasic and Diane Wolf.
Councilors and staff characterized the contribution as a relatively small investment to obtain better information that could influence future decisions about station locations or shared staffing agreements.
