Excerpts from the DailyHerald.com:
South Elgin and Countryside Fire Protection District voters Tuesday approved borrowing $10 million to build two new fire stations. They also agreed to increase taxes to pay for more staff and equipment.
Voters faced two referendum questions — one asking permission to borrow money and the other seeking a hike in the fire district property tax levy to create an emergency and rescue fund to pay for additional firefighters and equipment.
With all 23 precincts reporting, 2,139 voted in favor of the tax increase and 1,479 against; 2,177 voted in favor of borrowing money and 1,401 voted against, in unofficial vote totals.
The building loan will increase the tax bill by $62.58 a year for a home valued at $200,000, according to district officials. The emergency/rescue fund tax will add another $66.67 to that home’s tax bill.
The 24-square-mile district has fire stations at 150 W. State St. and 2055 McDonald Road, and employs 30 full-time firefighters/paramedics and 10 part-timers.
The two new stations will be built at 498 South Elgin Blvd. and at 1090 Spring St. The latter will replace the State Street station in downtown South Elgin that also houses the district’s administrative offices.
The district would hire at least nine more full-time firefighters and more part-timers.
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#1 by Tyler on March 22, 2018 - 9:24 AM
Michael, You are correct. South Elgin’s Fire District will be placing an Engine/Ambulance at Station 23 which is directly underneath the water tower on South Elgin Blvd/ Raymond St. on the east side of the Fox river and Freight train tracks.
Station 21’s existing fire station will be moved into a new building closer to the center of town at 1090 Spring St where a new Headquarters station is going to be built to house Engine and Tower/ambulance jump crew… and possibly a Battalion later down the road.
Drawings for the stations are here- http://www.southelginfire.com/referendum-information.html
Station 22 will remain the same with Engine and Ambulance/Tender Jump crew.
With the village growing, SE has housing developments and even more nursing homes being built in the very near future- three fire stations have divided up the district to make for a well thought out future…
#2 by Michael M on March 22, 2018 - 8:07 AM
It looks like the new station for South Elgin will be near the South Elgin High School. Since South Elgin has Stations 21 and 22, I am guessing the new Station will be 23?
I still wonder with Fox River not passing if the state Fire Marshall will ultimately come in and break up the district and give South Elgin the station in Valley View off of RTE 25? If that happens, would that become Station 24?
Why doesn’t Campton Hills just form their own Fire Department? They did have to establish their own Police Department. Hell they would already have a building. Hard to imagine a town of 11,000 people not needing some sort of fire protection.