The Fort Atkinson City Council voted during last night’s meeting to not extend their rolling contract with Ryan Brothers Ambulance past December 31, 2022 and discuss a referendum in the April election to have residents vote on the future of EMS service.
Several employees of Ryan Brothers spoke out against the plan, with their service director saying they were only notified three days ago of the council’s intention. The City will look to its residents to decide if the future of EMS service moves to a new staffed role with the Fort Atkinson Fire Department by asking to exceed levy limits. The course of the referendum can be altered, and the council said they could still renegotiate with Ryan Brothers if things change. If the referendum passes, the contract with RBA would end.
Ryan Brothers has been a longtime provider of EMS service in Fort, but the Fort Atkinson Fire Department is asking for additional staffing which includes the hiring of 6 paramedic firefighters and 6 EMT firefighters. The department has 4 full-time firefighters and 41 volunteers and Chief Daryl Rausch said that the department’s volunteers will have to leave their jobs in the middle of the day because there are not enough resources to support the growing call volume. August was one of the busiest months in the department’s history with an average of a call every 16 hours. The new full-time staff would take a large majority of calls away from the volunteers who would only be used for large emergencies. 95% of fire calls would then be handled by these new full time employees, which would reduce the need for volunteers by more than 200 calls. Rausch said the full time staff could be out of the station within 90 seconds, which is comparable to Ryan Brothers.
After Rausch's presentation, a few Ryan Brothers members interjected in disagreement with the proposal, but were cut off by the council.
Police Chief Aaron Bump also asked for two additional police officers with plans for a third later on, as the city needs to right size itself. A city of the size of Fort needs 2 officers for every 1,000 residents, which equates to 27 officers. The city only has 20. Bump wants to see that number grow to 22-23, which will also allow officers to do more proactive policing, which Bump says is lacking. One council member told Bump “you will have no issues getting my vote” but there was no decision on Bump’s request.
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