Lake Mills Fire Chief Jason Russ admonished Oakland residents who have complained about long response times since Oakland started receiving coverage from three neighboring cities.
“It’s sad that this misunderstanding is out there,” Russ said at the July 21 Oakland town board meeting. It’s sad that this misunderstanding is being used to spread misinformation and spread rumors.”
The town of Oakland was part of the Cambridge Fire and EMS Commission until January 2025. The town voted to leave the commission in December 2023 due to high costs and lack of transparency with the former EMS director.
Oakland was set to officially leave the commission at the end of 2024, and in fall 2024, the Oakland town board voted to contract with the cities of Fort Atkinson, Jefferson and Lake Mills for fire and EMS for different parts of the town.
Oakland residents immediately protested that these cities were too far away to adequately serve the town. And this spring, residents have started to share concerns about response times and asked the town board to consider returning to the commission.
Russ told the town board at its July meeting that people are spreading misinformation on social media about his department, along with the departments in Jefferson and Fort Atkinson.
He shared comments from residents on social media that argue Russ is unwilling to work with Cambridge, which Russ said is “completely false.”
“If you don’t think I want to work with Cambridge, you are mistaken,” Russ said, adding he’s called them for mutual aid on several occasions.
Russ also said fire and EMS response times are based on a number of factors, and location is just one of them. He pointed out that volunteer fire departments are also dependent on when volunteers can get to the station, and for EMS, how many personnel are available depending on call volume that day.
“You will never see me criticize another department about run times,” Russ said.
Jefferson Fire Chief Ron Wegner also told the town board fire department response times vary greatly. And, he criticized Oakland residents for taking issue with these departments’ responses.
“I ask that your citizens knock it off so we can have conversations like adults,” Wegner said.
Oakland Police Chief Vanessa Leonard defended Russ and the other fire chiefs during her comments at the town board meeting.
“They do a lot of work for the communities, and it is really sad that people are spreading misinformation about what they do and how they respond to this community,” Leonard said while holding back tears.
Leonard said she was emotional because she worked with these chiefs for decades, and watched them save so many lives over the years.
This comes as more Oakland residents have begun to speak more strongly about returning to the Cambridge commission.
At the town’s annual meeting on April 21, nearly a dozen people expressed concerns about the fire and EMS response times and asked the town board to consider returning to Cambridge for service.
“You have drastically reduced the survivability of the people on the far end of the Town of Oakland,” Oakland resident Tim Scott said at the meeting. “You’ve got to do something about the response times.”
Kristin Blackwood, who leads the fire commission and serves on the Cambridge village board, said she’s CPR certified as a nurse, and a few minutes make a huge difference in response time.
“When a heart stops, we aren’t just fighting the clock; we are fighting the rapid onset of biological death,” Blackwood said. “In a pulseless event, there is a golden window of four to six minutes before permanent brain damage becomes a near certainty. By the 10 minute mark, without intervention, survival is statistically rare.”
Several residents have continued to return to meetings since and voiced their concerns during public comment. They repeatedly asked the town board to attend a Cambridge Fire and EMS Commission meeting and consider options.