VERONA, Wis. -- The future of Fitch-Rona EMS District, the service that caters to the City of Verona, the City of Fitchburg and Verona Township, is now under review and not for the first time.
Patrick Anderson is the Chief of the EMS service and has been with the district since 2001. According to Anderson, discussions over restructuring or dissolving the district happen roughly every five years.
Now, for the first time, the conversation was started by the City of Verona instead of the City of Fitchburg.
"There is a disparity between what those municipalities pay and the services they're getting," Anderson said.
The conversation
Fitch-Rona's operations do generate revenue. According to Anderson, that makes up roughly 50% of the budget and the remaining portion is paid by the municipalities.
"So that remaining 50%, Fitchburg pays about 50 to 55% of that. The city of Verona pays about 40 to 45% of that, and the Town of Verona pays about 5% based on equalized value from the Department of Revenue," Anderson said.
Although the City of Verona pays about 40%, only a fourth of the total EMS calls are to the city.
At the City of Verona Common Council July 22nd meeting, the city discussed the possibility of either pulling out of the partnership or restructure the agreement between the municipalities. It's the first of the three municipalities to do so publicly.
The mayor of the City of Verona, Luke Diaz said he's talked with the mayor of the City of Fitchburg about the topic.
"We had chatted for a bit kind of kind of work between the two of us, and then eventually we got to the point where it's like, all right, we need to bring it back to our council," Diaz said.
Diaz said he's looking for ways to save public dollars.
"If we went our own way, we're looking at potentially a savings of $70,000 or so," he said. "If we were to stay in the district [and] redo [the] funding formula in a more fair way, we think looking at savings of potentially 130 grand a year.".
Diaz said if the city were to pull out, it could mean bringing EMS services in-house.
History of Fitch-Rona
Fitch-Rona started from an intergovernmental agreement that was signed back in 1977.
According to Anderson, the first time there was a conversation the organization's future was in 1982, five years after it was started. The most recent time being in 2018 after a survey that looked into operations.
How does Fitch-Rona run?
To run Fitch-Rona, there is a commission made up of two citizens and one council/town board member from each municipality. That groups meets once a month and acts as a liaison to their respective councils.
Fitch-Rona answers roughly 5,000 calls a year. There are three paramedic ambulances on 24/7, two in Fitchburg and one in the city of Verona. There are roughly 45 employees, 21 of which are full time paramedics. These employees are unionized and according to Anderson, would not lose their jobs if the district is dissolved.
Any decision about the future of the Fitch-Rona EMS district will be made by municipalities. Diaz said he hopes to have a plan by the end of the year.
The City of Fitchburg plans to discuss the topic at its common council meeting at the end of August. The town of Verona plans to discuss it next week.
COPYRIGHT 2024 BY CHANNEL 3000. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. THIS MATERIAL MAY NOT BE PUBLISHED, BROADCAST, REWRITTEN OR REDISTRIBUTED.
Most Popular
Comments / 0