The Joliet Fire Department is in the construction phase of a new station for Station 3.
Joliet Fire Station 3 at 319 Grove Road will be replaced when the new building is completed. Karl Klotz photo
The $1.6 million station — $1.1 million of which is from a federal grant – broke ground this winter on Laraway Road. When completed, it will replace the station at 319 Grove St.
The article is written around the fact that there are no women currently on the job in Joliet and that the new station will be one of three in the city with separate facilities to accommodate women on the job,
Rendering of the new station being built in Joliet for Station 3.
Joliet’s new Fire Station No. 3 will have something that the current station does not – separate locker room and bathrooms for women.
Joliet has never had any female firefighters, but Fire Chief Joe Formhals said that streak is not likely to last long.
“We’re going to get a woman on, it’s just a matter of when,” Formhals said. “You have to anticipate that. I don’t think we’re going to get 50 women all at once, but it will add a new dimension.”
Currently, about 200 people are on Joliet’s eligibility list and only four or five are women, Formhals said. When there is an opening, the department starts with candidates at the top of the list.
Formhals said the city hasn’t updated its eligibility list in years due to a virtual hiring freeze, but he hopes to create a new eligibility list and budget for new hires in 2012. More woman firefighter candidates could be picked up by requiring a paramedic certificate, Formhals said, adding the number of women in paramedic training programs are steadily increasing.
The complete article can be found HERE.
Thanks to Dennis McGuire, Jr. for spotting the article.
