Excerpts from theherald-news.com:
Joliet will not convert a damaged tower ladder into a quint, a move that was opposed by firefighter unions when it was proposed in February to control overtime costs. The Joliet City Council this week approved a new proposal to spend $85,000 to repair the damaged basket and keep it as a tower ladder. The 17-year-old tower ladder was damaged during a fire call on Christmas day. Formhals said it will eventually need to be replaced.
Firefighters, who packed a February council meeting when the quint plan was on the agenda, argued that the use of quints also reduces tools available to fight fires and are less effective. The conversion of the tower ladder to a quint would have cost $183,000.
Fire Chief Joseph Formhals had also proposed buying a demo-quint for $842,000 to replace the department’s one aging quint. He said the discussion with unions could continue until the next union contract talks. The contract runs through 2019. He had sought to reduce staffing requirements to cut back on overtime paid to compensate for staffing shortages.
#1 by Rich on May 5, 2018 - 7:07 PM
Also heard they sold truck 9. It was basically a brand-new truck. When they someone made a very big mistake. It’s to tall to downtown Joliet.
#2 by Jim S on May 5, 2018 - 4:28 PM
The chief wasn’t planning on replacing the “old aging quint”. He wanted to put the quint at station 1 downtown and staff it with 3 guys instead of having to staff an engine and a ladder with 6 guys. He wanted to cut staffing buy 3 more guys to help cut down on overtime cost. Just like they did at station 9 on the west side. Station 9 now runs the “old aging quint” with 3 guys instead of an engine and ladder with 6 like it was a few years ago. Again it was done to save on overtime cost. Also ambulance 9 is taken out of service to reduce overtime cost at times too. The mayor doesn’t want to hire the number of guys it actually takes to staff all the companies, then complains about the cost of overtime it takes to maintain staffing. Either hire more guys or stop complaining about paying the overtime.