“Bury A Friend”

Waunakee Village Board Edges Toward Eventual Termination of Joint Fire District. Proposal from Trustee McPherson provides increased support to Waunakee Firefighters.

The Waunakee Village Board meeting on February 3, 2025 resulted in what I’ve long expected given Westport, Vienna and Springfield’s ongoing intransigence over any level of accountability or oversight of the Waunakee Area Fire District. Waunakee is on a path to permanently terminating the joint fire district made up of Waunakee, Westport, Vienna and Springfield.

Video of the meeting is available here:

The relevant section presented by Mr. McPherson for benefits to Waunakee is as follows, which doesn’t exactly describe Waunakee as being in opposition the fire-fighters:

1. Ensures the Village protects the legacy of volunteer firefighting by making it a permanent part of the department;
2. Gives clarity to current and future firefighters with job descriptions, community risk assessments, and strategic planning;
3. Control through the Village gives faster response time to the needs of the department;
4. Lets the Village start facility improvements immediately, as the village owns the building;
5. Provides faster and better access to training for firefighters;
6. All recommended with the purpose of maintaining the 100% volunteer service for as long as possible.

This is a tad bit different than how conflict has been presented at the Fire District, in particular through the conduct of Vienna and Springfield representatives. In late December, two officials from the towns wrote a letter to Village President Runge to advocate for McPherson’s immediate removal from the Fire District board.

But let’s get to the issue of what they actually bothered to ask Ms. Runge to do here. Of course, rather than setting to work forming a “state law obligatory” Fire Commission that they learned several months ago that they were ignoring, these two gentlemen took the time to write a letter that asked for the impossible instead. Runge would need to bring extraordinary parliamentary efforts to bear to revoke McPherson’s seat on the Fire District board if she even wanted to do that which she obviously doesn’t.

I have trouble coming up with sufficient negative adjectives to describe Vienna and Springfield’s behavior here. Delusional? Moronic? Jug-hooting, glue-sniffing brain dead?

McPherson and Nila Frye were deliberately placed on the Fire District board by VP Runge with specific directions from the Village. They have followed the Village’s plan. In response to this clear and direct action, at least 3 staff members and representatives in the Fire District have complained, whined and borderline defamed them.

To suggest that they were doing anything beyond what the Village Board wanted them to do makes several assumptions:

• It assumes Kristin Runge is an idiot (she obviously is not)
• It relies on ginning up community resentment against two liberal members of the Village Board about something as esoteric and obscure as fire district policy (spectacular failure)
• It predicts that the local media will labor on into irrelevance and report none of this (a safer bet than the Chiefs to be in the Super Bowl)

1 out of 3 isn’t too bad…

As a Westport resident, I am thrilled that Town Board Chair John Cuccia and Westport have been appropriate and civil in engaging with Waunakee’s direct advocacy, doing their best to work with Mr. McPherson and Ms. Frye and Waunakee in general. But the behavior by Vienna and Springfield appears to leave Waunakee with little choice but to move forward in its own best interests. Instead of confronting complex issues with dignity, the municipalities instead chose to throw a tantrum.

As such, it appears Waunakee is set to eventually finally bury their old friend, the Waunakee Fire District, for good.