The Randall Town Board and Plan Commission approved a preliminary step Wednesday toward exploring consolidating three local fire departments.
The Plan Commission recommended to the Town Board in a unanimous voice vote to form a commission with Twin Lakes and Wheatland to consider consolidating fire departments. Shortly after, the Town Board approved the same action at the joint plan commission-Town Board meeting.
Town Chairman Mark Nordigian emphasized that Wednesday’s action was only an early step necessary to explore the concept further and was not a vote to actually consolidate departments.
“It’s not being decided tonight,” Nordigian said.
Consolidating the three municipal departments was recommended by a grant-funded consultant study commissioned by Randall with the cooperation of Twin Lakes and Wheatland. The Public Administration Associates LLC study suggested a consolidated department could have a lower operating cost while improving staffing and response.
The study called for the consolidated department to utilize the current Twin Lakes Fire Department and Rescue Squad station in downtown Twin Lakes and a new station in Wheatland near Highway O and Highway 50. That scenario would eliminate the two current Town of Randall Fire Department stations in Powers Lake and Bassett. The Bassett station was built in 2004 and is the newest of the four fire stations for the Town of Randall Fire Department, Wheatland Vol. Fire Department and Twin Lake Fire Department.
All three municipalities have fire departments. Randall and Wheatland contract with Twin Lakes Rescue for emergency medical services.
Members of the plan commission and Town Board who spoke at the meeting generally expressed support for further exploration of consolidating the departments.
“It seems like a good thing to explore,” said Sue Hughes, who is a town supervisor and a member of the plan commission. “Whether or not we do it in the end is another topic.”
Plan commission Chairman Ken Sweinberg said the town needs to address the changing landscape of providing fire protection and emergency medical services in some way.
“We’ve been getting a real good deal with a volunteer force and that’s not going to continue.” Sweinberg said, citing increased difficulty in recruiting and retaining fire department volunteers. “We’ve got to do something … if we can’t get ahead of it it’s going to be worse.”
The Randall and Wheatland fire departments are the last all volunteer departments in Kenosha, Racine and Walworth counties, Wheatland Chief Lou Denko has said.
While each plan commission member present addressed the issue during discussion, Town Board members said little before approving forming the commission.
Neither the Twin Lakes Village Board or the wheatland Town board have considered the issue at a meeting yet.
Plan commissions typically deal with land use and related issues, but the possible impact on Randall’s two fire stations prompted Nordigian to include the plan commission in the process, he said.
“I wanted our plan commission’s input from the start due to the potential that the joint commission could use PAA’s plan and shut-down Randall’s fire stations,” Nordigian said. “That possibility exists and if came to fruition the plan commission will have already been part of it. Especially if it gets shut-down and we sell it along with the 54 acres of property it is attached to a developer.”
Randall Fire Department is also the newest department among the three. It was formed in 1984. Before that Randall was served by the Twin Lakes Fire Department.
