The Oconto Falls Common Council unanimously agreed to spend $128,515 in 2027 to continue to receive services from the Oconto Falls Area Joint Ambulance Service, but other city services are expected to suffer as a result.
The ambulance company came to the fee structure by setting 60% of it based on the city’s equalized value, 20% on its latest population count and 20% on the number of runs it goes on. The contract includes a 3% cost of living increase for 2028 and 2029, which will raise the rates to $132,371 and $136,342, respectively.
According to an unsigned memo from the ambulance company, it will need to replace a 2003 ambulance in the next three years, which is estimated to cost more than $300,000. The company is expected to upgrade its Lifepak monitors, with a quoted price of $54,587.65 each.
The council had been discussing it at multiple meetings, as the new fee is $43,000 higher than it had been previously, according to City Administrator Peter Wills. He said he reached out to ambulance services in Gillett and Little Suamico, as well as County Rescue in Brown County based in Suamico, but he could not find a service that would provide ambulance care at lower rates.
“They’re paying significantly more to have County Rescue,” Wills said. “They estimate in the next two years that the costs would rise to $365,000. We are facing a significant hike; we’re certainly not excited about it.”
To pay for that, cuts had to be made to other departments. The Oconto Falls Community Library had to cut its budget for 2027 from $90,500 of city funds to $81,450, which mostly includes cuts to library materials.
The library’s proposed budget cuts its acquisition of books from $11,550 in 2026 to $4,662 in 2027. However, e-book acquisitions will jump from $1,271 to $2,071 in the process. Employee salaries and benefits were not reduced, with a 2.2% increase included.
“They did come to me with two budgets,” Wills said. “One was the same as last year at $90,500, and the second one was $81,450 to cover our ambulance costs.”
Alderwoman Ashley Bahrke, who represents the city on the library’s board, pointed out that the funding the library gets from Oconto County is based off its circulation numbers.
“A circulation is anything that someone checks out from the library,” Bahrke said. “They offer a wide variety of things — books, amongst many other things.”
Bahrke noted that the library already operates on a tight budget and worries that not being able to provide more items for circulation will prompt patrons to check out fewer items. That will result in less money from the county, she said.
“The library’s budget is so tight already. It’s a well-oiled machine,” Bahrke said. “There’s a lot of fixed costs in there, aside from the items you circulate. Our ability to circulate materials goes down with this cut, because the only place we can cut is in new materials we get.”
Alderman Marty Coopman agreed with Bahrke’s assessment and urged finding other ways to compensate for the ambulance rate hike.
“If there’s a way that you can come up with another way to fund it somehow, I’d be all for it,” Coopman said. “We are a circ-positive library, so a lot of the bigger libraries come to us for their circulation, and that might just create a snowball effect that you’re looking at.”
Rachel Pascoe, library director, said that her budget is prioritizing people over things. She said she plans to apply for every grant she can to stave off the financial issues.
“You can write grants for stuff, but you can’t write grants to pay people,” Pascoe said. “The people working with me at the library are a huge part of what makes it a place that people return to over and over again.”
Pascoe noted that the library’s Friends group has become more active in recent years and hopes it will help to secure additional funding beyond what’s provided by the city and county.
“I’m not going to lie and tell you I’m excited, but I also understand the library is a department, and this is what departments are doing this year,” Pascoe said.
Despite the concerns on the council, the library’s budget was approved unanimously.
