Fire Department Fees Increasing for 2012

Gas prices aren't the only cost that's going up — fees for services by the are as well. However, these fees aren't jumping quite as exponentially as

"The changes in fees are very limited," NSFD Chief Robert Whitaker said. "The only changes are ALS services, which is a county-wide fee structure. At this point, we don’t expect a significant change in our revenue projections based on these changes in fees."

There are only a total of four fee increases and three new fees on the 2012 schedule including:

• A $5 increase for both residents and nonresidents for paramedic service and treatment without transport.
• A $10 increase for residents needing paramedic services with transport. This is for Advanced Life Support (Level 2), such as administering medications or IVs while transported in an ambulance. 
• A $30 increase for paramedic services with transport for nonresidents also in the Advanced Life Support (Level 2).

The new fees include:

• Triage barcode wristbands, $3.
• Cyano-kits,  $900.
• CPAP, $45.

The most expensive new fee is the cyano kit, which is a special injection used to treat exposure to nerve agents according to NSFD Lt. paramedic Pete Bierton.

"We've been required to have them post 9/11," he said. "They're issued by the federal government."

According to the resolution proposed to each village by Whitaker, the new fee schedule will produce about $1,000 in revenue.

The Intergovernmental Cooperation Council, a group of Milwaukee County mayors and village presidents, passed the 2012 fee schedule at their Feb. 13 meeting. Since NSFD services seven communities — , Brown Deer, Glendale, River Hills, Shorewood and  — five of the seven North Shore communities needed to also pass the schedule for the changes to enacted. All seven have approved these changes.