Central Fire and EMS sets 2025 budget
By Nathaniel Underwood
The Central Fire and EMS board set their 2025 budget to be approved by the individual municipalities at the most recent board meeting last Thursday.
While the overall budget saw a 2.8 percent increase in expenses, going from $699,400 budgeted for 2024 to $719,000 in 2025, the collective cost to the municipalities as a whole actually saw a drop, going from around $325,000 in 2024 to $294,600 in the budget for 2025.
The drop was based on an increase in projected revenues earned from fees for EMS services, which have seen a spike in recent years. In 2023, Central Fire and EMS brought in over $470,000 in EMS fees and will likely see a similar year in 2024 with the number of EMS calls continuing to rise. These numbers were significantly higher than what the board had budgeted for in projected EMS fees for service revenues, which was set at $300,000 in the 2024 budget. While the board noted that
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projecting a more conservative number for variable items like EMS fee revenue is safer, the difference between actual revenues and what has been budgeted the last two years has been significant enough that the board believed it pertinent to raise the projected revenue from the fees in their 2025 budget.
“I guess I want a little feedback,” board president Larry Oehmichen said. “Are we a little heavy pulling $375,000 from the ambulance?”
“I don’t think so,” Todd Schmidt, representing the city of Colby at the meeting, responded. “You look at the [2024] actual through July and it’s $262,000 and the 2023 actual is $472,000, which is almost $100,000 more. I don’t think it’s irresponsible at all, unless there’s some circumstance that’s changed.”
“I took the average income we’ve been earning in this year and drawing it out. That average comes out to $444,000 for this year,” district chief Joe Mueller said.
The board decided upon a 25 percent increase, budgeting $75,000 more in projected EMS service fees in 2025, raising the total to $375,000.
This change will result in the share of funds that the municipalities put forth to decrease, despite seeing increases in projected costs for utilities like phone and internet, electric and heat as well budgeting more for insurance, fuel and vehicle maintenance. While some items like fuel and electricity only saw small increases, around three to five percent, others ranged from a 10 to 25 percent increase from 2024. Other items that also saw an increase included the salaries of district chief, overall salaries for both fire and EMS and Social Security costs.
The biggest cut came from the salaries for administration and the board, which saw its budget drop from $11,000 in 2024 to $2,500 in 2025. The district only paid out $2,000 in administration and board salaries in 2023, prompting some questions as to why it had been budgeted so high in 2024, even though the actual number will likely be similar to the 2023 cost.
Rough estimates of the costs to the member municipalities came out to $79,500 for the city of Abbotsford, $47,500 for the city of Colby, $38,000 for the town of Mayville, $35,500 for the town of Hull, $33,000 for the town of Holton and $28,000 for the village of Dorchester and the town of Colby.
