South suburbs take a look at sharing firefighting services

Several southern Milwaukee County communities want to see if they can save money by sharing some firefighting services and they are ready to fund a study to find out.

The governing bodies of Oak Creek, Franklin, Greenfield and Hales Corners each approved chipping in $1,500 for a study to be done by the Public Policy Forum, an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit public policy research group.

The Greendale Village Board tabled the matter to clean up some language and was scheduled to consider the matter again this week.

The study actually costs $35,000, but the Greater Milwaukee Committee will help out and the PPF will apply part of a federal grant it received toward the cost, keeping it low for the potentially five communities.

Considering all options

The Public Policy Forum study of the potentially five communities would be wide-ranging, said Rob Henken, forum president. It will include such ideas as shared equipment purchases and dispatch to complete consolidation, maintaining local fire stations.

But Henken emphasized that the study isn't solely focused on combining fire departments into one entity, such as occurred in North Shore communities in the mid-1990s. "(The study) is not just about consolidation," he said.

While it's too early to say whether the North Shore Fire Department would be used as a model, Henken said, "We will look at the process the North Shore used."

But the North Shore model has a lot of support at the Greenfield mayor's office.

"North Shore is a good model, one that a lot of folks like and respect," said Greenfield Mayor Michael Neitzke. "They provide great service."

Even though Greenfield doesn't need to consolidate or even share services, participating in the study is a good idea, he said.

"If we can keep a high level of service or improve it with stability and hopefully reduce cost, that makes sense," he said.

Once the study gets going, it should take four to six months to complete, Henken said.

Not included

West Allis will not be part of the study because it is in a different emergency zone, as determined by the Milwaukee County Emergency Management office, said West Allis Mayor Dan Devine. West Allis shares its zone with Wauwatosa and West Milwaukee.

However, the city has been in on meetings on service sharing all along because West Allis' participation at the Intergovernmental Cooperation Council, where the current initiative began, he said.

And West Allis even explored sharing and potential consolidation with Wauwatosa when the fire chief there retired, Devine said.