PWFD wants reimbursement for Fish Days service

PORT WASHINGTON — The city’s quintessential festival, drawing thousands of people each year and serving as many civic groups’ biggest fundraiser whether it’s held on one or multiple days, comes with some requirements.

Fish Days calls for increased public safety.

The Port Police Department already receives compensation for extra staffing for the event, but the fire department does not.

Fire Chief Mark Mitchell would like to see that changed. He asked the Port Police and Fire Commission on Monday to request the Common Council reimburse the fire department for its costs due to increased staffing throughout the event.

“Typically, we budget about $5,000 a year to spread both fire and EMS personnel to staff both ambulances and one fire apparatus throughout the day,” Mitchell said.

The department has never received any money from Fish Days, but times were different when funding was first handed out.

“Years ago it came to the council to try to get some funding from the Fish Day Inc.,” Mitchell said, referencing the original Fish Day nonprofit organization.

“This goes back to before we had full-time people and paid-on premise people. It was our personnel who were standing by the station throughout the Fish Day events in case we had an issue, both fire and EMS.”

Fire Department members get paid the same rate when they’re on call since they’re at the station.

“I know this would be a hit on their revenues but we can’t expect that many people come to Port Washington and not have good public safety,” Mitchell said.

“We do get calls throughout the day, mostly EMS calls. We’ve had some fire calls throughout the years. I don’t think any kind of a reimbursement is out of the question.”

Deputy Fire Chief and Emergency Medical Services Director Joe DeBoer said the staffing plan changed last year, the first time Fish Days was a multiple-day event.

Additional ambulance coverage was staffed from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. on Friday. On Saturday, additional ambulance staff, an engine with an officer and one person staffing the department’s all-terrain vehicle were at the station from 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.

The department gets more calls during Fish Day, DeBoer said.

“The number is pretty variable. There are years where we have two or three calls and there are years where we have 10 or 15 calls. It’s hard to predict that,” he said.

“We also experience a lot of difficulty staffing the east side of the parade route during the parade so we need to have staffing available on both sides.”

The annual Fish Day Run, Walk and Roll also can lead to medical calls.

“When you have that many people doing cardio, things happen sometimes,” DeBoer said.

The fireworks call for units to be deployed to shut down the marina and stand by in case something goes wrong during the show.

“And then on top of that, it’s addressing our normal call volume. Today, we’ve already run eight calls before 5 o’clock. If we’re dealing with that on Fish Day we need the extra staff,” DeBoer said.

The Police and Fire Commission unanimously agreed to ask the Common Council to seek reimbursement for the Fire Department.

“It behooves us to seek some reimbursement for the needed extra EMS and fire department personnel,” Commission member Ed Johnson said. “There’s no reason we should be reimbursing one necessary department and not another.”

The vote was 3-0. Sarah Burdette and Joe Dean were absent and excused.