DARLINGTON — As the Lafayette County Board got together for more than 2.5 hours to review and vote on the county budget for next year, much of the discussion going on was about perspective.

Would residents think the county board is enriching themselves by giving an increase in their per diem for the first time in two decades? Would the public debate the new EMS post, of which only 25 percent was being paid for by Lafayette County? Would people donate less to their local fire department if the county gave them a small stipend?

On Monday night, Nov. 10, moved up a day due to the Veterans Day holiday, the board discussed those and more topics, making a change on how they planned on rolling out the fire department assistance, and approved moving forward with two items for the county EMS.

For the first 45 minutes of the night was focused on the budget, with a budget hearing where Finance Chair Scott Pedley reviewed the budget. 

“We came into this thinking there would have to be some real tough, tough choices,” Pedley reflected on the start of the conversation, noting that because of constraints with what they can do to increase funds, they would have to cut.

Instead, because of changes on redeemable costs for residents of Lafayette Manor, as well as relying less on contracted services bringing in staff, the nursing home was able to lower its request by roughly $1 million, which opened up the budget considerably.

“This budget has been greatly aided by what has happened at our Lafayette Manor,” Pedley shared. “Our department heads have been very responsible with their requests,” Pedley continued about the other departments.

Ultimately, due to some reductions on increases requested by various departments, the tax levy was only going up 2.4 percent, to $10,444,988, increasing $245,277.

“I don’t think we can speak enough good at what they have done there,” Supervisor Jed Gant said of the turnaround at Lafayette Manor, adding how important it is to have a place where older seniors can live in the county.

“The way things have gone up in the past few years, you have to be a magician to make this work,” Chair Jack Sauer stated about the budget.

During the vote for the 2026 budget, there was one vote against its adoption from Supervisor Emmett Reilly, which prompted County Board Chairman Jack Sauer to put Emmett on the spot to explain what he would have done differently to get a budget he would have voted for.

Reilly stated it was the continued support of Lafayette County EMS he had a problem with.

“I have been in more ambulances than you have,” Reilly said as he and Sauer sparred over their knowledge of ambulances. “I don’t think the county should be paying for it,” Reilly said.

Lafayette County EMS was started a half decade ago after troubles with Rural Medical EMS, the volunteer rescue squad covering central Lafayette County. Due to the inability to have enough available volunteers to answer the calls, Lafayette County took over coverage, and created a hybrid service with full-time and volunteer responders.

Sauer noted how important having rescue services were, and how difficult it was to maintain volunteer lists, given that most are usually of working age, and the changes in the economy means more and more people had to commute out of the area in order to work.

Lafayette County EMS came up three different times during the night — Reilly’s discussion of the budget, the joint position with the Darlington Fire Commission, and the study on a future EMS headquarters.

Just after Reilly voiced his opinion about the department itself, the board debated whether to create an additional part-time EMS position, who would be primarily utilized by the Darlington Fire Department.

Under the proposal, the new person would work for Darlington 75 percent of the time, filing paperwork on claims for calls, as well as handling the inspection of buildings conducted in the city.

For 25 percent of the position’s time, they would be part of EMS, handling calls.

The idea was to supplement the people available for calls, as the county EMS can only respond to half the medical transport calls.

Answering more calls would mean more revenue to the department.

Supervisor Jeff Berget wondered why, if the position was mostly for Darlington, why was the person not under them, with the county contracting for the position.

John Reichling responded that the post was a county post, but funded mostly by Darlington.

“The optics where we are helping Darlington,” Supervisor Joe Schutte added.

“I don’t see why we need to help Darlington again,” Reilly stated.

“I have heard the term no-brainer before,” Pedley retorted, saying that a position, mostly funded by another agency, that will help generate more revenue for the county, would be the very definition of that.

“When you told me about it, I was adamantly opposed to it,” Pedley continued, noting he was in the same position those talking against were. As he looked at the projections, it made sense for the county, however.

In the end, the new position passed, 9-5, with Reilly, Schutte, Berget joining Mark Pinch and Donna Flannery in opposition.

Earlier in the meeting, EMS Chief Shawn Phillips gave a presentation on spending $27,000 for a study about a new EMS station.

Closing in on four decades old, the current station, which was formerly the station for Rural Medical, was never meant to be the center for a full-time EMS service, Phillips remarked. The facility is showing its age, and has limitations for expansion.

Phillips shared the proposal from Five Bugles, which created a study for the Platteville Fire Department which led to what they are currently building.

There were three parts to the plan. The first would be to review the coverage area, and determine where the best place would be to build a new station, and what size the station should be to service the community for decades to come.

The second part would be to have a detailed assessment of the current station. Phillips said this was important to use in writing grants to pay for a future station.

The final part would be to have architectural plans for a new facility.

Given that the EMS department continues to handle more and more calls — they are projecting to crack 600 calls in 2025 — the department would like a place that makes responding to calls easier, and located in the optimum spot.

Phillips also emphasized that none of this greenly a new station, as he hoped that funding would be found to cover much of the costs, pointing to apartments who have received federal and state grants.

The study was approved on a voice vote with Reilly the lone negative.