Combining EMRs in BUG Fire District Proposed

Southern Door communities are considering how to band together to beat a declining recruitment trend that’s creating staffing challenges for emergency services. 

The possibility of merging the emergency medical responders (EMRs) in the Town of Gardner with the group of EMRs in Brussels and Union and placing them into the Brussels-Union-Gardner (BUG) Fire Department is now being considered by a newly formed EMR Committee. The committee consists of members of the BUG Fire Board, the three town boards, and chiefs and assistant chiefs of the fire department and EMR groups.

BUG Fire Chief Curt Vandertie said the possibility of merging the two EMR groups has been talked about in the past, and now it is being looked at with a declining trend in recruitment numbers and the difficulty to staff positions on weekdays during the day when people are working full-time jobs.

Not having EMRs as part of a part-time fire department is now the exception in Door County, Vandertie said, and there were 52 calls last year in the BUG fire district where no EMR responded.

He noted the Gardner EMRs now respond to calls in that town and the Brussels and Union EMR group respond to calls in those two towns. Merging EMRs into the fire department would mean having an available EMR respond to a call in any of the three towns.

Vandertie said about 50% of the EMRs are also firefighters for BUG, and merging the EMRs into the fire department could provide efficiencies, such as being able to train together, to consolidate meetings and for payroll.

He said the EMRs will be casting secret ballots to see if they would support the merger, with the results of the vote submitted to the town boards to decide whether the three boards would like to continue pursuing the possible merger.