Fire district increases truck budget

The Boscobel and Rural Fire Department received a grant from Compeer Financial for $4,000 toward the purchase of structure firefighting gloves, axes, and cutoff saws. Pictured left to right are John Edge, the department’s treasurer; Teresa Zart, Financial Officer at Compeer; and Boscobel Fire Chief Hershel Marks. Fire department donates to Ridge Runners The Boscobel and Rural Fire Department cut a check for $200 to the Crawford County Ridge Runners ATV/UTV Club in appreciation for the club’s assistance at the department’s recent ATV/UTV fundraising event. That fundraiser netted around $8,400. Pictured left to right are Kyle Sander, John Edge, John Udelhoven, club president, and John Shimpach, vice president.

Firestation 2 — The Boscobel and Rural Fire Department received a grant from Compeer Financial for $4,000 toward the purchase of structure firefighting gloves, axes, and cutoff saws. Pictured left to right are John Edge, the department’s treasurer; Teresa Zart, Financial Officer at Compeer; and Boscobel Fire Chief Hershel Marks. Fire department donates to Ridge Runners The Boscobel and Rural Fire Department cut a check for $200 to the Crawford County Ridge Runners ATV/UTV Club in appreciation for the club’s assistance at the department’s recent ATV/UTV fundraising event. That fundraiser netted around $8,400. Pictured left to right are Kyle Sander, John Edge, John Udelhoven, club president, and John Shimpach, vice president.

The Boscobel and Rural Fire District board voted unanimously to raise its assessment to the district municipalities by about 11 percent to $250,000.

The decision came at the end of a marathon quarterly meeting lasting more than two hours on October 18.

Allen Wester, who represents the Town of Hickory Grove and serves as board Vice President, kicked off the discussion with a pointed demand that the district increase the amount of money set aside to replace its vehicles.

National fire safety guidelines recommend replacing trucks at 25 years, and the district board has a truck fund intended to cover the cost of a new vehicle every five years. That fund has failed, however, to keep pace with the growing cost of new or refurbished vehicles.

To make up the difference, the board last year took out a controversial loan for $400,000 to cover the cost of refurbishing a pumper truck.

“I sat here, and I was humiliated,” Wester declared, referring to a heated public meeting about the loan. “The people came in and said it was the board’s fault because we weren’t raising our truck fund for all those years. It was humiliating because it was true. It needs to be raised or we’re going to be right back in the same boat.”

Firestation 1 — The Boscobel and Rural Fire Department received a grant from Compeer Financial for $4,000 toward the purchase of structure firefighting gloves, axes, and cutoff saws. Pictured left to right are John Edge, the department’s treasurer; Teresa Zart, Financial Officer at Compeer; and Boscobel Fire Chief Hershel Marks. Fire department donates to Ridge Runners The Boscobel and Rural Fire Department cut a check for $200 to the Crawford County Ridge Runners ATV/UTV Club in appreciation for the club’s assistance at the department’s recent ATV/UTV fundraising event. That fundraiser netted around $8,400. Pictured left to right are Kyle Sander, John Edge, John Udelhoven, club president, and John Shimpach, vice president.

Bigger problems

While the increased assessment will put an extra $17,000 in the truck fund, it won’t be nearly enough.

That’s because the next truck up for replacement is the department’s aerial ladder truck. And that can cost up to $1.5 million.

The truck is already 30 years old, and it must be tested every five years to make sure the ladder is structurally sound.

“The fear that I have that it’s not going to pass the ariel test is real,” Assistant Chief Todd Fischer told the board “By the time we go another four years, we’re going to be pushing it. We’re already having electrical issues. We already had a hydraulic cylinder blow. We’ve had other things go wrong with it. The minute that doesn’t pass that stress test, it’s done. It’s scrap metal.”

The ladder truck is useful for fighting pretty much any fire, but required for any larger structure, including the Wisconsin Secure Program Facility building, much of downtown Boscobel, the Rock School, the larger industrial park structures, and the corn drying facilities.

To make matters worse, a modern ladder truck won’t fit in the 60-year-old fire station.

The board recently received eight acres of city land in the industrial park with a view to building a new fire station. The price tag for that would be about $10 million.

While the board hopes that grants and government appropriations will help defray the costs of the new truck and station, they’ve begun a concerted effort to court wealthy individuals within the district to help fundraise the difference.

Checks are starting to come in, according to Secretary/ Treasurer Paul Beck, but the group is hoping to secure a large donation to seed the fund.

District Structure

Eleven municipalities in Grant and Crawford counties make up the fire district. Each pays into the district budget based on the value of the property protected by the department.

That means that the City of Boscobel pays a full half of the $250,000 assessment for 2024. The towns of Boscobel, Marietta, Marion, and Scott collectively pay approximately 40 percent of the budget. The towns of Haney, Hickory Grove, Steuben, Watterstown, and the town and village of Woodman all split the rest.

Many municipalities are counting on this year’s onetime increase in shared revenue from the state will offset the increase in their dues.

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Bigger problems

District Structure