JOHN GITTINGS
WiscNews
(TNS)

The proposed fire stations in Baraboo continue to have an uncertain future but West Baraboo officials are hoping for a cheaper route.

Baraboo Area Fire and EMS District is operating out of its downtown Baraboo station at 135 4th St., but department, city and surrounding community officials all agree that new stations are needed.

An ad hoc committee of West Baraboo officials led by village President Mike Arndt is seeking a solution in which one downtown station would be built for roughly $16 million.

The initial plan, which is still in place, involves building a main station on Baraboo’s west side and a satellite station on the east. A $22.8 million contract with Eau Claire-based construction firm Market and Johnson was rejected in an 8-1 vote by the Baraboo Common Council on Oct. 14. District 3 Ald. Heather Kierzek casted the lone “yes” vote.

Willer and Schreiner inspect truck

Baraboo Area Fire and EMS District Assistant Chief Mark Willer and firefighter Denise Schreiner look at equipment on one of the department trucks on Tuesday afternoon. West Baraboo officials are trying to devise a plan for a new downtown district station to replace the current plan to build two stations with a main station on the city’s west side and satellite on the east.

Total station costs, including undetermined land acquisition, design, equipment and testing, bring the expected initial plan cost to around $32 million. Arndt and officials from other Baraboo Area Fire and EMS District municipalities have said that they are unable to fund such a large project.

“There’s a lot of discussion that needs to be had at the (Baraboo Area Fire and EMS District) Commission level in terms of ownership of the stations and who is going to contribute to the cost of constructing them,” Baraboo Area Fire and EMS District Chief Caleb Johnson said.

Johnson added that the need for updated responder facilities is not going away despite funding challenges between municipalities.

Baraboo OKs $150 garbage, recycling fee to free up money for other services

The fee allows the city to allocate property taxes towards other services, city officials said.

After the city accepted the bid from Market and Johnson, it had until Oct. 24 to finalize the contract, which was an extension from the firm’s original Oct. 10 deadline. The city and other Baraboo Area Fire and EMS District municipalities could not reach a funding agreement between the meeting and extended deadline.

Because of this, any plans, even the existing one, need to be re-bid. Numerous officials, including Kierzek and District 7 Ald. Scott Sloan, said on Tuesday that the situation is on hold.

“No matter what happens next, it will be far more costly to the city than what was initially proposed, unless several donors step up to cover significant portions of the costs, not to mention our EMS and fire staff having to continue to live in a building that is leaking and has several safety concerns, such as lack of proper ventilation in the garage,” Kierzek said.

If the stations do not break ground before April, plans would need to be resubmitted for U.S. Department of Agriculture and Wisconsin Department of Safety and Public Services approval because of updated building codes and the expiration of an approval from April 2024 that lasts two years.

Arndt’s ad hoc committee, which also consists of village trustees Warren Mohar, Dean Bothell and Joan Vlcek, first met after the council’s bid r

A fire apparatus with the Summitville Volunteer Fire Department in Manchester, Tennessee, crashed into a utility pole Thursday, Nov. 20, 2025, wsmv.com reported.

More than 200 customers were without electricity in Coffee County due to the crash, the report said.

The volunteer fire department said firefighters were returning from a call when their rig began hydroplaning and they lost control, according to the report.

The apparatus slid into a car and then crashed into a utility pole.

A utility company reported that the crash caused a power outage for 230 customers, the report said.

No injuries were reported.

The post Fire Apparatus Crashes Into Utility Pole appeared first on Fire Apparatus: Fire trucks, fire engines, emergency vehicles, and firefighting equipment.

The first article in this series on performance management within the fleet division discussed the overall benefits of implementing performance management systems. These benefits include increased transparency and accountability, management of operations, allocation of resources, and financial planning.

• Measuring Performance in the Fleet Division, Part 1

It also discussed the various types of performance measures often used in the municipal or public setting including workload performance measures, efficiency performance measures, effectiveness measures, and productivity measures.

This second part of this series focuses on the process of developing performance measures by examining various criteria and characteristics to consider while creating metrics. Creating performance measures without criteria is akin to navigating without a compass. Sure, it’s possible, but it’s also without direction and prone to error. Criteria provide structure to performance measurements, ensuring they meet the needs of the fleet division and are aligned with organizational goals. They also enhance comparability and support continuous improvement, making them an integral component of the performance management development process. By using criteria, fleet divisions can transform performance measurements into powerful tools for accountability, decision making, and long-term success.

It’s important for fleet supervisors to develop performance measures using clear and well-defined criteria because criteria function as the foundation that ensures the measures are fair, accurate, and meaningful. Without criteria, performance measures risk being arbitrary, inconsistent, or irrelevant. This article explores commonly used criteria to develop performance measurements within the fleet division.

1 Photo by ShutterStockStudio/Shutterstock.com.

CRITERIA

Valid: First and foremost, performance measurements must accurately measure what they are purporting to measure. A valid performance measure must accurately capture the aspect of performance or outcome it was intended to evaluate rather than something tangential or unrelated. For example, a valid performance measurement within the fleet division might be the number of oil changes completed per month, assuming the goals is purely to measure output. Validity ensures that performance measures are not just convenient statistics but are actual measurements of whether the fleet division is achieving its intended purposes.

Relevance: Performance measures should matter and be meaningful to the intended audience. They should be clearly related to the activity being measured. While performance measures can indeed be valid and reliable and meet all other criteria identified in this article, if the measurement isn’t relevant to the audience, it is worthless. For example, a valid and reliable measurement of the average sick time use within the fleet division is not likely relevant to the general public, who are more interested in the status of apparatus rather than the inner workings of the fleet division. As such, a measurement of sick time is not relevant.

Reliable: The best performance measurements are accurate, with little variation because of subjectivity. They are consistent and reproduceable, provide stable indicators of performance over a period of time across different situations, and are free from bias. Reliable performance measurements are quantifiable or otherwise qualitatively assessed by using proper data collection methods. An example of