Excerpts from rrstar.com:
The Loves Park city council is considering bolstering its volunteer fire department with a daytime crew the city hopes can improve response times that are twice those of the neighboring North Park Fire Protection District.
Loves Park’s approximately 35 volunteer firefighters now respond from their homes when calls come in, a practice fire officials say explains their slower response times. To cut down on the time it takes to reach a fire, the city will work toward having three firefighters, along with two supervisors, staff its 400 Grand Ave. station from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., perhaps as early as August.
The firefighters would be paid $12 to $20 an hour depending on their experience. Because they would average 28 hours a week, there would be no health insurance benefits to finance. The move would cost the city up to $200,000 annually.
A review of response times for the first three months of the year shows Loves Park’s average response time was 15.2 minutes, compared with 6 minutes for neighboring North Park, which covers the southern half of Machesney Park and portions of unincorporated Winnebago County. Response times didn’t differ much by time of day.
Hiring the day crew would increase the fire department’s annual budget by 33 percent, pushing it to $1 million a year.
They were 27 minutes to 7349 Chucks Way and 24 minutes to both 12414 Kings Point Dr. and 5625 Covey Ridge Trail.
The three-month review also showed the benefits of a new auto aid agreement struck in February between the Loves Park and North Park fire agencies. Average response times dropped to 13.3 minutes in March, compared with 17.6 minutes that same month of February and 15.3 minutes in January.
Even with the North Park partnership and the addition of a day crew, Loves Park’s logistics challenges will be far from over. The mayor wants the city to build a new fire station estimated to cost about $5 million to continue working on response times near Mercyhealth Sportscore Two and the Mercyhealth Hospital and Trauma Center under construction at the junction of East Riverside Boulevard and Interstate 90.
Because Loves Park doesn’t levy a property tax, its options for financing are limited to bonding or going to the voters for some form of tax revenues that would finance the construction.
