Dennis McGuire, Jr. found an article discussing a possible merger of sorts between three suburban fire and police departments.
La Grange officials voiced unanimous support to pursue a program of shared services with Western Springs and LaGrange Park in the first of three presentations Sept. 26 on the concept.
The study, sponsored by the Metropolitan Mayors and Managers Caucus and funded in part by a grant, was designed to examine similarities between the three villages regarding community characteristics and public safety operations.
The three towns have very similar populations, number of square miles and financial resources. Differences lie in emergency services with LaGrange Park and Western Springs employing paid, on-call firefighters and a private paramedic service, compared to La Grange, which has full-time firefighters.
The project also identified opportunities to share public safety services and made seven recommendations in a three-phase approach, beginning with combining emergency dispatch services.
The analysis of calls for emergency services suggests the total call volumes could be met from a single dispatch center with a potential savings of three full-time and four part-time workers. Other communities may be invited to join the system in time.
Departments could also share a record and reporting system.
Fire department trucks could be shared, and police services could be combined with overlapping responsibility between the communities for the supervising shift sergeant. Eventually, policing districts within and between the communities could be consolidated into larger ones.
Read the complete article from TheDoingsWestern Springs HERE.
