The Wheatland Town Board will bring its Plan Commission into the process of deciding whether the town wants to further explore a possible consolidation of its fire department with Randall’s and Twin Lakes’ departments.
The Town Board had its first discussion of the consolidation issue Monday night since a study outlining a possible consolidation scenario was completed last month.
That study sees that area well served by a consolidated department with two stations — the current Twin Lakes Fire Department and Rescue Squad station in downtown Twin Lakes and a new station in Wheatland near Highway O and Highway 50. That scenario would eliminate the two current Town of Randall Fire Department stations in Powers Lake and Bassett. The Bassett station was built in 2004 and is the newest of the four fire stations for the Town of Randall Fire Department, Wheatland Vol. Fire Department and Twin Lake Fire Department.
The consolidated department envisioned by the study could be operated for about $81,000 less per year than current combined operating expenses, the report estimates. The largest chunks of those savings and ongoing savings come from eliminating equipment redundancy and not having to continue to maintain and replace that equipment. Consultants said the cost for each municipality is similar to what is currently paid for fire and emergency medical service.
Wheatland officials emphasized Monday that any consolidation of departments would be complicated and likely take years to complete. Town Chairman Jeff Butler pointed out only Randall has formally decided to move the process forward by forming a joint commission between the three municipalities.
“It takes three and we have just have one at this point,” Butler said.
The Randall Town Board voted May 27 to form a joint fire commission with Wheatland and Twin Lakes.
Supervisor Kelly Wilson suggested having the Wheatland Plan Commission and the Town Board meet.
“I think we really need to sit down … and decide what steps we want to take,” Wilson said.
Butler suggested giving the Plan Commission members time to read the whole study before the meeting. A tentative date for that joint meeting was set for June 22.
The Twin Lakes Village Board has not discussed the study as a group at a meeting.
Butler said one complication to moving forward could be that Twin Lakes Rescue is formally a private organization. That department would likely have to become a municipal department before a consolidation could be completed.
All three involved fire departments are already municipal departments.
