The Sister Bay/Liberty Grove Fire Department is still keeping busy, but they have not had to jump into their trucks as often this year. Fire Chief Chris Hecht estimates their call volume is down about 10 percent over last year. They did not receive many calls at the onset of the pandemic and it has slowly grown to a little bit closer to normal as the year as gone along. When you separate out the type of calls, the fire department has seen an increase while the first response team has seen a decrease. Hecht says they have been able to give back to the community in other ways.
One thing that may be hard to recoup is the funding the Sister Bay/Liberty Grove Department receives for its volunteer operations. Like other non-profits, the department relies on Marina Fest and Fall Fest to offset some of their operational costs. Both of those events were canceled due to COVID-19.
