Medary fire agreement with La Crosse now in place

For a town of about 1,500, Medary has a pretty big fire department.

But that’s part of what comes with having a new deal in place to get fire protection from the city of La Crosse. The agreement went into place on Saturday.

The town will pay $22,852 to the city this year for fire and first-responder services under the new agreement. It’s a contract that’s likely to be renewed in the future.

“It was kind of a no-brainer from our end,” Medary town board member Steve Elsen said. “We did explore a couple other options but, in the end, we feel pretty comfortable working with the city on this.”

The city also provides inspection services to be billed to the town at the city’s regular fee schedule rates.

It’s an agreement that’s notable in a number of ways. Not the least of which is that the two municipalities in the past had been at legal odds over annexations by the city.

Asked if this could lead to other agreements with the city over different services, Elsen said, “Certainly. These are kind of the early stages of the contracts but I think it could lead to other services in the future, definitely.”

The agreement also could serve as a model for other communities.

“I can’t speak on other towns’ behalfs, but the way we talked and negotiated with the city of La Crosse, certainly seems like it could work for other communities,” Elsen said.