Central Fire and EMS District to re-evaluate signs

By Nathaniel Underwood

The Central Fire & EMS board decided to move an update to the stations’ signage on to next year’s budget as well as temporarily increase the per diem payment for EMT trips to Marshfield due to the construction on Highway 13, making trips longer, at their most recent meeting on June 20. They also decided to extend chief Joe Mueller’s contract for 90 days while considerations are made on a longer term contract.

The topic of replacing the signs on the fire halls in Dorchester, Abbotsford, and Colby to more accurately reflect the ‘Central Fire’ designation that the district has now had for several years was a point of contention at some of the member municipalities' meetings over the last month. While most agreed it was a task that should be taken on, the municipalities had different ideas regarding where the funding was coming from when discussing it amongst their boards. Ultimately, the Central Fire & EMS board decided to hold off on the project until it could be put on next year’s budget.

The initial proposal asked that the municipalities that owned the building pay for the new signage, and while the city of Abbotsford and town of Holton agreed to pay their share from their budgets, the city of Colby, the village of Dorchester and the town of Mayville all turned down the proposal at their respective meetings, asking that instead come out of the Central

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Fire & EMS budget and sending it back to the Central Fire & EMS board for further consideration.

“To me, you're splitting hairs on who’s paying for it,” Mueller said of the situation. “It’s still taxpayers’money. If you want to say in July I sit down and put it as a special line item on the budget for next year, we can do that. Again, the thing is Abbotsford is going to retain a bigger percentage than other people pay and you end up paying for a sign on a building you don’t own. That’s the way I look at it.”

While Abbotsford initially had agreed to pay for the signage, Jim Weix, who represented the city on the board at the June 20 meeting, stated that the Abbotsford board had decided that if some of the other municipalities did not want to pay for it through their budgets, then it should go through the joint Central Fire & EMS budget.

“With the conflict that turned up, I think the best route to go is to run it through the fire and EMS budget,” Weix said at the meeting. “We’re paying for it anyways. Now that this all came to fruition the way that it did, we discussed it at our last meeting and everybody kind of agreed let’s just have the fire department pay for it.”

Mueller also noted that the price for the signs, which were quoted at $5,000 for each building, would likely change by the time they would get to the project.

“The only thing is that I would have to check on what the bid would be next year. There might be an increase in costs,” he added. “I don’t know. It might go up, it might go down.”

The board also discussed increasing the pay for EMTs who travel to Marshfield on calls over the summer. With Highway 13 closed for construction, the trips take longer both to and from the hospital, resulting in more time being spent on calls. The board implemented a per diem model for paying EMTs earlier this year, opting to pay $44 per trip rather than an hourly wage, bringing into question whether or not they should pay more temporarily until construction finishes in the fall.

The current per diem pay is based on an estimated average of two hours per call and was implemented on a trial period to see if it would work better than the hourly system that was used prior. Given the extra time that it would take, it was suggested that an additional $10 be paid out temporarily on Marshfield trips. Returning to an hourly wage was also an option that was considered by the board.

“If you want, we can go back to the $22 an hour wage and we don’t have to worry about it,” Mueller said. “Then it is what it is. My whole thing about the per diem is that there are some people that just hang around too long in Marshfield and they're down there way longer than they need to be.”

“I like the per diem,” board member Nancy O’Brien said. “I don’t have a problem with a slight increase for a short period of time. A lot of places are on per diem and it kind of makes it more fair.”

After discussion, the board decided to continue the $44 per diem system while paying an additional $10 for trips to Marshfield until September 1 or until the highway opens.