Ozaukee County fire department referendums, 6 communities to vote
CEDARBURG, Wis. - In Ozaukee County, six communities will vote April 2 on whether to raise property taxes to hire more firefighters and paramedics.
The Wisconsin Policy Forum in 2021 studied the county's fire departments. It found all had a "a comparatively bare-boned and inexpensive approach" and that the "traditional approach is now showing severe signs of distress."
"Our EMS calls are just going through the roof," said Cedarburg Fire Chief Jeff Vahsholtz.
SIGN UP TODAY: Get daily headlines, breaking news emails from FOX6 News
Firefighters are getting burned out. The Cedarburg Fire Department said calls for help are up 47% over the past decade, and most of the EMS calls are to help people who have fallen. At the same time, there are fewer volunteers – a group the Cedarburg Fire Department has relied on since 1866.
"It’s becoming very hard for our volunteers to put that much time into covering all of those calls," Vahsholtz said.
Cedarburg Fire Department
So this year, the city started paying those on-call firefighters when they respond.
"Basically the Cedarburg Fire Department has done this for free since 1866, and we just can’t sustain it anymore," said Vahsholtz. "We want to continue to provide the best care that we can to our residents and all the visitors."
FREE DOWNLOAD: Get breaking news alerts in the FOX6 News app for iOS or Android.
The department's ladder truck and fire engines were not paid for with Cedarburg tax money; instead, a nonprofit group raised the money to buy the equipment. Now, the fire department is going to voters in the city and town – asking to raise their taxes in order to boost the number of firefighters.
It would add eight full-time firefighter/paramedics and keep funding for two more spots that federal American Rescue Act money paid for.
Port Washington Fire Department
"Our department is kind of at a breaking point," said Joe DeBoer, Port Washington deputy chief/EMS service director. "Over the last decade, we’ve seen a 53% increase in calls for service, while our available staffing has decreased by 23%."
The Port Washington Fire Department has five full-time firefighters; American Rescue Act money is paying for three of them. The department also has 42 paid on-call staff.
"We’re getting to the point where, essentially, our service is no longer sustainable," DeBoer said. "In 2022, about 40% of the days, we were unable to provide an ambulance for at least six hours and on weekends that ballooned to 54%."
DeBoer said, in those situations, an ambulance would need to come from places like Grafton, Saukville or Fredonia – increasing response times: "What that means is sometimes we don’t have staff available to respond when somebody needs us."
Port Washington Fire Department
The new funding would keep those three full-time positions when the federal money runs out and add six more full-time firefighter/paramedics.
"I would look at this like an insurance policy. Nobody wants to have to call an ambulance, or a firetruck, they don’t want to have an emergency at their house, but they want to have those staff available if something happens to them," said DeBoer.
The communities that will vote April 2 include the cities of Cedarburg and Port Washington, the village of Grafton, and the towns of Cedarburg, Grafton and Saukville. Those opposed to the referendums point to inflation and rising costs.
In the city of Cedarburg, with a typical home assessed at $390,000, property taxes would increase roughly $264 per year. For Port Washington, the typical home of $235,000 would see a $213 property tax increase.