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At three statewide stops in Peshtigo, Wausau and Westby on Aug. 2, Gov. Tony Evers and Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) Secretary-designee Karen Timberlake announced an $8 million investment supporting and stabilizing Wisconsin’s emergency medical services (EMS).

The supplemental funding for Funding Assistance Program (FAP) grants is being distributed to communities across Wisconsin.

Local recipients of EMS Funding Assistance Program funds for state fiscal year 2023 include Bloomfield-Genoa City Fire & Rescue; Town of Delavan Rescue Squad; East Troy Rescue; Elkhorn Fire Department EMS Division; Fontana Fire-Rescue Department; Joint Fire/EMS Department of the Village and Town Of Darien; Lake Geneva Fire Department—EMS Division; Town of Linn Fire & EMS; Town of Lyons Ambulance Service; Sharon Fire & Rescue; Whitewater Fire Department; and Williams Bay Rescue Squad.

Evers previously announced the investment during his 2022 State of the State address as part of a $20 million investment to support EMS providers across Wisconsin, especially those in rural communities, which includes another $12 million for one-time flexible grants for small, under-resourced EMS providers who did not otherwise qualify for specific existing state grants.

“Our first responders play an absolutely vital role in the safety and security of our communities, and no matter what the emergency or where we live, we count on EMS providers to be there for us when we need them most,” Evers said. “But for too long, EMS providers and our local partners have been doing more with less, having to make tough decisions and even reduce or cut services that keep our communities safe. These folks know their communities best, so we’re getting them the resources with the flexibility to decide what they need to best serve their communities, keep Wisconsinites safe, and do their important work.”

The one-time supplemental $8 million investment, funded through the state’s American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) dollars, was distributed to communities who receive annual FAP grants, which are available to all public ambulance service providers including volunteer fire departments, nonprofits, and county and municipality services. The funds can be used for things such as new emergency service vehicles, safety upgrades to existing vehicles, durable diagnostic medical equipment, immobilization equipment, patient transport equipment and more.

Each awardee received a supplemental grant of $24,390 in addition to their regularly allocated grant.

“Being able to access medical care quickly can provide life-saving minutes for families during their greatest time of need,” Timberlake said. “This investment gives a boost to our state’s EMS providers, who are facing many challenges and risking their lives every day to protect the health and safety of their communities.”

Lingering vestiges of the old Milwaukee Road railway, such as this enduring steel rail west of North Road, endure along the 5.8-mile rails-to-trails Pelishek-Tiffany Nature Trail in Walworth and Rock Counties between Allens Grove and Clinton.

Looking south from the Milwaukee Road's diamond railway interchange at the Bardwell interlocking station in the Town of Darien in June 1983. The Milwaukee Road abandoned its 6.2-mile line southwest from Bardwell to Clinton a few months prior in February 1983. The section of tracks pictured here is now operated by the Wisconsin & Southern Railroad. The bankrupt Milwaukee Road's whitewashed clapboard interlocking station at Bardwell has since been razed.

A Milwaukee Road freight train heads northeast on the Southwest Division line from Clinton toward the diamond interchange at unincorporated Bardwell near Allens Grove and Darien in 1976. The 6.2-mile line pictured here between Bardwell and Clinton was abandoned by the bankrupt Milwaukee Road in February 1983.

The 5.8-mile rails-to-trails Pelishek-Tiffany Nature Trail (PTNT) offers a number of rest areas, rest benches and rest shelters along the repurposed Milwaukee Road railway right-of-way between Allens Grove in Walworth County and Clinton in Rock County. 

Abandoned remnants of an old Milwaukee Road signal stand lie hidden in Virginia creeper and cleavers along the 5.8-mile rails-to-trails Pelishek-Tiffany Nature Trail in Walworth and Rock counties between Allens Grove and Clinton.

The Pelishek-Tiffany Nature Trail's nearly 130-year legacy as a Milwaukee Road railway corridor is still evident here and there along the 5.8-mile multi-use recreation trail in a peek-a-boo fashion for the eagle-eyed. Here, an abandoned Milwaukee Road signal control box lies hidden in the trailside underbrush.

Clues to the Pelishek-Tiffany Nature Trail's former longtime use as a Milwaukee Road railway corridor have in many places been enveloped the nature since the line's February 1983 abandonment by the bankrupt railroad. Here, a telegraph pole hidden in the treeline along the mullti-use recreation trail still sports its wires and colorful glass insulators. 

Seen near its western trailhead near North Road in the unincorporated Walworth County hamlet of Allens Grove, the 5.8-mile rails-to-trails Pelishek-Tiffany Nature Trail traverses former Milwaukee Road railroad right-of-way between Allens Grove and Clinton in Rock County. The 64.3-acre linear park, purchased by Rock County Parks in 1995, accommodates a variety of users year-round, including winter snowmobilers and cross-country skiers and warm-weather hikers, bikers, horseback riders, joggers and bird-watchers.

Naturalized over the past four decades, the 5.8-mile, 64.3-acre Pelishek-Tiffany Trail Trail corridor on the old Milwaukee Road right-of-way between Allens Grove in Walworth County and Clinton in Rock County features a wide variety of trees, bushes and wildflowers, including Wild Four O'Clock as seen here.

The Pelishek-Tiffany Nature Trail's main trailhead on Mill Street in Clinton features a parking area, restroom facility, picnic tables, a gazebo-styled pavilion and a small covered bridge walkway connecting the parking lot to the multi-purpose recreational rail-trail on 5.8 miles of former Milwaukee Road corridor between Clinton in Rock County and Allens Grove in Walworth County.

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