Cuba City Area Rescue Squad

04/04/2023

Wednesday, March 29 truly was a heartbreaking evening for Cuba City Area Rescue Squad (“CCARS”) with many tears from our EMS team. After several months of waiting for the city of Cuba City to make their final decision, the entire city council membership voted unanimously in favor of signing a contract with Southwest Health EMS (“SWH EMS”). One of the most disappointing parts of the “pre-typed” presentation from the city council and their attorney was they failed to present all the facts including the many years of positives this team has brought to the community and continued to bring to the community and there was not one thank you to CCARS during the entire “pre-typed” speech. The presentation portrayed this as an easy decision for the city council members even though off the record a few of the council members stated it was a very difficult decision and off the record there were a few that offered a thank you, as well.

The CCARS team presented a draft contract to the city of Cuba City last fall and has been requesting the city and their attorney to provide any type of feedback, redlines, or to give CCARS an opportunity to sit down and go thru the contract terms to come to an agreement on the contract that would be acceptable. CCARS had the support from the Townships last fall, we just needed the city’s support to move forward. For the first time on Wednesday, March 29 (shortly before the Special Council Meting that determined the fate of CCARS), CCARS President and the CCARS Attorney were allowed a very brief 20-25 minute meeting with the city attorney, mayor, and city clerk. The main question/topic of discussion during this brief 20-25 minute meeting focused on the cost of the CCARS contract compared to SWH EMS. The CCARS President explained the difference in cost which was the cost of having an ambulance stationed within the city of Cuba City with an on call team ready to respond. The fact is, SWH EMS contract does not include this, they will be responding directly from their station located in Platteville. So, for the SWH EMS contract, this comes at a different type of cost, a cost of not having an ambulance stationed in Cuba City. Additionally, the CCARS President explained as we get established as a 501c3 this will open an entire list of grant writing opportunities and the expectation is for future costs to go down rather than go up for our municipalities, but it is also difficult to know future costs of ambulance replacements and the grant opportunities available for this, as well. The CCARS budget was very conservative on the revenue side and did not include these grants since CCARS had not had those grant opportunities in the past operating under the city tax ID. CCARS has always been very transparent with our records and always willing to answer any questions in the most honest and factual manner. So, when it was explained later that evening in the city’s presentation that the city had several meetings with Southwest Health EMS leading up to this evening to come to a final agreement on the terms of their contract, was also quite concerning and very disappointing to the CCARS team. Why wasn’t CCARS given this same opportunity for several meetings?

One of the reasons presented by the city for choosing Southwest EMS was because they staff 3 ambulances that are ready to respond. This is not entirely true, yes they do have 3 ambulances, however, they currently fully staff 2 of those ambulances. And, additional facts the city failed to mention is that one of the ambulances is almost entirely dedicated to providing inter-facility transfers for their hospital and the surrounding area hospitals. Which leaves the other staffed ambulance to serve the SWH EMS district and now that same ambulance will serve an expanded population to include the city of Cuba City. CCARS on call staff and ambulance were intending to go down to one ambulance since volumes no longer warrant maintaining a second ambulance to serve the CCARS district. The other fact that was not mentioned was how many times SWH EMS has needed to request mutual aid in the past year because their resources were exhausted. And, how many times the CCARS EMS Team was paged to respond to the SWH EMS district as mutual aid due to resources being exhausted. So, with SWH EMS taking over the Cuba City district this may leave a new burden for the Dickeyville, Hazel Green, and Belmont Volunteer EMS teams to backup SWH EMS for all the times CCARS had previously covered SWH EMS, as well as providing backup to them for the newly expanded population in Cuba City, as well.

Another point made in the city’s speech was the response time is “only” 30 seconds more than CCARS. One of the facts they failed to mention is that every second counts when it involves delivering onsite patient care and those seconds could impact a person’s life. The other fact the city failed to mention was the average response time of 9.5 minutes which was provided by CCARS was over an entire year which included winter road conditions; and the 10 minutes response time provided by SWH EMS were from a handful of recent calls which were in good road conditions. And, anyone that has ever traveled the road between Platteville and Cuba City during winter conditions will agree this type of response time from SWH EMS may be very difficult during those months.

Another very sad part of this decision is for our two newest members who are currently taking the class to become an EMT. We did reach out to both of these incredible individuals and let them know we will take care of them and continue to support them through their class and then help them get established with another team, as needed.

Our incredibly dedicated, highly trained, and hard working team truly believed the city would see our value and choose to continue allowing us to serve our community. Additionally, we were feeling more confident as we started to receive interest from the community with individuals requesting an application to join our team. We are honored and proud to have brought high quality and compassionate care to every patient we served over the years. Thank you for trusting the CCARS team to be there for you and your families since 1976. We will miss serving our communities, which included all of you, our families, neighbors, and friends. We will also miss the incredible collaboration and partnership we have always had with our local area Fire Departments and EMS teams. Our friendship and teamwork with you all is something we will cherish forever and look forward to seeing the local Fire and EMS teams to continue to do great things for our communities. And, lastly, Thank You to all the Fire and EMS teams across the nation for your many years of service and dedication and for the great things you have done and continue to do for the communities you serve, as well, your countless hours of dedication and service truly make you a super hero.

03/27/2023

The Future of Cuba City Area Rescue Squad
Cuba City Area Rescue Squad (“CCARS”) is a volunteer rescue squad formed in the 1970s serving the city of Cuba City, and townships of Benton, Elk Grove, New Diggings, and Smelser. CCARS currently has 14 professional volunteers serving as a Driver, EMT, EMR, A-EMT, Paramedic, or RN. Given the many challenges facing volunteer EMS across the nation, CCARS, with the support of the service area municipalities, voted to add a full-time paid Service Director/EMS Administrator position a few years ago. This paid person covers the dayshift Monday-Friday 6a to 6p since the daytime hours are the busiest and most difficult hours to fill.

Under the advice of the city attorney, CCARS is no longer allowed to be part of the city. After careful consideration, CCARS decided to move towards becoming incorporated as a 501c3 and drafted a contract for the municipalities to continue using CCARS as their ambulance service. The Townships all expressed their support and since have been awaiting a response from the city of Cuba City. Without the City’s support, CCARS will not be financially sustainable as an EMS, which means the townships will also need to seek other options.

Since last summer and several meetings later, the city has two final options, 1. Contract with Southwest EMS (a fully paid service), or 2. Contract with CCARS. Many of these meetings moved into closed session discussions with no action taken following the closed sessions. Tuesday, March 14th CCARS President was notified there will be another Special Council Meeting on Wednesday, March 29th at 6:30pm.

With the recent resignation of the Service Director, CCARS has limited staffing to cover the daytime hours. Unfortunately, the service director position cannot be posted until a decision is made by the city. CCARS is doing the very best possible to keep hours covered 24/7 with the missing paid dayshift position. CCARS is very fortunate to have such an incredibly dedicated team of volunteers and local EMS partners to assist with coverage during times when we know we may not have a crew available.

Our CCARS team genuinely care and know how critical it is to be there for you, our friends, families, and neighbors in very difficult times. Our reward is knowing our time was meaningful and we know we are making a difference our patients may not have otherwise. We know how valuable our time is to our patients. And, while CCARS has a strong collaboration with our Southwest EMS partners/friends and they also have a highly trained and compassionate EMS team, as well; we also know every second counts when delivering on-scene patient care. Unfortunately, it is uncertain CCARS would have enough volunteers to continue as a First Responder only capacity, if the city chooses to contract with Southwest EMS. Additionally, once we lose our local EMS, it will be very difficult to get this back.

As you are reading this, you may be wondering how you might be able to help. Please consider joining our incredible EMS team of volunteers. Even if you are only able to volunteer for one or two shifts per month, every little bit makes a difference in the lives we serve. In addition, we would sincerely appreciate your assistance by talking to any of the city council members or attend the Special Meeting on Wednesday, March 29th at 6:30pm to express your concerns and support for the city to continue with CCARS. We are here for you and your family, and we appreciate your continued support of CCARS.

01/27/2023

IF you do not have to go out please stay home, the roads are not safe at this time.

ALL ROADS ARE NOW OPEN.. HOWEVER THE WIND IS STILL BLOWING AND MAY CAUSE FURTHER ISSUES.. PLEASE SLOW DOWN..

NOW OPEN AS OF 15:10 ****** Road conditions have deterioriated to the point that HWY 80 between Cuba City and Platteville is currently SHUT DOWN to all through traffic. Cuba City Fire and Platteville Fire have the road closed in their respective jurisdictions.
There are multiple slide-offs near the Darlington turn off which has caused the closure. Until this area can be cleared of vehicles and the Highway Department can clear the roadway, the roadway will be closed.
The highway department has been working to keep the roads open all day, however blowing and drifting snow along with white-out conditions has caused major problems on these roads.
*** Please avoid this area until further notice and SLOW DOWN and pay attention as you drive to your destination.
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NOW OPEN AS OF 15:10 *** Grant County Sheriff and Platteville Fire is also dealing with a jack-knifed semi north of Platteville at HWY 80 and Walnut Dell Road. Tow services are on scene working to remove the semi thus the roadway is closed on HWY 80 at Walnut Dell to the north.
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NOW OPEN as of 2:52 pm *** Grant County Sheriff and Potosi fire is working on removing a vehicle from the ditch at HWY 35/61 @ Lone Elm Tree. That area is also closed at the current moment due to the slide-off and white out conditions while that vehicle is removed.

01/04/2023

2022 has come to and end. This year CCARS members logged in OVER 14802.8 hours of on call time. This is not including the people who have answered up when more help was needed, or our drivers who are a big help to us. On call time means, the person stays within a few minutes of the station just in case the pager goes off and EMS is needed. Of those hours we covered 214 calls within Cuba City Area Rescue Squad’s coverage area. Those calls were made up of: EMS calls, fire calls, police standbys, mutual aid calls, and storm spotting calls.

This year was a busy and trying year for calls for CCARS, but day after day the members showed up, no matter what time of day or night it was to take care of the person in need. I have gotten to see it first-hand, how CCARS members are willing to go out of their way to help others. They will drop everything they are doing to respond for the call. It could be sunny or a blizzard, they could be at a family function, having dinner, or out grocery shopping, and they would respond. Each and every member of the squad puts in time to keep the squad running.

On top of responding to calls, each member attends monthly meetings as well as monthly trainings. Members attend classes and conferences offered throughout the state to keep with their training. We were also involved with the schools, teaching bike safety and donating bike helmets to the Kindergarten classes of both the Elementary school and St Rose school. We also participated in the community market.

We did several fundraisers this past year, selling those yummy pies and having our brat sale. With those fundraiser we were able to purchase The Lucas Device that we were fundraising for! Thank you for all the community's support on this!!

CCARS is always looking to expand our membership. Looking for drivers, EMRs (Emergency Medical Responder), EMTs (Emergency Medical Technicians), AEMTs (Advance Emergency Medical Technicians), Paramedics and Registered Nurses. Classes are starting January 17th, 2023, in Dickeyville WI, for EMR and EMT. Please reach out to any member for more information.

12/31/2022

Happy New Year’s to everyone out there. May 2023 bring you happiness and health!

12/25/2022

Merry Christmas from all of us here at Cuba City Area Rescue Squad.

12/02/2022

This is going back to our children! What a wonderful way to support local! 💙

11/28/2022

We have some great news!!!

The EMT class that is starting in January 2023, will be held in Dickeyville!

Do you know anyone that would like to take the EMT Class? Have them reach out to a member of Cuba City Area Rescue Squad or respond to this post. We would love to have new faces take the class and join the local EMS departments.

"Some people spend their whole lives wondering if they made a difference. Some don't have that problem" - unknown

Make a difference in someone's life, join EMS today!

10/28/2022

All of us here at Cuba City Area Rescue Squad, would like to thank each and every Frist Responder. You are always willing to put things on hold to help someone in need, and for that we thank you!!!!! Thank you Dispatch, EMS, Fire, Law enforcement, Nurses and Military.