Central Fire

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tially obstructed by the placement of a voice amplifier, and the MSA packs are easier to turn on.

One firefighter said he typically enters buildings two or three times during a structure fire, and he could feel the Draeger pack digging into his back when he put one on and noticed that it had less padding than MSA’s SCBA.

Rick “Norton” Rinehart, the town of Mayville representative and a former fire chief, asked what MSA was asking for RIT packs, which are used to rescue trapped firefighters who are struggling to breath. Mueller said the district already has two RIT packs from MSA in each station, but Rinehart wanted to know what the replacement costs would be in the future.

Rinehart asked several other questions about the differences between MSA and Draeger, and said he would like to get everything in writing before the board votes again.

“I would like to try to get apples to apples all the way through if at all possible,” Rinehart said.

After Mueller said MSA would pay the district a total of $40,000 for its old tanks and throw in some RIT packs for free, Rinehart said he was more open to going with the MSA offer.

“I’ll be honest. If we get the RIT packs thrown in and they give us that money, you’re going to get what you want,” he told Mueller and the other firefighters.

Oehmichen told Mueller that he wanted MSA’s latest offer in writing before the district’s next meeting in May, and said these last-minute changes in price are why he objected to rushing into a decision at the February meeting.

“This points out the danger of a full-court press, not getting any other quotes and now we sit here looking at it,” he said. “This is what you get.”

By pausing to get quotes from MSA’s competitors, Oehmichen said MSA effectively lowered its own cost by $160,000.

Mueller questioned whether the district could just ignore the votes by the municipalities to purchase the SCBAs from MSA. Although enough municipalities approved the purchases to make it official, the district board voted last month to table the SCBA purchases so the district could consider other offers.

Oehmichen also noted that the district’s bylaws require authorization from the municipalities for expenditures that were not included in the annual budget and for borrowing money – which will be needed on a short-term basis to pay for the SCBAs.

With the district needing to purchase as many as two new fire engines in a few years, Rinehart said the board needs to do whatever it can to save money, even if that involves having heated discussions and putting pressure on vendors for better deals.

“All the screaming did save us a bunch of money,” he said. “We can say what we want to say, but $160,000 just fell out of space.”

Rinehart said he recently contacted Fenton Fire Equipment, which sells used fire equipment, and found out that a 2000 tanker/ enginer with 10,000 miles cost $800,000.

“We do have to look at how do pay for this stuff down the road,” he said.

Hull responds to accusations

Jordan Reynolds, chairman of the town of Hull, responded to Oehmichen’s previous accusations that officials in his township had a formed an illegal “walking quorum” before the Feb. 27 district meeting, when town of Hull trustee Leonard Haas joined the 4-3 majority in voting to approve the SCBAs from MSA.

Reading a prepared statement, Reynolds vigorously defended his town’s two trustees, Haas and Kurt Robida, who is also a firefighter in the district and head of the committee that recommended the MSA purchases. Robida always abstains from votes that involve the district, Reynolds said, and the only comment he made at the town board’s Feb. 10 meeting was to ask if anyone could attend the next district meeting so the town was represented.

“The conversation stopped there,” he said. “There was no vote nor action that took place. It was simple coordination among town officials, which did not need to be posted on the agenda, as nothing was discussed that had any relevance.”

Reynolds said he had previously attended district meetings to represent the township, but after being elected to the Marathon County Board of Supervisors in 2024, he said scheduling conflicts have made that difficult. Because Robida is a firefighter in the district, Haas is the only other town official who can represent the town without a conflict of interest.

Reynolds said Oehmichen contacted him after the Feb. 27 district meeting and asked if he knew about an “illegal meeting” between Haas and Robida. Reynolds said he was not aware of any allegations and said Haas had been able to form his own opinion about whether to purchase the SCBAs based on the robust discussion that took place on Feb. 27.

“I’ve only heard opinions from Mr. Oehmichen and no one else,” he said. “No proof or evidence was ever presented to me to support this claim of an open meeting violation. These loose allegations reflect poorly on our town, and it doesn’t sit well with me or others in the community.”

The town chairman said he spoke to attorneys at the Wisconsin Towns Association and determined that what Oehmichen alleged did not even meet the definition of a walking quorum: “a series of informal gatherings or communications between groups of governmental body members, each group smaller than a quorum, where these members explicitly agree to act uniformly to control a body’s actions.”

Because the district is made up of seven members, Reynolds said it would take at least four of them to have discussions outside of a meeting to constitute a walking quorum. Even with that in mind, Reynolds said it was “irresponsible” of Oehmichen to accuse Haas and Robida of colluding ahead of time.

“It seems odd to me that, with everything that’s transpired with this purchase, that they are now being accused of such an outrageous act,” he said. “Everyone’s vote counts on this board, and when voting, they shouldn’t have to worry about backlash and public slander by any other board member. This should speak volumes for anyone sitting at this table.”

Prior to Reynolds reading his statement, Oehmichen denied that he had previously declared that Haas’s vote on Feb. 27 was invalid based solely on his suspicions.

“I told everyone that if they were guilty of a walking quorum, their vote would not count,” he said, noting that the sheriff’s department would have to investigate a complaint if one were filed. “In a walking quorum violation, the voting party’s vote does not count, leaving the vote tied 3-3.”

Pat Tischendorf, the town of Holton’s representative, said he spoke to someone at the WTA who told them that only a judge can declare a vote invalid due to an open meeting violation.

Reynolds said he personally supports buying SCBAs from MSA based on his eight years in the U.S. Army, which included two deployments to Iraq.

“Each time my unit went, our government made damn sure we had the best equipment available to do our jobs because they knew the job was dangerous. I was always thankful for that,” he said. “The same applies here, in my mind, when it comes to supplying equipment to our firefighters.”

Elections

Oehmichen was narrowly re-elected to be president of the district board, receiving four votes compared to three for Abbotsford Mayor Jim Weix. The 4-3 vote was tallied using secret ballots.

Rinehart was elected vice-president over Tischendorf on a 4-3 vote, and city of Colby representative Nancy O’Brien was reelected treasurer on a unanimous ballot. O’Brien, who is selling her house in Colby, said she will remain on the city council until she moves out, and at that point, the board will have to decide who to choose as her replacement.

SAYING HIS PIECE - Town of Hull chairman Jordan Reynolds, right, reads a response to accusations made last month by Larry Oehmichen, left, chair of the Central Fire and EMS District board. Pictured in the middle is Rick “Norton” Rinehart, representative for the town of Mayville. Reynolds said there was no evidence to support Oehmichen’s claim that town of Hull officials held a walking quorum before a vote was taken on SCBA purchases.

STAFF PHOTO/KEVIN O’BRIEN