The Lake County News-Sun has an article about the North Chicago Fire Department receiving approval for a new ambulance.
Dell Urban, the first full-time female career fire chief in Lake County, was formally appointed to the post in August 2012. … the council voted this week to unanimously approve requests, including a new ambulance and an increase in the department’s number of lieutenants from six to seven … When Urban, 44, took over the department which hired her in 1991 as its first female firefighter paramedic, her crew numbered 25. By next month, sworn officers will total 34.
Urban on Monday, Oct. 7, asked [for] and received a reversal on a 2011 council decision to decrease by one the number of department lieutenants which, she said, caused an imbalance of command staff on work shifts. “Now we’ll have a shift commander, lieutenant and nine paramedic/firefighters on each shift,” she said.
The increase in personnel came after the department, under Urban, landed $832,741 in Federal Emergency Management Agency funds to hire six trained “front-line” firefighters. The grant pays the first two years of salary for the new hires.
Urban is also psyched about the approval for the purchase of a new, $140,000 [ambulance], a replacement for one of the department’s three.
The council also approved, … a tentative intergovernmental agreement that will allow the department to bill for mutual aid ambulance calls. The agreement, which must also be approved by participating departments in Gurnee, Waukegan, Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin, Winthrop Harbor, Zion, and the Newport and Beach Park fire protection districts, will allow for billing at the home community’s rate. In North Chicago, that’s $400 for basic first aid service and $900 … for advanced life support
