WALWORTH COUNTY, Wis. — A supervisor in the Town of Geneva is calling on his board to consider alternatives to the Elkhorn Area Fire Department, making Geneva the latest municipality to raise concerns about the agency — and the only one still in the agreement that has not moved to leave it.
Scott Williams, a Town of Geneva board supervisor, publicly stated Wednesday he wants the board to explore other fire service options at its next meeting.
"It's time for us to shop around," Williams said.
The City of Elkhorn and the towns of Lafayette, Sugar Creek and Geneva went to a referendum in 2020 to levy taxes to fund a full-time fire department. Since then, first responders have described a combination of short staffing, inadequate equipment and building conditions, and a lack of transparency from city leaders that they say presents a public safety issue.
It's an investigative series TMJ4's Chief Investigative Reporter Jenna Rae has been covering for months now.
Watch: Town of Geneva supervisor calls for exploring fire service alternatives:
Lafayette notified Elkhorn in December that it wanted out of the agreement. Sugar Creek followed last week.
"It was quite the letdown," Town of Sugar Creek Chairperson David Robers said.
Williams said his concerns began when he took office.
"When I got elected to the town board last year and started looking at the budget one of the first things I noticed were going up immeasurably for fire and ambulance service," Williams explained.
Elkhorn city leaders say referendum money is being used to pay staff, including overtime, upgrade equipment and trucks, and improve conditions at the firehouse.
But Williams said the issues raised in our reporting added to his unease.
"As we've heard about questions about the staffing and the equipment and the services and the morale it was all pretty alarming and just kind of added to my growing concerns about is it time for us to start looking around and find a better deal," Williams added.
Not all Geneva supervisors share Williams' position. Geneva Chairperson Joe Kopecky said last week that Geneva is not looking to abandon Elkhorn, and his message was the same Wednesday.
We called every Geneva supervisor. One did not answer, and one was out of town. John Namy spoke by phone but declined to speak on camera, saying Geneva is in a good place with Elkhorn.
Elkhorn City Administrator Adam Swann also weighed in:
"The City has had a good working relationship with the Town of Geneva, and we hope it continues. At the last Fire Advisory Board meeting, the Town of Geneva’s representative on the Fire Advisory Board, Supervisor Steve Otten, expressed support for the Elkhorn Fire Department. In the event the Town of Geneva decides to obtain fire service elsewhere, the City will adjust as necessary. Our focus is on providing high-quality fire and EMS services to Elkhorn residents and anyone else we’re contracted to serve. This won’t change.
It should be noted that one of the agenda items at the last Fire Advisory Board meeting was whether the towns and City wanted to renegotiate a new contract. The agenda item was tabled so that all of the towns and the City could discuss the issue with our respective governing bodies. As a result, it’s not unexpected that there would be an agenda item related to the fire service agreement on the Town of Geneva’s next board meeting."
"The city has had a good working relationship with the Town of Geneva and we hope it continues," Swann said.
Williams said the time for difficult conversations has arrived.
"I want to make sure like I said we're getting the best possible service at the most reasonable cost and there are enough red flags here now that it's time we have to have the hard discussion about making some choices and shopping around," Williams said.
This story was reported on-air by Jenna Rae and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
It’s about time to watch on your time. Stream local news and weather 24/7 by searching for “TMJ4” on your device.
Available for download on Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and more.
