The Wisconsin Department of Safety and Professional Services just awarded $50,000 to the City of Merrill Fire Department.
The funding comes from premiums collected by insurance agencies.
Prevention is a key part of the City of Merrill Fire Department’s safety plans.
The Merrill Fire Department just received $50,000 from Wisconsin’s 2% Fire Dues program.
Thanks to that funding, they can afford a dedicated fire inspector on staff.
Fire Chief Josh Klug says it’s made a big difference for the community.
“Joe Bozinski, the Fire Inspector, that was our first ever part time hire for the position, has done a fantastic job, conducting over 1000 inspections annually,” said Klug.
Klug says their inspector makes sure local businesses are getting the help they need to be fire compliant.
“While we're very fortunate to have a career department that can respond 24/7, 365, we recognize that fire prevention is a very important part of that piece, and for our community. If we can make the investment on the front end by preventing the fire in the first place, it makes the community safer, it allows that business to stay open safer, not only for the members, but also for the firefighters working as well,” explained Klug.
The 2% Fire Dues Program has distributed over $32 million dollars to fire departments around Wisconsin.
The program requires insurers to pay 2% of the premiums they collect against loss from fires, then the state redistributes those funds.
The department’s latest report showed that the position reduced the number of fire safety compliance violations by 54%.
This is Joe Bozinski, Merrill Fire Inspector.
“So what that means to me is hopefully I’m doing my job well enough that these violations are getting fixed and they’re staying fixed, which has been really good,” said Bozinski.
“People generally want to do the right things, the property owners, the business owners, a lot of the time. They’re not sure what that is, and that’s part of my job to educate them a little bit,” explained Bozinski
Besides paying for Bozinski’s salary, funds from the Fire Dues program also go towards buying and replacing equipment, running fire prevention programming, training crews, and more.
Produced with assistance from the Public Media Journalists Association Editor Corps funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people.
