Excerpts from the kcchronicle.com:
In its fifth attempt to pass a referendum, the Fox River & Countryside Fire/Rescue District is seeking voter approval in the March 20 primary election of a 16-cent increase that would hike the fire district’s current rate to 43 cents from 27 cents per $100 of equalized assessed value, providing about $1 million more per year to the agency. If it does not pass, fire officials said the district will be forced to rotate closure of its two stations in order to save money.
The district covers 38 square miles and serves about 25,000 residents in Campton Hills, Wayne and St. Charles townships in Kane and DuPage counties.
During the last election cycle in 2017, when the public voted down the tax increase, Doreen Anderson didn’t vote. But these days, she has a vote yes sign in her yard.
Wayne resident Michael Schulz said he will vote no again, that the district threatened to close stations in the last two failed referendum requests. “Not anything has changed,” Schulz said. “This referendum is the fire district just trying another tactic in order to persuade taxpayers to pony up their hard-earned income to make up for their sins and mistakes from the very start of putting together this fire district.”
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#1 by Austin on March 7, 2018 - 10:47 AM
This department is a joke. They refuse to listen to the residents who never wanted this to begin with, and that will always be their problem. They just don’t know what they are doing, and if they say our equipment is old and falling apart I’ll scream. The front line apparatus is no older than 2010, and have some reserve stuff from the 90’s. All of their neighbors still have front line apparatus from late 90’s and into the naughts. Yet they don’t complain about the state of their equipment. They slowly buy new stuff when they have the money, not demand a referendum. I am a bit amazed they would be allowed to shut a station down. Say if they kept the one open by South Elgin and closed Campton Hills, it would be around a 15 mile drive from that station to the edge of the district.
I think they need to seriously consider dissolving and the two existing stations can go to presumably St. Charles for Campton Hills and the one by South Elgin be taken over by them. Another thing is Campton Hills should look into starting their own department. It is a town of nearly 13,000 people. When it was founded in 2007 one of the arguments was to be independent and offer services that people usually go to St. Charles for, or rely on for (fire department). They have their own police force, why not fire?