Milwaukee County leaders call on Gov. Evers to provide funding for essential services

By: Pari Cruz

Posted: May 21, 2020 3:00 PM CDT

NOW: Milwaukee County leaders call on Gov. Evers to provide funding for essential services

MILWAUKEE COUNTY (CBS 58) -- Milwaukee County is facing a shortage of millions of dollars in coronavirus relief funds to support essential services.

Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley asked the governor to return those funds because they’re essential to EMS and other county workers under enormous pressure due to the pandemic.

“On average, per shift, we take about 100 calls per shift,” said Sasha Aleksich.

Aleksich is a lead command duty officer at the Milwaukee County Office of Emergency Management.

She says in March and April, calls to their centers doubled and even tripled because of the outbreak.

“It’s starting to get back to the normal,” she said. “In March, a lot of the calls that we were receiving were for COVID-19 related emergencies.”

Sasha and others like her are the intermediaries between paramedics and hospitals providing critical information to help patients.

But that job has recently gotten harder to do.

Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley paid the communication center a visit Thursday, thanking them for their hard work during National EMS Week.

“We received about $64 million through the CARES Act, but we continuously ask Governor [Tony] Evers for more dollars.”

The act dedicated $165 million dollars in coronavirus relief funds to Milwaukee County, however nearly all of it was rerouted to the state.

That money goes towards mental health services, PPE, and other essential services in Milwaukee.

Crowley says without sufficient funding, the county won’t be able to meet residents’ needs.

“When we think about all our EMS workers, when we think about all the people who are on the front lines of this pandemic,” said Crowley. “That we fight for them and make sure that they have the resources so that they can continue to do the great work that they’re doing.”

Crowley says if we want to have a healthy economy, we need to have a healthy community, so we need to have a way to keep offering essential services in our county.