Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
Warsaw-Wayne Fire Territory (WWFT) is expecting to receive its new ladder truck sooner than expected, Chief Joel Shilling told the fire territory board Wednesday.
“I was informed today by our truck committee chairman that our new ladder truck that we purchased, they’re going out Nov. 20 - I think it’s the 19th, 20th and 21st - to do the final inspection on our ladder truck. So we will get it a lot sooner than we anticipated, which is needed, and, again, kudos to that group and the truck committee for taking care of everything and doing that. I know they’re excited to go look at it,” Shilling said.
They have seen some pictures of the truck as it’s gone through the building process, he said. “Today was the first day that it was updated with the ladder actually on the ladder truck and mounted and ready to go.”
Hopefully, Shilling said, they hope the truck will arrive by the beginning of January. They will then get all the equipment transferred on it and hope to have it in service by the end of February.
The Warsaw Board of Public Works and Safety approved the finance agreement for the Smeal/Spartan 100-foot rear-mount aerial platform ladder truck at their meeting Feb. 2, 2024. At the Feb. 5, 2024, Warsaw Common Council meeting, then-Fire Chief Brian Mayo reported it would take roughly 640 days for the $1.8 million (plus financing) truck to be built, up from 480 days in the original contract; and it would be 2-1/2 to 3 years before they received the truck.
Back in May 2025, the WWFT’s new fire engine that it ordered in 2022 arrived.
Wednesday, after the WWFT Board meeting, Shilling said the build time has significantly improved “since our last engine that we had built. But it’s a different process with the ladder truck than what it is with the engine. It’s going to be on time and we’re excited to have it.”
The current ladder truck the WWFT has continues to have some issues here and there, he said. “I’m not sure what we’re going to do with it yet. There’s a potential we could have it as a reserve truck, there’s a potential we could sell the asset. It just depends on what the department feels we need to do with that. As we speak now, I don’t have an answer on what we’re going to do.”
He pointed out that Winona Lake, North Webster, Syracuse and Pierceton also have their own ladder trucks.
Earlier in Wednesday’s meeting, Shilling gave his monthly fire activity report.
In September, he said they had 269 responses, with 53 of them (19.7%) overlapping. Fire calls totaled five. They assisted two other agencies - Pierceton and Sidney fire departments - and did not receive any mutual aid in September. There was one call for excessive heat/scorch burns with no ignition; 191 rescue/EMS calls; seven hazardous conditions with no fire calls; four service calls; 31 good intent calls; and 30 false alarms/calls.
Of the 269 total responses, 135 were for station 17; 111, station 13; and 23 were for station 15.
WWFT completed a total of 407 training hours over a variety of different topics in September. They had over 34 hours of community service, including Family Safety Day, ceremonies and parades.
Board member David Allbritten noted, “There’s nearly a 30% drop in overlapping runs this month. That’s great.”
Shilling said, “There is that as well, and I think part of that could be, too, that it was a slower month for us compared to all the other months. The Lutheran EMS report reflected that as well. And then, with not tracking CARES in our system, they switched to a different system, we don’t see their runs in here.”
Alicia Mediano, Lutheran EMS, gave her monthly report to the board for the months of August and September before Shilling gave his.
“One of the things that you’ll see is September, this month, when we reflect back on the years past, we saw a huge uptick in our normal call volume for several months, and then in September that number dipped quite a bit,” she said. “We weren’t really expecting that, however, it is consistent if you looked at years past, in the fact that we start getting up into the respiratory season. So those numbers we expect to kind of be on that roller coaster. So if you see that big dip between August and September, that’s pretty consistent and kind of what we expected.”
In June and July, Lutheran EMS had 479 encounters each month; in August, there were 480; and in September there were 421. So far for 2025, they’ve had 4,334 encounters.
In other business, the WWFT Board approved:
• The transfer of $18,780.22 from the RCORP (Rural Communities Opioid Response Program) grant fund that continues to pay for CARES to miscellaneous revenue operating fund. The reimburseable grant concluded on Aug. 31, and the transfer will return all remaining funds to the operating account from which the original expenditures were made.
• The transfer of $7,200 from the Local Training Support Grant through the Indiana Department of Homeland Security to the equipment replacement fund. The reimburseable grant was used to repair props at the WWFT training center.
• Six travel requests for October and November. The only cost for all the travel requests was $100 for Assistant Chief Will Kornrumph to attend the Indiana Township Association Conference in Noblesville on Nov. 5.
Shilling said all of the travel requests - except for Kornrumph’s to attend the ITA Conference - “are either job requirements or continuing education to continue their certification.”
• The operating and equipment replacement funds as presented.
The next meeting of the WWFT Board will be at 4 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 2 in the council chambers at City Hall.
The January meeting will be held at the Warsaw Police Department training facility due to HVAC work in the council chambers from Dec. 16 to Jan. 30.
