Wisconsin Rapids Fire Department Proposing Referendum to Hire More Firefighters

Friday, June 7th, 2024 -- 8:01 AM

(Hailey Clevenger, WSAW) The Wisconsin Rapids Fire Department says they’ve run out of options to address their worker shortage.

According to Hailey Clevenger with WSAW, now, they’re proposing a November referendum for about $1.3 million to hire nine more firefighters, but the mayor needs more convincing. Both Fire Chief Todd Eckes and Wisconsin Rapids Mayor Matt Zacher agree calls have gone up.

The newly elected mayor says he needs to do more research before he supports this referendum. However, Eckes says they need more people to respond to these calls. So far this year, the Wisconsin Rapids FD has responded to more than 2,000 calls.

The department’s two stations respond to all of Rapids, plus six more municipalities in the area. Just this week, with so many calls, they had to turn down a request for help from another department.

“We had two rigs out already. We got paged today for a neighboring mutual aid department and we had to turn that down,” Eckes said. “Our primary concern is the city.” That’s why they are asking for their first-ever referendum which will have an impact on taxpayers.

“Using what I’ve been told, it’s $100,000 a year for a firefighter,” Eckes said. “It comes out to be about $70 to $69 or $70 a year in tax increase for those firefighters.” To understand where Fire Chief Eckes is coming from, Mayor Zacher is doing ride-alongs to see how things are going. He’s learning the department’s staff shortage is impacting the firefighters’ recovery time.

“They have their two days on and then they get their four days off, but if they are being called in for overtime then that’s an issue too because they’re not even getting their full time off to recover from the two days on,” Mayor Zacher said.

Although he’s not opposed to the original referendum idea, he also proposes adding other questions to it. “Why are 45% of the calls not emergency calls? Is there a different way to address those calls? And in making sure that if it’s an emergency, that we get there as soon as possible and take care of those people,” he stated.

Mayor Zacher told NewsChannel 7 that he hopes to make a decision by August, if not sooner, so the referendum can go on the November ballot. He added that he will continue to have conversations with Chief Eckes.

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