Eight years ago, the Verona Joint Fire District had a part-time chief, four full-time firefighters and a 35-year-old fire station with no room to put up interns or volunteers overnight.
If there was a call in the evening or on the weekends, people would drive to the station, wait for a four-person crew to arrive, get into their gear, then start heading to the incident, all of which could take 10 to 20 minutes. By that time, it wasn’t uncommon for another fire department to already be there.
Putting an end to the safety risk of those inconsistent response times was the No. 1 goal of the new chief that year, Joe Giver, whom the commission overseeing the district hired from the small village of Dousman.
As Giver prepares to retire at age 61 – officially Jan. 2, but in reality Sept. 27, as he’ll be using accrued leave for the rest of the year – he believes he has accomplished that mission and more.