Consolidated EMS idea reemerges

By Kevin O’Brien

The idea of consolidating emergency medical services under county control – an idea that has not gone over well in the past with Marathon County’s rural communities – has reemerged again during recent discussions about updating the county’s strategic plan.

At a Public Safety Committee meeting on April 8, supervisors were asked to consider how well the county has been meeting the objectives in it’s strategic plan after it was last updated in 2023. One of the goals in the 2023 update was to decrease emergency response times in the county by the end of last year.

County administrator Lance Leonhard said emergency medical response is fundamentally a municipal obligation under state law, not a county one, but Marathon County has previously talked about possibly consolidating those services into one centralized service.

“There are a few counties in the state that do that; the majority do not,” he said.

Leonhard said it remains the case that those living in rural areas can expect longer response times on medical calls than those living in the Wausau metro area, closer to a fully staffed 24/7 fire and EMS department. That has not changed significantly in the past couple years, he said.

“We have not seen a substantial improvement in terms of response times from our various agencies,” he said.

Supervisor Jean Maszk, chair of the Public Safety Committee, said there was talk at one time of townships themselves coming together to establish a more regional medical response service, but that idea also encountered a lot of resistance.

“Everybody has their own turf, and at some point, people didn’t want to share,” she said. “I don’t know how else to put it.”

Supervisor Jason Wilhelm, who represents the Athens area, said he spoke to a township official and confirmed that opposition to that idea is still strong.

“They were definitely against the county consolidating everything,” he said. “If we discuss it more, I’ll get more input, but just from the towns’ side, they were happy with what they have.”

Leonhard, however, said he has has had town officials reach out to him in the past to ask about a consolidated county EMS system, but he acknowledged it would be “a big undertaking” due to staffing shortages.

“It’s very hard to staff volunteer departments, particularly in light of the fact that the requirements for volunteers, when you think about EMS, they continue to grow to make sure you have individuals who are sufficiently trained to respond in a meaningful way,” he said.

Later on during the meeting, while discussing an ongoing update of the comprehensive plan, supervisor Nicholas Endres of Hatley said the county needs to emphasize that consolidating emergency services “doesn’t mean removing local voices.”

“It means giving municipalities the opportunity to have more influence on county-level decisions,” he said. “The sheriff’s department can work with local community leaders to ensure that local concerns are heard, while benefiting the larger unified structure that makes the county safer and more efficient overall.”

At the Executive Committee meeting on Thursday, Maszk reiterated her concerns about trying to get rural municipalities to consider consolidated services, even if the idea has merit.

“It’s really a good idea,” she said. “The biggest thing is getting them to cooperate, and I don’t think we can do that.”