By Peter Cameron
New Wausau Fire Chief Jeremy Kopp has been a firefighter since he was 18 years old. He’s only held the top job for a few months, but he’s got big plans for the future of the department.
“This is one of those professions where you don’t get in it to get rich, you get in it to serve your community,” he said. “It’s a very rewarding career. You see a lot of bad things, but you make a lot of difference in people’s lives.”
Kopp wants to do a variety of things to modernize and improve the fire department’s quality of service while saving the city and even the people of Wausau money. He also has plans to reverse the shrinking pool of good firefighting candidates, a problem unseen by the public but squeezing departments — and putting pressure on public safety and city budgets — everywhere.
The new chief began his fire service nearly 30 years ago in Weston when he was still a teenager. He joined the Wausau Fire Department in 2004 and served as a firefighter inspector, lieutenant inspector, and battalion chief before assuming the deputy chief’s position in 2021. The city named him to the top spot in December.
“The entire commission was very impressed with Kopp’s interview and plans for Wausau Fire moving forward,” William Harris, chairman of the city’s police & fire commission, told the Wausau Pilot in December. “I was impressed with Kopp’s work ethic, vision, and his ability to inspire and positively motivate the other firefighters. He brings out the best in people.”
Wausau has already expanded its budgeted firefighting positions to 66 — not including executive officers. That’s the city’s first staffing increase in about 50 years, Kopp said. And it is possible thanks to a 3-year grant from FEMA and federal funding from the American Rescue Plan, the $1.9 trillion economic stimulus bill passed by congressional Democrats and opposed by all congressional Republicans. President Joe Biden signed the bill into law in 2021.
When the funding runs out, the city will have to absorb the cost, the chief said.
But hiring firefighters is much more difficult now than it once was, as people have become less interested in a position that can require work at night, weekends and holidays, Kopp and other fire chiefs say. An open position used to receive loads of applications, but now the Wausau Fire Department is lucky to get a handful, and even fewer good candidates. Despite budgeting for 66 positions, the Wausau Fire Department only employs only 60 at the moment, with two scheduled to start in July, Kopp said.
The department still has the same number of firefighters working at all times of day — 17 — but running with a smaller workforce means a lot of overtime. The city spent nearly $390,000 for fire department overtime in 2023, said the city’s finance director Maryanne Groat.
Even when the department gets to full strength, the problem of hiring will still be lurking as older firefighters retire.
But Kopp has a plan, and more importantly, a way to fund it.
FED-FUNDED APPRENTICESHIP PROGRAM AT NTC
Firefighters in the city of Wausau start at about $63,000 per year, and that salary rises quickly over the first four years, according to the union-bargained contract, Kopp said.
Most of Wausau’s firefighters are also trained as paramedics, which can provide a higher level of care than EMTs.
Those job requirements necessitate a lot of training before firefighters earn those certifications. The department currently requires them before a firefighter can start working for the department.
The chief says he has been working with the offices of Sen. Tammy Baldwin and Gov. Tony Evers as well as local community colleges like Northcentral Technical College to create an apprenticeship program to get more young people into the firefighting industry.
With a program in place, the department might relax requirements and allow trainees to work for the department while earning the necessary certifications, Kopp said. The Wausau Fire Department would cover the costs of the training for its future firefighters.
Fire chiefs across the state have increased benefits and incentives to attract new firefighters, but rather than bringing new people into the workforce, it has often resulted in firefighters moving around the state, “like a shell game,” Kopp said.
Fire chiefs say they want to expand the entire pie, rather than just steal pieces from each other.
IMPROVED INSURANCE RATING
The Wausau Fire Department is also working to improve the fire department enough so that the city can achieve the top insurance rating in fire protection through a program called the Public Protection Classification.
That rating could potentially drop insurance rates for property owners in Wausau, Kopp said.
The city of Surprise, Arizona earned the top rating in 2017, said Kevin Spirlong, the assistant fire chief there.
“Improved ISO ratings can impact our community by potentially reducing insurance rates for commercial businesses,” he wrote in an email. “However, the SFMD does not have specific information on the actual savings businesses may have received due to our improved rating.”
Kopp predicts the rating increase would save hundreds of thousands of dollars across the entire city.
“If we were able to get to that, essentially all businesses and residences would see some insurance plan savings,” he said.
The bulk of the qualifying criteria of the insurance rating program includes the quality of the fire department, like staffing levels and training, and also water supply and prevalence of fire hydrants. A small piece is based on the local emergency communications system.
Staffing levels had been a big hurdle in the city moving to that top insurance rating, Kopp said. But the federal funding and the 66 budgeted firefighter positions mean the Wausau Fire Department now qualifies for that criteria.
The department also must have a designated center for the training of firefighters, currently managed at the city’s three fire stations.
Kopp said his department is working to create a training center in the city or in greater Marathon County, where recruits could work on earning their certifications and veteran firefighters could complete their mandatory continued education training.
The opening of a training center is in flux, and though it could open as early as late 2024, it could take a couple more years as the department looks for funding, Kopp said.
CRITICAL CARE PARAMEDIC
Another piece of Kopp’s plan involves the launch of a full-time position to focus on frequent users of the 911 system, those who use ambulances frequently, like the elderly, homeless and those with mental health problems.
Falls by the elderly are the leading cause of 911 calls in Wausau, Kopp said. Reducing those could save lives and funds. The critical care paramedic will do house inspections and help with things like trip hazards and securing railings.
The new position and program will cost nearly $200,000 in the first year, including buying a vehicle, and more than $100,000 in the second and third years, but Kopp estimates the position will deliver to the city a long-term cost savings.
“I’m going to venture to guess it will be huge,” he said.
Kopp has secured most of the funding for the position from the Aspirus Health System and The Judd S. Alexander Foundation, and is looking for more.
I think it’s an opportunity to change healthcare,” Kopp said. “We’re going to see what this position can do.”
Facing a host of challenges, the new chief is not sitting on his hands.
“A lot of these goals, the balls are in the air, and come another month or two, we’re going to know where we’re at on these goals and be able to move on to the next goals.”
This story was funded in part by a grant from the B.A. Esther Greenheck Foundation and stipends from the Mary Bethke Fund and the Todd & Keri Olson Fund at the Community Foundation of North Central Wisconsin.
