There was a discussion about the Washington County EMS system at the Washington County Public Safety meeting on Wednesday, Sept. 2.
Starting in May of 2026 there have been several presentations presented to the Public Safety Committee and the full County Board pertaining to the creation of a county wide Emergency Medical System (EMS). During the process they have met clear goals and objectives that were established for this project.
Those five goals were:
Mitigate long-term (five to ten years) property tax burden for Washington County taxpayers
Proliferate the Volunteer and Paid on Call Fire and EMS services
Preserve satisfactory level of EMS Service for all Washington County citizens
Relieve Municipal fiscal pressure, provide fiscal sustainable improvements for Fire/EMS Departments
Promotes shared services and collaboration among county, departments and municipalities.
During the month of August, there were several listening sessions for Washington County residents to learn more about this project. Those sessions took place in the towns of Addison, Trenton and Jackson on Aug. 24 and the towns of West Bend and Barton on Aug. 26.
Within Washington County there are 13 different fire and EMS departments and they are all independent of one another. That doesn’t mean that they don’t help each other out. During the meeting there was mention of the amazing response from many fire and EMS departments in the area rushing to help the Neumann family’s barn fire in Farmington recently.
With this proposed project they want to be able to continue providing support to local fire and EMS departments by backing them up with a centralized plan. This is in hopes to combat the increased demand, growing and aging population and the need to recruit and train volunteers.
During the discussion at the meeting on Sept. 2, the topic of being tax rate neutral came up. The current tax rate is $1.40.
Their goal with this project was to not cause tax rates to increase due to the project. With the plan that was presented at the meeting, they have achieved that.
With the new plan, the total EMS funding will cost $2.96 million. The previous plan was at $3.5 million. This means that with the current plan, tax payers will not see an increase in their tax rate pertaining to this project and tax rate will remain at $1.40.
Since each department is separate and independent, during the discussion they claimed that being short staffed or low on resources impacts not just their community but others in the area. Their plan highlights how the new system would give local control but support the whole county. Governance within the departments would stay local and independent but the support and coordination with the county would be increased.
“County support would offset municipal EMS costs, shifting how services are funded while keeping the proposal tax rate neutral for Washington County taxpayers,” their proposal in the agenda packet for the meeting said.
After some discussion and answering of questions, the Public Safety Committee achieved majority consensus and moved to bring the recommendation to the county board.
SMART Goals were also mentioned and consensus was reached to send those to the county board for recommendation. Those goals were as follows:
Operating Debt & Referendum Avoidance- All Washington County Municipalities avoid cost shift borrowing and referendum for operating costs.
Documented cost savings from Fire/EMS Chiefs five and ten year projections- Achieve verifiable average 5% cost saving annually comparing each year’s proposed budget to Fire/EMS Chief’s 2026 projections.
Volunteer Recruitment and Retention- Develop and implement a countywide volunteer recruitment and retention strategy that stabilizes and enhances volunteer availability across all departments.
Regional and/or Joint Collaboration Study- Complete two targeted regional/joint collaboration, cost savings and related timelines for execution, as well as capital needs for implementation. Develop uniform multi-agency policies, including JPA/MOU’s and document related savings.
Apparatus Maintenance and Replacement Strategy- Complete White Paper analyzing unified contracting and county-based vehicle/equipment maintenance strategy detailing cost benefit, potential savings and implementation plans.
Apparatus Cost Avoidance- Establish a maximum cap on redundant equipment and document established savings by end of Q1 every year. Develop a county-wide deployment plan for optimal quantity and location of four to six equipment types.
Fire/EMS Priority Dispatch Optimization- Complete white paper analyzing Fire/EMS dispatch cost/benefit and implementation timeline, as well as response times and financial impact of priority based dispatch and automated MABAS.
The only other action taken was approving the minutes from the previous meeting. The next meeting will be held on Wednesday, Sept. 16 at 7 a.m.
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