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Editor’s Note
Keep the information flowing Sarah Wright | Editor
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veryone wants to live in a safe community, where they can live their lives peacefully and know safeguards are in place should they need them. Ensuring those safeguards are available can prove challenging for municipalities because of staffing shortages and the costs associated with operating fire, EMS and law enforcement agencies. The cost can raise eyebrows not only for elected officials but taxpayers — and with ongoing pandemic supply challenges and now the threat of global conflict, the costs aren’t about to go down. Education and highlighting benefits are vital for making the costs associated with public safety agencies a less bitter pill for elected officials and taxpayers to swallow. There will always be those who baulk at an increase of spending, but through proper communications, more will respond favorably, knowing specifically how they and their community will benefit. This is well known by the Fort Walton Beach Fire Department in Florida. In this issue, writer Michelle Blount shares the department’s “firefighters for a day” program, which occurs every few years to ensure newly elected officials experience what their firefighters do and understand the equipment they use and why. It builds a working understanding between the department and officials and helps firefighters voice their needs. Meanwhile, in Wisconsin, Fort Atkinson finds itself on a similar mission of education, as it goes before voters this April seeking an additional $769,000 each year on the tax levy to support 14 new full-time positions — thus enabling it to launch its own EMS service versus solely using a third-party EMS service provider. Prior to the April 5 referendum, the
8 THE MUNICIPAL | APRIL 2022
city held public listening sessions while taking steps to ensure misinformation about the referendum didn’t spread on social media by countering untrue claims. More departments are eyeing bringing EMS services in-house as their communities’ needs soar to the point private services are struggling to keep up. Writer Denise Fedorow shares more about this move to in-house services and spotlights Fort Atkinson’s and Sturgis, Mich.’s, experiences. On the mission to better serve communities, Beth Anne Brink-Cox shares the state of Maine’s traffic incident management training, which builds strong communications between different public safety agencies within the state. Through this training, all agencies who participate are improving the safety of motorists by ensuring accident scenes are managed using best practices where everyone knows their role. In this issue, we are also featuring the growing popularity of public safety centers versus each department having their own buildings and police departments’ embrace of Brazilian jiu-jitsu. Now more than ever, it is important to bridge gaps and keep residents informed and educated.
