Excerpts from the ChicagoTribune.com:
The South Elgin and Countryside Fire Protection District has an ambulance it isn’t using and is looking to sell.
The Elgin Community College’s Public Safety Training Center, now under construction near Burlington off Plank Road, would like to have an ambulance for training emergency medical technicians and others how to work in real-world conditions.
Now, the two sides are looking at whether or not the South Elgin fire district can donate the ambulance to the college. The fire district board has expressed interest in the trade but wants something for the taxpayers in return, said Fire Chief Bill Sohn.
The ambulance still has some value, Sohn said. He has gotten estimates that the ambulance is worth $5,000 to $9,000.
There have been preliminary discussions between representatives from the college, the Elgin Community College Foundation and the fire board.
A former firefighter paramedic, Dan Walter, one of the foundation board members said he remembers classes in emergency rooms and classrooms in the 1970s but rarely getting time working in an actual ambulance. The Elgin Community College paramedic program often borrows ambulances from other departments in the district but does not have one available for use.
As it is now, there is no location at the college to store an ambulance, said Carl DeCarlo, director of the fire science program at ECC. That will change when the public safety center opens.
The 18,300-square-foot academic building is set to open in spring or early summer 2016. It includes an 11,900-square-foot apparatus building, including classrooms and two bays for training on fire and police equipment, a three-story burn tower used for simulating residential and commercial fires, and other training amenities.
Sohn suggested that if the school would waive some rental time on the training tower — while still having the fire district pay the instructor — that would be a win-win for taxpayers in the fire and college district.
An area veterinarian has also shown interest in the ambulance, Sohn said.
“I would rather get it for the use at ECC,” said fire board trustee Joe Cluchey. But the fire district also needs to make sure taxpayers are getting fair market value out of the deal.
The Elgin Community College representatives said they would bring the proposal back to officials at the school.
The board also approved the 2015 tax levy of $5.7 million. The levy represents a 1.7 percent increase over the previous levy, said Steve Wascher, assistant fire chief.
thanks Dan
