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Posts Tagged Fox River & Countryside Fire/Rescue District

Fox River and Countryside Fire Rescue District news (more)

Feb 7

Posted by Admin in Fire Department News | Comments off

From the Fox River & Countryside Fire/Rescue District website:

The Board of Trustees of the Fox River and Countryside Fire Rescue District have called for a special meeting on Monday March 6, 2017 at 630 pm. The meeting will be held as a Town Hall session focused on providing the district residents with information and facts about the pending referendum ballot question seeking an increase in the fire district tax levy. The goal of this meeting is to help residents understand the current condition of their fire department and exactly why this request is so important. Information provided will include important financial information about the fire district budget, the condition of the apparatus fleet and equipment and also an understanding of the department capabilities with regard to current staffing. In addition, residents will be able to compare the Fox River and Countryside Fire Rescue District levy against its neighboring fire agencies and how your fire district rating affects your homeowners insurance. Please attend this important meeting and bring a neighbor along with your questions and concerns. This Town Hall Meeting will be hosted at Fire Station 1, 34W500 Carl Lee Road

thanks Dan

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Fox River and Countryside Fire Rescue District news (more)

Feb 2

Posted by Admin in Fire Department News | 4 Comments

Excerpts from the DailyHerald.com:

Fox River & Countryside Fire/Rescue District officials on Monday continued preparations for an April tax increase referendum even while keeping one eye on the money vacuum a pending nearby drug treatment facility may pose. A financial presentation Monday night helped quantify the district’s push for more tax dollars.

At first glance, the district has about $1.4 million in reserves and $2.43 million coming in every year in property taxes. Add another $212,000 of ambulance fees with four months left in the district’s budget year, and everything seems to be on track. But the district gets most of its cash up front with the payment of property tax bills. The next four months will be almost a straight cash drain.

Vehicle maintenance costs have already surpassed this year’s budget. And that doesn’t factor in one of the district’s primary fire trucks going out of commission. The truck is still under warranty, barely, but the absent equipment highlights the fact that there isn’t any long-term financial plan to replace the truck or any of the other major apparatus in the department.

Fire Chief John Nixon and some of the district’s trustees plan to demonstrate the exact financial position of the district at a public information forum on the April referendum scheduled for 6:30 p.m., March 6, at the fire district station on Carl Lee Road.

Before that, on Feb. 9, fire district officials will hear the verdict of Kane County’s zoning board of appeals on the push to open a drug-treatment center just outside of Campton Hills. Fire district officials believe the facility will add a significant amount of new ambulance calls onto a staff that’s already been stretched to cut costs by shifting to some part-timers.

Ken Shepro, the fire district’s attorney, said he’s concerned that the zoning board would not accept information about how often the district believes calls to the drug treatment facility will leave half of residents with much longer response times.

“How many calls will we get? Well, we don’t know because every time we’d try to say during the hearing that (the drug treatment facility) was similar to something else they would say that wasn’t like what they were planning to do. We never really found out what they do plan on being like.”

Shepro said the zoning board also never got an answer as to what types of emergency calls the drug treatment facility will generate. Representatives of the facility testified there would be no calls to the facility that wouldn’t be typical for any other customer of the fire district.

The fire district faces a possible shake-up in representation as all three trustee seats on the April ballot are contested.

thanks Dan

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Fox River & Countryside Fire/Rescue District apparatus

Aug 24

Posted by Admin in Ambulance photos, Fire Truck photos | 3 Comments

From Josh Boyajian:

Fox River & Countryside Fire/Rescue District ambulance

Josh Boyajian photo

Fox River & Countryside Fire/Rescue District fire engine

Josh Boyajian photo

Fox River & Countryside Fire/Rescue District tanker

Josh Boyajian photo

Fox River & Countryside Fire/Rescue District brush truck

Josh Boyajian photo

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New engine for the Fox River Countryside FPD

Jun 5

Posted by Admin in Fire Department News, Fire Truck photos, New Delivery | 11 Comments

This from Josh Boyajian:

Fox River-Countryside Fire Protection District – Wayne, Campton Hills, & St. Charles (Unincorporated) Illinois
Engine 1811 – 2013 Spartan MetroStar/2016 Alexis 1500/1000
Fox River Countryside Fire Rescue District

Fox River-Countryside Fire Protection District – Wayne, Campton Hills, & unincorporated St. Charles, Engine 1811 – 2013 Spartan MetroStar/2016 Alexis 1500/1000. Josh Boyajian photo

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Fox River & Countryside Fire/Rescue District news (more)

Feb 25

Posted by Admin in Fire Department News | 1 Comment

Excerpts from the KaneCountyChronicle.com:

The Fox River and Countryside Fire Protection District voted unanimously Monday to reject an offer from representatives of an alcohol and drug treatment center to accept $50,000 in three installments as part of an agreement to drop its opposition.

“This does not even come close to covering what our expenses are for our citizen,” trustee Chuck Dunham said.

Maxxam Partners LLC sought the special use permit to convert the former Glenwood School for Boys, at 41W400 Silver Glen Road, into a 120-bed private pay, luxury treatment center. Maxxam petitioner Steven Marco and attorney Keith Brown made the offer at the fire district’s regular board meeting. Brown said the petitioner would also pay all ambulance and fire calls to the facility. Marco said the private, for-profit facility would be very exclusionary, not taking clients who are very ill to ensure consistency of care.

Maxxam’s petition was recently recommended to be denied by the Kane County Zoning Board of Appeals and the Kane County Development Committee. Officials said they expected the issue to go before the county board for final action.

Public comment at the meeting sought the fire district’s opposition, out of concern for additional ambulance calls to the facility could jeopardize residents if they have to wait for mutual aid when they have a medical emergency.

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Fox River & Countryside Fire/Rescue District news (more)

Feb 16

Posted by Admin in Fire Department News | 2 Comments

Excerpts from the KaneCountyChronicle.com:

The Fox River and Countryside Fire/Rescue District Board voted recently to have some firefighters work part time and some remain full time. Board President Robert Handley said nine of the 24 firefighters will work part time, and 15 will be full time through the contract with Public Safety Services Inc. Part time means 30 hours a week instead of 40 for the full-time firefighters, Handley said. The board moved to a part-time model to save money.

“We decided to transition it … to less guys over a period of time,” Handley said. “It’s what our captains were comfortable with at this point.” He said the rough estimate of savings is $60,000 to $70,000.

After Fire Chief Carl DeLeo resigned recently, two captains are handling the chief’s responsibilities until a new chief can be hired, Handley said.

Handley said the district has to be able to set money aside to pay for equipment that needs to be replaced and the district likely will ask voters for a tax increase in April 2017.

“We’ll see how that floats with the residents,” Handley said. “We want to see how we shake out financially.”

At its January meeting, about 60 people packed the fire district’s board meeting to protest the part-time plan. Some criticized the board for not trying again on the primary ballot. A previous referendum request in April 2015 failed.

Two firefighters left when officials announced the move to have nine firefighters be part time.

“We lose guys all the time, because our pay is not where everyone else’s pay is,” Handley said “They work for us at $45,000 [a year], when they can go to St. Charles and make $75,000 to $80,000.”

Handley said most firefighters were happy to hear not all were going to go part time.

“I’m cautiously optimistic, but I think we are going to be OK,” Handley said. “We’ve got a great group of guys who are loyal and committed. I just wish we could pay them more.”

The board also accepted the appointments of Carl Herout and Tom Mullenhauer to fill the board vacancies.

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Fox River & Countryside Fire/Rescue District news (more)

Feb 5

Posted by Admin in Fire Department News | 3 Comments

Excerpts from TheDailyHerald.com:

Fox River & Countryside Fire/Rescue District trustees Thursday night voted in a partial, part-time staffing model for fire and ambulance service. The staffing change appeared to be a compromise between what district trustees think may be needed to keep the lights on and what residents told trustees they would not accept at a recent meeting. Trustees had originally planned to implement an all part-time staff. Instead, they converted only some of the rescue staff to part-time status.

The district contracts out with a private company for fire and ambulance staffing. Moving forward, that staffing will see five people, one captain and four firefighter/paramedics at each of the district’s stations around the clock. That staff will be augmented by no fewer than three part-time employees. Those part-time employees will have all the same training as the full-time staff. Many of them will be full-time firefighter/paramedics at other area departments.

“This will save us money, but not as much as we had hoped,” said district President Bob Handley. “It’s a stopgap measure.”

With less savings, Handley said the district will seek a tax increase referendum, most likely in April 2017. If the tax increase request fails, as have all the district’s recent tax increase attempts, Handley said the next step would be implementing a completely part-time staff.

The staffing vote followed the appointment of two new trustees. Carl “Rudy” Herout and Tom Mollenhauer fill the slots recently vacated by the resignations of Trustee Terry Jeglum and former district President Jim Gaffney.

Trustees also announced they will appoint two existing staff members as interim co-chiefs while they begin the search for a new, full-time fire chief.

More updates on the Fox River & Countryside Fire/Rescue District can be found HERE

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Fox River & Countryside Fire/Rescue District chief resigns

Jan 29

Posted by Admin in Fire Department News | Comments off

Excerpts from theDailyHerald.com:

Fox River & Countryside Fire/Rescue District trustees were poised to bring on two new board members Thursday to help the district deal with some of the biggest changes its leadership has ever contemplated.

Trustees though accepted the resignation of Carl DeLeo, the district’s chief of operations and de facto chief. It was actually the third time DeLeo quit, according to Ken Shepro, the attorney for the fire district.

Trustees are expected to announced an interim chief possibly as soon as Friday … [and] a group of dozens of district residents put trustees on notice this week that they didn’t like DeLeo’s plans to convert the full-time staff into part-timers in an effort to save money and at least stall the need to ask residents for a tax increase.

The district has been running on a shoestring budget for many months. The district had only about $48,000 in reserves coming into the fiscal year. That total was bolstered by the sale of some rental property. But the one-time boost won’t be enough to sustain operations in the long term. Finances are so perilous that trustees have even contemplated what would happen if the district was forced to dissolve.

Three trustees interviewed replacements for former President Jim Gaffney and Terry Jeglum, who previously resigned. The interviews occurred in closed session. It appeared there were no more than three people interested in the trustee positions.

thanks Dan

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Fox River & Countryside Fire/Rescue District news (more)

Jan 27

Posted by Admin in Fire Department News | 2 Comments

Excerpts from the KaneCountyChronicle.com:

About 60 people packed the Fox River and Countryside Fire Protection District meeting Monday to state their concerns with a staffing plan they said would result in fewer full-time firefighters and possibly longer response times.

Paul Ross, formerly a captain on the department, chastised the board for considering such a plan and said firefighters were concerned about losing medical coverage, sick and vacation days, retirement benefits and seniority.

“As I began to see the shortcomings in his [Fire Chief Carl DeLeo] proposed plan, I offered suggestions to try to mitigate the concerns that I, and other officers, had, as well as serious safety issues with regards to potential staffing and future response capabilities, … Make no mistake, you are about to lay off 18-plus employees who have families to support,” Ross said.

Ross said during his last several years with the district, his duties included hiring all part-time staff to supplement the full-time members. “The department has a 75 percent turnover rate for part time staff and today, after employing 50-plus part-time members, we have nine that are still with the department,” Ross said.

District resident Julie Riffle of Campton Hills criticized the board for suggesting to pay firefighters “less than someone working at McDonald’s.”

Board President Bob Handley said the part-time staffing model was necessary because the district had to cut costs by $200,000 to $300,000, and the staffing model proposed for the Fox River district is the same one used by Pingree Grove, McHenry, Evergreen Park and McHenry.

“This model is not going to leave the distrcit any less safe,” Handley said.

thanks Dan

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Fox River & Countryside Fire/Rescue District news

Dec 17

Posted by Admin in Fire Department News | 4 Comments

Excerpts from theDailyHerald.com:

The Fox River & Countryside Fire/Rescue District barely mustered a quorum Monday night, with three trustees in attendance, to make the decision not to hold a March referendum.

The trustees terminated a contract with the district’s fire and ambulance service provider, Public Safety Systems, Inc. Fire Chief Carl DeLeo and the trustees confirmed the district will convert to a part-time fire and ambulance staff. A similar operating model exists in other nearby departments like Pingree Grove and Huntley. DeLeo said the fire district can save up to $300,000 a year with the change. If the savings are true, trustees said they may forgo their next shot at putting a tax increase question on the ballot next November.

Trustees and Ken Shepro, the district’s attorney, debated a resolution opposing the pending drug and alcohol treatment center that wants to be at the former Glenwood School property just outside of Campton Hills. Shepro told trustees he expects the facility will generate “a couple hundred ambulance calls” a year. That would be a burden not anticipated for the district’s aging equipment. Jim Gaffney, who resigned as president of the district in October, said the calls from the new treatment center would fund the purchase of a new ambulance if the emergency call volume hit Shepro’s expectations.

Trustees said they planned to attend the public hearing on the treatment center with the Kane County Zoning Board of Appeals later Monday night.

thanks Dan

Click the link for a reference to many previous posts on budget and staffing issues for the Fox River & Countryside FPD

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