At the Oct. 13 PFC meeting the Fire Chief summarized several operational and capital developments: a $10,000 grant from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources toward a new grass fire truck, a new rescue diver joining from Grafton, promotions for paid-on-call engineer positions, continuing vehicle maintenance costs and progress on the Public Safety Building and its new training tower.

The chief said the $10,000 DNR forest fire protection grant will be applied to a grass fire truck currently in the construction phase in Pennsylvania; the department will perform local outfitting (lights, brush bumper, tires and lift) and then send the vehicle to Markezand, Renner's Fire Equipment for installation of the pump and firefighting equipment. "That vehicle is currently in the construction phase... We hope to have it done by the end of the year, but that's a pretty aggressive timeline for all of those things to get done," the Fire Chief said.

Personnel updates included a congratulation for firefighter Nick Kelly (final tuition payment for paramedic school), promotions of firefighters Rick Lathrop and Ricky Gilson to engineer (part-time positions that do not require PFC approval), and the upcoming badge pinning that will also include new full-time firefighter-paramedic McKenna Crim. The chief introduced a new rescue diver from the Grafton Fire Department described as having extensive dive certifications.

Operational data the chief shared: 146 EMS calls in September (including 10 paramedic intercepts), average city response times of about 5 minutes, 39 seconds, and 26 fire calls in September (down from 45 the previous month). The chief also reported that the Public Safety Building's structural steel is up, the training tower framing is in place and that a beam is being circulated for signatures to current and former public-safety members and elementary-school students.

The chief noted the 1992 grass fire truck will be placed on Wisconsin Surplus for auction when the new vehicle is fully operational. The department also is rolling out a new firefighter orientation manual to standardize onboarding.