Marshfield Fire looks to return to 2021 staffing levels

MARSHFIELD – City of Marshfield residents will see a referendum on their ballot April 1, which Marshfield Fire & Rescue Chief Everett Mueller said is to return two additional staff members to meet department staffing levels in upcoming years.

“What that truly means to the general population is we're looking to replace two firefighter positions we lost back in 2021 — those are going to be replacement positions. And really, it was no fault of anyone; we had kind of a real tough year that year as far as the budget, and unfortunately, the budget just hasn't caught up since then. We did have an opportunity to replace one position about one year ago — back in the second quarter — so we've gotten one position back. And what we're looking to do is to get back to our 12 — 12 maximum staffing, minimum nine staffing per day — to make sure that we can maximize what we can do for the staff,” Mueller told Marshfield Now’s Tom Loucks.

“You know, every one of our staff are cross-trained, meaning, not only are they a firefighter, they're a paramedics or they're an EMT, but most are paramedic for the sake of the department, and they also have other disciplines that are assigned to them. Everyone also has high-angle rescue, confined space rescue, hazardous materials technician, and then we all have kind of started branching into the rescue task force component, which means school shootings, things like that. We are prepared for that part of it. We drill on it, we train on each one of those disciplines. Every year, we continue to train on those things and try to bring that stuff together so that we really have a good, strong quality workforce, and they can respond to multiple incidents within the community.”

The city said that over the last 20 years, “staffing levels have stagnated despite a 48% increase in calls for service since 2000. As a result, the department has struggled to respond effectively to calls, with 18% of incidents occurring simultaneously.”

The department is asking for $256,903 starting in 2026 — for taxes due in 2025 — on an ongoing basis to fund the hiring of two personnel.

If approved, annual property tax will increase by an estimated $13.28 per year for every $100,000 of property value. 

A previous referendum to hire additional staff, held in 2023, failed.

“When we looked at 2023, we were asking for nine firefighters. The police department was looking to replace one of their patrol officers, and they were also looking to replace an admin staff (member), and that admin staff was actually to be split between the fire department and the police department,” Mueller said.

“We've since changed how we were looking at that. The police department, again, was able to find the funding to put their one member back on for the police staff, so they do have a patrol officer. As far as the admin, they were able to reallocate some things over at the police department. So really, their situation has been fixed for the sake of that, that particular referendum.

“For us, what we were looking to do is we're looking to replace our three staff from the 2021 loss. And we were looking forward so we can actually look at 1710 (National Fire Protection Association minimum staffing level for fire departments), and we can look at what we could do to take care of some of the calls that we were seeing. So it was more of a proactive approach. We thought it was the best method at the time. Looking back on it, we had kind of a tough year.

“That year, we had another referendum with the school, which also failed, and then ours failed as well.

“In that case, you know, we looked at this again when we came forward this time and thought, let's get ourselves back to what we had for 2021 staffing, and then we can try to find out if there's additional funding that might be coming from the state of Wisconsin, and see what future years look like to do the other things that we're looking for.

“So, forward to 2025. We're looking at really just the two staff, and that's going to get us back to our 12 again.”

What will appear on the ballot
“Under state law, the increase in the levy of the City of Marshfield for the tax to be imposed for the next fiscal year, 2026, is limited to 1.015%, which results in a levy of $15,703,991.  Shall the City of Marshfield be allowed to exceed this limit and increase the levy for the next fiscal year, 2026, for the purpose of returning to 2021 staffing levels by hiring and retaining two full-time firefighter/paramedics, by a total of 1.636%, which results in a levy of $15,960,894, and, on an ongoing basis, include the increase of $256,903 for each fiscal year going forward?”