MONROE — The Monroe Common Council has completed a survey of past and present fire department members and officials hope the results will guide them as they decide how the department will be organized in the future.

The survey was initiated by the common council’s new ad-hoc committee studying the volunteer fire department structure, a process that will have to be completed before search of a new fire chief resumes, according to city officials.

“The goal of the ad-hoc committee was to open lines of communication and start dialogue…,” said Mayor Donna Douglas, speaking at the March 6 Common Council meeting. “We can’t do this without the cooperation of everyone involved.”

Potential changes could make the department into a fire district involving other communities, contracting or partnering with communities for fire service, combining fire and EMS into one department; or switching to a full-time fire department. 

Douglas said her initial look at the survey results was “enlightening” and she characterized the overall response to the survey as “overwhelming.”

The purpose of the survey, she added “is not to judge or take sides” on fire department issues and its structure. 

Douglas and other city officials have lamented the pace of the effort to find a new chief, and that frustration and other issues prompted the ad-hoc committee’s creation. Soon after the city suspended its fire chief search to await the committee’s findings. The idea for the survey came out of the Feb. 6 meeting.

The ad-hoc committee includes Mayor Donna Douglas, and alders Mary Jane Grenzow, Heidi Treuthardt, Chris Schindler, and Tom Miller. Monroe’s most recent chief, William Erb of Iowa, abruptly resigned from his new post on Monday, April 11, 2022. Once a new chief is hired, it will be the seventh person in charge of the department over the past seven years. 

“This is a long process but it’s going to be beneficial for the city,” said Douglas.