Somerset PD prepares for tubing season

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For the past eight years the Somerset Police Department has worked with local tubing establishments to determine when to beef up patrol along the Apple River.

Somerset Police Chief Doug Briggs said the added patrol comes out of the tubing business owners’ pockets.

“Each year the tubing establishments get together and determine their busy time at the take-out points in the village. They then request two officers to staff these areas and they pay the village for the cost of these officers,” he said.

Briggs said the police department will be staffing this request on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays this year.

In addition to providing added service to residents and visitors, Briggs says the most significant part of this agreement is the cooperation between the private businesses and the village.

He said Somerset’s police and business cooperation has been used as an example for other cities in the tubing industry.

“I have had phone calls on how we do this from other places that do tubing or are thinking of starting it,” he said.

Somerset Fire Rescue Chief Travis Belisle says while his department doesn’t staff a crew every weekend of the tubing season, the department does staff a crew on some Saturdays or summer holidays when the weather and tubing traffic increases.

“This way we keep our costs down by just paying a primary crew and not 10-15 members who show up for each run,” he said. “We end up providing the residents of Somerset an even faster response because we are on call at our station. This has been a practice for us for as long as I remember and both saves us money and guarantees an available crew.”

Tags: communities, wisconsin, somerset