Fire chief requests three additional firefighters in 2024 budget proposal

The City of Rhinelander is set to receive a “once in a generation” boost in state aid in 2024 and Fire Chief Brian Tonnancour is hoping the City Council will agree to use those funds to hire three additional firefighters.

Tonnancour announced the request for additional staffing during a budget discussion with the council on Sept. 27. He explained that he was requesting a total of three additional firefighters because the department has three shifts per day and the idea is to boost the total number of firefighters on staff without increasing the burden on taxpayers. 

In an interview with the River News Thursday, Tonnancour said the passage of Wisconsin Act 12 earlier this year will result in the city receiving approximately $250,000 in additional state aid in 2024.

This money must be used for law enforcement, fire protection, emergency medical services and other public safety-related expenses.

At present, each of the department’s three shifts is staffed by six firefighters however, according to Tonnancour’s calculations, due to vacation and sick time, 85 percent of the year one person is off-duty. This means, someone from another shift is called in to work overtime (at a rate of time-and-a-half) to ensure there are six people on each shift. 

At the same time, the number of calls the department receives has increased, he noted.

The average is seven calls a day, Tonnancour said, adding that the length of time spent on-scene varies greatly.

“Since I’ve been here I’ve always said that I want to do everything we can, within our budgetary limitations, to be able to add to our service without going to a referendum,” he explained. “We’re not a rich community by any means. I don’t want to burden our taxpayers. The increase in the shared revenue, the one penny out of five in the sales tax, is huge.”

In June, the state legislature passed a new shared revenue plan mandating that local communities receive one penny of the 5-cent sales tax per dollar.

As a result of this change, Rhinelander is set to receive a 27.6 increase in state aid in 2024. 

Aid will increase from $902,663 to $1,151.923, a difference of $249,260, according to the Legislative Fiscal Bureau.

“We lobbied for that increase in shared revenue and I believe that part of my position is to find those different ways to create cost recovery for us to add people and to add to our services for our community,” Tonnancour added. “This is a once-in-a generation opportunity, probably, for us to add public safety.”

“We’ve run so short for so long. Our call volumes keep increasing but our manning does not, so the same people are running the same amount of calls,” he explained, adding that burnout is a significant concern given the stresses that are inherent to employment in the public safety sector.

Tonnancour said he hopes to start the hiring process in January, if the council approves the request. 

“This is our one and only opportunity to do it so we’re going to push hard for it,” he noted, adding that the department is very appreciative of the support received from the council over the last few years.

Other than the addition of the assistance chief position circa 2000-2001, the number of firefighters employed by the city has remained the same, he added.

During the Sept. 27 budget discussion, city finance director Wendi Bixby noted that Rhinelander Police Chief Lloyd Gauthier has asked for one additional police officer as part of his 2024 budget proposal. 

As Gauthier has stated on many occasions, the number of sworn officers in the police department has been the same since 1969.

“We built those extra positions into this budget, however we’re still going to have to balance the budget so this is not a guarantee that these positions are going to be staying in there,” Bixby explained. “We really just have to see if the numbers make sense, if the revenue is going to cover the expenditures.”

The council is set to hold budget-related special meetings on Oct. 11 and Oct.18. The Oct. 4 session, that was to include discussion of the golf course budget, was canceled. The formal hearing on the city’s 2024 budget is scheduled for Nov. 13.

Heather Schaefer may be reached at [email protected].