Serving the communities of Burr Oak, Mindoro, North Bend, and Stevenstown, Wisconsin
The desire to serve.
The ability to perform.
The courage to act.
The Farmington First Responders provide emergency medical services to the residents and visitors of the Town of Farmington, La Crosse County, and the Town of North Bend, Jackson County, Wisconsin. Included are the unincorporated communities of Mindoro North Bend, Stevenstown and Burr Oak.
With a service area of over 104 square miles in 2 counties and bordering 2 adjacent counties, team members often find themselves with many challenges.
To improve response times members respond with personal jump kits to the scene, while the team’s emergency vehicle respond from the station in Mindoro. The team uses four ZOLL AEDs, an AEDPro on the emergency vehicle, and 3 AEDPlus are assigned among members across the service area to reduce response time in the event of a cardiac arrest.
What else we provide?
CPR Instruction
We have 2 members that are CPR instructors.
Mutual Aid
We provide assistance to neighboring agencies.
Speakers
We have members willing to speak to your civic/service organization.
Do you want to...
Take some time and meet our Employees?
Take some time and meet our Employees?
Our team
What our clients say
Our work
Who we are
In December 1981, the paperwork was completed and executed to create Farmington Emergency Medical Team, Inc., the nonprofit corporation formed to provide EMS in the Town of Farmington. A grant from the Henke Grandview Foundation of La Crosse provided the organization with three stocked jump kits and other equipment. That equipment arrived in February of 1982 and services began March 1, 1982.
This was before 9-1-1 service and dispatching was done locally using a 7 digit number. Volunteers/Members were called by phone by the person dispatching. There were no pagers or radios. There was an on call schedule and equipment had to be transferred between Volunteers. When 9-1-1 came on line in 1983, the Volunteers were freed to move about the community when four pagers were purchased. Equipment had to be moved around each time volunteers changed shifts; even the backboard was passed around.
In the summer of 1983, we purchased our first vehicle which was a 1974 Dodge ambulance from the Necedah Fire Department. Volunteers refurbished and painted the vehicle, and Vern and Maggie Bjorkquist donated use of their shop for the work. When this vehicle went into service, the Town provided space in the Town Highway Shop (current Fire Department) to store it.
By 1987, the members decided to replace the existing 1974 Dodge with a new vehicle that was built to meet the response needs of the team. In the end, a new custom modified Ford E250 van was purchased from O’Hearn’s in Melrose. Midwest Off-Road in La Crosse then converted the vehicle to 4-wheel drive. Members again did the interior work modification of the truck. This new vehicle had a cost of $22,000. To help finance the new vehicle, the organization took out a four year loan for $10,000.
In 1990, we received a venture grant from the United Way to start a pre-hospital defibrillation project. After overcoming some frustrating obstacles, we were able to get the project off the ground in 1995. We now have 4 defibrillators staged with our Volunteers across our service area, reducing the response time in many instances in case of a cardiac arrest. We also have assisted in placing 8 public access defibrillators in our community. They are located at the high school, Christ Lutheran Church in Burr Oak, Mindoro Lutheran Church and Lewis Valley Lutheran Church in Stevenstown, Mindoro Lions Park in the summer and at Cindy’s Restaurant in the winter. Also there are ones located at the Farmington Town Hall, Prarrie Farms cheese plant in Mindoro, and South Beaver Creek Lutheran Church in North Bend.
After 23 years of service, we replaced our beloved “1195” with a new response vehicle, based upon a 2011, Ford E-350 Super Duty van. The van was converted by Quigley to 4-wheel drive, and the van was modified by McCoy Miller. To comply with NIMS (National Incident Management System), our ID number “1195”, was retired to be replaced with a descriptor ID, to reflect what it is, and so “Farmington Rescue 1” was born.
In December 2014, our sister organization, North Bend First Responders merged with us and Farmington began serving both communities.
Our newest project is to capture 12 lead EKG’s in the field, prior to the arrival of the ambulance. We are in the final stages of raising funds for this project. We have ordered a new ZOLL Model X monitor to capture and send this data to the hospital and responding ambulance to help identify patients experiencing a STEMI, a ST-elevation myocardial infarction, which is a more precise definition for a type of heart attack. It’s caused by a prolonged period of blocked blood supply that affects a large area of the heart. STEMI has a substantial risk of death and disability and calls for a quick response. We will be receiving the equipment in early spring of 2019, with training to follow, with implementation in the field in early fall 2019.
WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT OUR COMPANY? CURIOUS WHAT ELSE WE DO?
Leadership practices
We promote the courage of visionary leadership and risk taking that challenges us by setting new direction.
Each of us should be a leader, motivating those around us, by the quality and spirit of our actions.
Be decisive. Know when to act and when not to act; taking into account all facts bearing on the situation and then responsibly carrying out the leadership role.
We advocate and strongly support diversity in people and ideas.
Values Statement
Our Mission and Our Citizens Deserve Our Best
To achieve our mission we must turn our ideas into action, be pioneers in our field, contributors of knowledge, inventors of solutions and explorers of ideas.
We should be part of the solution rather than part of the problem, and support the organization and its mission through personal commitment, professionalism, good character, pride, honesty, and teamwork.
We expect our service to our citizens to be worthy, vigorous, resourceful, courteous and reliable.
We strive to turn our mistakes into opportunities, and our limitations into creativity.
We treat those we serve fairly, with compassion, and respect regardless of their race, color, creed, sex, age, lifestyle, national origin, religion, or economic status.
We demand the best of ourselves and the people that work with us.
Our Organization Should Be a Good Place to Volunteer
The health and safety of our citizens and volunteers will be top priority.
As an organization, we should prize the creative participation of each person who volunteers here, welcome the open exchange of ideas and foster the practice of creative listening.
We have the duty to encourage the personal well-being and career development of every person, regardless of rank: or position.
We Should Do Our Work with Regard For One Another
We recognize the individuality of everyone who volunteers here, and we treat one another with respect, kindness and a sense of the importance of teamwork.
We should foster a spirit of excellence throughout the organization, so that we may better serve our citizens.
We Recognize the Essential Qualities of our Organization
The desire to serve.
The ability to perform.
The courage to act.
