Village reaches out to Grafton for ambulance help

Countywide staffing issues with first responders prompted the Saukville Village Board last week to approve lending one of the Saukville Fire Department’s ambulances to the Grafton Fire Department.

“Saukville is temporarily unable to provide staff for its ambulance services due to Covid-19 quarantines and other staff unavailability,” the agreement between the two communities reads.

“Grafton is able and willing to staff a Saukville ambulance so that ambulance service may still be provided in Saukville’s response area and on a mutual aid basis to other communities.”

The agreement is similar to one struck by Grafton and Thiensville when Thiensville’s ambulance staff was decimated by Covid-19 and unable to respond to calls, prompting one of its ambulances to be stationed in Grafton.

Since November, fire chiefs have called the ambulance staffing situation “dire” throughout Ozaukee County, which has required fire departments to scramble to cover each other’s emergency calls.

That’s meant departments going to 12-hour shifts and checking with each other twice a day to see who is shorthanded so other departments can cover their areas of responsibility.

For instance, at times Mequon has covered for Thiensville and Waubeka has covered for Grafton, while Grafton is covering for Port Washington.

Contributing to the staff shortage, many EMTs and paramedics also work in health care and serve with fire departments part-time or as side jobs.

With the coronavirus, many staff members are being told they can’t work outside those facilities, making them unavailable as first responders.

In addition, with hospitals and other facilities stretched to the limit because of the coronavirus, some medical groups have begun recruiting EMTs and paramedics, offering higher pay than what fire departments can provide.

The Grafton Fire Department is serving as the clearinghouse for finding departments to cover for those whose service has been interrupted, what chiefs are calling a “fail safe” program.

“It’s part of our new normal, to look at what the next couple days are going to look like,” Grafton Fire Chief Bill Rice said. “If we’re aware that one or two services are going to be down, we will address that.”

Grafton is able to cover for other departments because it has more full-time staff members than most other departments, including two full-time chiefs and three full-time paramedic/firefighters.

The Grafton Fire Department has two ambulances but is able to staff three ambulances, thus making it possible to house an ambulance from Saukville or other communities, who mostly rely on paid-on call responders.

The Saukville Fire Department has no full-time staff.

Rice said he is negotiating an agreement similar to Saukville’s with Port Washington, which currently has one full-time employee, Chief Mark Mitchell.

Mitchell has sought to hire three full-time paramedics in recent years, and the Common Council has budgeted for one person in each of the last two years. However, they have been unable to consistently fill that position.

Port Washington Administrator Tony Brown said there is enough money available  in the 2021 and 2022 budgets to fill two full-time positions.

Port Washington is looking at conducting a study of the fire department to identify issues related to hiring and staffing.

In addition, the draft of a shared services study of county fire and ambulance services by the Wisconsin Policy Forum is scheduled to be released to fire chiefs next week and municipal administrators the week after, according to a memo sent to fire chiefs on Dec. 29.

The final draft of the study is expected to be released in February and presented to local municipal boards and councils in March.

The study was prompted by ongoing staffing issues as well as higher costs for equipment.

Reconfiguring ambulance coverage is likely to be one topic addressed by the study.

In October, Rice took over administrative duties for the Saukville Fire Department, succeeding Saukville Chief Thad Trinko, who resigned in July.

Under that agreement, the Village of Saukville is paying the Village of Grafton $300 per week for Rice’s services until April.

Saukville also contracts with the Grafton department for fire inspection services.

Under the loan agreement, Grafton will be responsible for maintaining or repairing the ambulance, up to $500, while it is in Grafton’s custody. Major repairs or maintenance needs costing more than $500 will be paid by Saukville.