The Lake Mills City Council voted to create a unified fire and EMS department, taking a step forward after a year of murky debate on the future of EMS service in the city.
Alders voted 3-1, with one abstention, to have the City Manager blueprint the new service model, which will entail hiring four new full-time staffers while continuing to rely heavily on volunteer and paid-on-premise responders.
The chosen model would use full time staffers during the weekdays, and depend on volunteers and paid-on-premise staff for evenings, weekends and calls that require additional hands on deck. Alder Steve Fields abstained from the vote because he is a volunteer with Lake Mills EMS, a potential conflict of interest. Alder Catherine Bishop voted against the proposal.