Port commission renews push for fire station

Members of Port Washington’s Police and Fire Commission expressed frustration Monday that years of work to get a second fire station have yet to reach fruition, despite the fact the city has money in the budget to design a new facility.

“We’ve got to get off dead center,” Fire Chief Mark Mitchell told the commission, noting that $325,000 has been budgeted for the design of the station. “I’m a broken record — the need is there.”

Commission Chairman Rick Nelson concurred, saying, “I think after 27 years it’s time to get something done. We’ve done an awful lot of work with little results. It’s very frustrating.”

Unfortunately, Nelson said, he fears that “what it’s going to take is a huge crisis.”

It’s especially imperative that the city move ahead and design the new station with President Joe Biden’s proposed infrastructure plan, which could send money for these types of facilities to communities, commission member Jim Biever said.

“We should be prepared if that money becomes available,” Biever said. “I think we want to be prepared with a design.”

The new fire station has faced a number of roadblocks. The most significant may be the former Schanen farm at the corner of Highway 33 and Jackson Road, where the City of Port and Village of Saukville have reached a standoff over the question of providing sewer services to the property, which is owned by the city but is in the village’s sewer service area.

City Administrator Tony Brown has also said that the city will likely wait until a strategic planning process has been done  — something slated for later this year — to set priorities in spending before deciding whether to move ahead with the new station.

Commission members reviewed some of the reasons the city needs a second firehouse — an aging fire station that is packed with equipment and little room to spare, equipment and trucks that keep getting bigger and a lack of facilities, especially for women.

They also noted that much of the city’s new development is west of the railroad tracks, and 40% of the department personnel live in that area.

The lack of amenities such as training facilities and sleeping quarters is particularly troubling as the city tries to attract young firefighters and emergency medical workers to the department, commission member Terry Tietyen said.

“If we don’t have a decent station for them, if we don’t have the amenities, they won’t come here,” he said.  

Tietyen said a member of another department asked one of Port’s paramedics why he chose to join the department here.

“That place is a dump,” Tietyen said the other firefighter said. “That’s embarrassing for me.”

Nelson agreed, saying, “We could not have worse working conditions. It’s terrible. We have to get a new fire station.”

Mitchell noted that the city was prepared to interview two firms, 5 Bugles and SEH, to design the new fire station, but then the pandemic struck and things slowed down.

Adding to that delay, he said, was the Public Policy Forum’s study of Ozaukee County fire departments, which looked at options for cooperation and consolidation of fire and ambulance services in the county.

The study, Mitchell added, “really slowed us down.”

But, he said, the city needs to deal with its own situation. 

“Port Washington comes first,” Mitchell said.

Ald. Dan Benning, who was a member of the fire station committee, said, “The (shared services) study told me what the chief told me it would two years ago. I personally believe a combined department makes sense.”

That may change the requirements for a firehouse, particularly the number of sleeping quarters, he said, so the commission should ensure flexibility is built into a new station.

He recommended the commission members petition aldermen to move the project forward, adding, “I will keep pushing.”

The two design firms that were to be interviewed by the Common Council are still interested in designing the new station, Mitchell said.

But, he said, the increased cost of building materials may have driven the estimated cost for the new station beyond the $5 million estimate.

Commission members have endorsed a plan to build a 15,000 to 20,000-square-foot station that would include six drive-through apparatus bays, a training area, eight dorm rooms, male and female locker facilities, a secure emergency medical services supply room, a workout facility, kitchen and lounge, conference room and a training or meeting room that could double as a community room.