Excerpts from MySuburbanLife.com:
The Geneva-based law firm Griffin William LLP is preparing revamped language for the Fox River and Countryside Fire/Rescue District’s tax levy increase request. It possibly could be used on the March 15 primary ballot, said Jim Gaffney, the district’s board president.
Board members at their next meeting Monday plan to review and discuss the language legal counsel have prepared if it is ready by that time. The public meeting will begin no earlier than 7 p.m. Monday in the district’s Station 3, 34W500 Carl Lee Road, St. Charles, or immediately after the conclusion of a 6:30 p.m. special meeting if it runs long.
The district wants to propose that its current tax rate increase over time from about 28 cents – 28 cents per $100 of assessed valuation – to 51 cents, Gaffney said. The increase still would leave the fire district with one of the lower rates in the area.
Voters defeated the district’s previous rate hike request by a 3-1 margin in April, according to election records. The district has not replaced three full-time firefighter/paramedics who left to work elsewhere, leaving a total of 21 firefighters. Gaffney said the district also has had to move up a reserve fire engine to active status because it is deferring equipment replacement.
An approved referendum would allow the district to buy more equipment and pay its firefighters higher wages since they are paid less relative to other area districts, Gaffney said.
“If we don’t get the referendum passed in March, there’s going to be more cutbacks to the fire department,” Gaffney said.
The district serves 25,000 residents across 38 square miles that include Wayne, Campton Hills and St. Charles Township.
The full series of posts on this topic can be found HERE
#1 by ffpm571 on August 27, 2015 - 7:02 PM
Bye bye Greg, you have been replaced.. Note DeLeo is only the Chief of Operations. Gaffney is still running his little play kingdom.. http://www.kcchronicle.com/2015/08/26/fox-river-fire-district-announces-chiefs-retirement-replacement/a990zzk/?t=Fox+River+fire+district+announces+chief%E2%80%99s+retirement%2C+replacement
#2 by Austin on August 27, 2015 - 5:09 PM
I am perplexed by the claim they have to move up a reserve engine. I use to live a mile from station 1. When the department started they bought 2 or 3 new Alexis engines, and just bought a new Alexis engine. Are they replacing the refurb Alexis engine they have? They really should have just stayed with St. Charles.
#3 by cmk420 on August 27, 2015 - 12:35 PM
21 firefighter/paramedics?? For three shifts and two stations?? That’s barely enough for three guys and each station, plus a battalion chief/shift commander (if they still do that). It is all jump companies now? I know, in other articles here, it was said that all the part-time/poc staff was let go–is that still true?
Also, what happened that they had to move a reserve engine up to front-line status? What happened to one of their front-line engines? And where does that leave their apparatus compliment at?
Sounds like things are not going the way they had, at all, planned when it was started several years ago.
#4 by ffpm571 on August 26, 2015 - 10:04 PM
This article is a bid misleading. The District does not pay the Firefighters. The contract company pays them. So in turn the district would have to increase their payment to PSI to cover the increase of salary. Keep hiring those fresh out of the academy and medic school kids and life long contract rats who cant get hired anywhere else and pay them barely a living wage and low rent benefits and see what you get.