Aurora deal might fuse fire departments

Pabst Farms station would house both, with eye to consolidation

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, August 17, 2006

By AMY RINARD

Oconomowoc - An agreement signed this week that lays the groundwork for construction of an Aurora hospital in Summit also could set the stage for an eventual consolidation of city and town fire departments, officials said Wednesday.

"We want them to consider consolidation," said Peter Paul Bell, president of Pabst Farms Development Inc. "Maybe consolidation will provide economy of scale, but it's up to them to work that out."

Under the agreement approved by the city, town, Aurora and Pabst Farms, a fire station would be built at Pabst Farms and jointly occupied by the Oconomowoc Fire Department and the Summit Fire District.

Mayor Maury Sullivan said having the two fire services in the same building would create opportunities for fire personnel to develop ways to work together and to resolve differences.

Sullivan said practical problem solving could well prompt a discussion of what he called a more integrated fire service and potentially a merger of the two departments.

The new station would be the second one for the city and would be in the rapidly growing south side. The new building would replace Summit's current station adjacent to the Town Hall on Dousman Road.
The city department has three full-time staff people and paid-on-call firefighters. The Summit service, which covers the northern half of the town and the village of Oconomowoc Lake, is a volunteer department with no full- or part-time staff.

The agreement calls for Pabst Farms to provide 3 acres for the new fire station on the east side of Highway 67 at the point where Oconomowoc Parkway meets the highway.

The development company also would provide $2 million for construction of the approximately 16,500-square-foot station, and the city will provide another $500,000 from the impact fees it collects from developers for fire protection and emergency medical facilities.

Bell said a fire station has always been envisioned for the development.
"We've always had a place holder for a life safety facility," he said.

He said the cost to the development firm of the land and construction has been factored into sale prices of land sold in the project.

Bell emphasized that there would be no cost to city or town taxpayers for the new fire station.

Combining the two fire services in one building allows for a larger and better-equipped fire station, he said.

The agreement provides that upon completion, the fire station will be turned over to the city, and the town will have a 50-year lease for half of the building. Each department will be responsible for half of the cost of maintaining and operating the station.

During that 50 years, Bell said, town and city officials could reach an agreement to consolidate their two fire services.

"We wanted a long horizon for them to discuss the issue," he said. "We'll see how it works out."

Town Chairman Len Susa said cooperation between the two departments would start with representatives of both the city and town fire services sitting around a table, agreeing on a design for the new fire station.

The station would replace the town's 50-year-old station that, he said, is now too small for modern firefighting equipment.

"I've talked to a couple of firemen today who said this was the best part of the whole deal," Susa said of the agreement approved Tuesday.

He hesitated to speculate on an eventual merger of the two departments. But, he said, progress could be made toward having the two departments operate as a single entity by having the two fire service staffs working side by side in the same building.