Joint EMS program gets bogged down in the details

The devil finally showed up in the details of the advanced life support paramedic-level services agreement between the towns and villages of Fredonia and Belgium last week.

Fredonia Town Chairman Lance Leider pointed out two elements he found unfair to the town when it comes to funding the service at the July 31 Joint Fire/EMS Committee.

Formation of the agreement started a few years ago when Ozaukee County used some of its federal American Rescue Plan Act money to pay for EMS across the county through a grant program in order to shorten response times due to a drastically shrinking pool of paid on-call volunteers. The northern Ozaukee departments received $640,000.

ARPA money needs to be earmarked by the end of 2024 and spent by the end of 2026, and once it runs out municipalities are on their own when it comes to paying for EMS services.

The villages of Belgium and Fredonia have reached consensus that they will hold referendums in November to fund the service, and both towns plan to hold elector meetings for the same purpose. If any of those votes fail, the municipalities still must find a way to fund the program through 2027.

The Village of Fredonia, which has the only municipal fire department serving any of the communities — Belgium’s and Waubeka’s departments are independent — is running the service and contracting with the other three communities.

The formula for how to pay for the service takes into account population, call volume and equalized value of property improvement.

The Join Fire/EMS Committee has an agreement in place but has been working on the language for a longer-term agreement that all four municipal boards would have to approve.

Leider said four sections of the Town of Fredonia are served by the Random Lake Fire Department and shouldn’t be included in the funding formula.

Belgium Clerk Vickie Boehnlein on Tuesday said she couldn’t find population data broken out by section, but she found equalized value levels and removed that portion from the next draft of the agreement.

Belgium Town Chairman Tom Winker said the town has a couple of sections covered by Random Lake as well, and Boehnlein said those aren’t included.

In addition, since the county grant money will run out before 2026 to fund 24/7 paramedic service — round-the-clock coverage has been the committee’s goal from the start — all four municipalities will have to pay for the service through a separate agreement. The committee has to determine if it wants to offset the repayment costs with billing revenue from paramedics the program earns from 2023 through 2025.

Revenue will be factored into the formula for the long-term agreement.

Leider also wants the Village of Fredonia to drop its paramedic intercept fee it charges the Waubeka Fire Department, which serves the Town of Fredonia. The town, he said, gets charged twice since it’s already being charged through the formula in the ALS paramedic level services agreement.

“Why do you have to rub salt in the wound between two departments? To me it’s a ridiculous charge because in 2026 you’re taking it off anyhow,” Leider said.

“I think you need to put your common sense hat on and what would happen if that was me?” Winker said. “You wouldn’t be too happy.”

Fredonia Village President Dan Gehrke said, “I agree it sounds funny.”

Boehnlein said the town and village can figure out the issue themselves since it’s not part of the agreement, but said if the charge remains it would be counted as revenue and offset the expenses.

Fredonia Town Attorney Nate Jung asked that the opt-out language in the agreement be clarified, along with other wording.

The committee will meet at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 21, to fine tune the agreement’s language.