Lake Country fire merger gains first approval

City of Delafield - The Common Council unanimously approved tonight merging the City of Delafield Fire Department into the Lake County Fire Department, which presently serves the villages of Nashotah and Chenequa.

The vote followed a 45 minute discussion by the council of the proposed consolidation agreement developed during the past year by a nine member committee with three representatives from each of the three communities.

Nashotah village trustees are expected to ratify the agreement on Wednesday night and the proposal will be present to the Chenequa Village Board for its likely approval on Monday, June 8.

If approved, the consolidation will merge the Delafield department with its $1.5 million annual budget and eight full time fire fighters and paramedics into the Lake Country department, created in 2001, with a budget of about $150,000 and force of all volunteer fire fighters.

"They have some skills that we don't have and we have some skills they don't have," said Alderman Gerald MacDougall, who was a member of the consolidation committee.

The consolidation will enable city residents on the east side of Lake Nagawicka to be served by fire fighters and paramedics assigned to a fire station in Nashotah rather than the city having to build and equip a new fire station on the east side in the near future, according to city officials.

In addition to having, for the first time, full time fire fighting services, residents of Chenequa and Nashotah will also be served 24 hours a day, seven days a week by the paramedic service developed by the City of Delafield that also provides contractual emergency medical services to five other surrounding communities and paramedic ambulence patient transfer services for Oconomowoc Memorial Hospital.