Archive for July 29th, 2018

Harvey Fire Department news

Excerpts the ChicagoTribune.com:

The Harvey City Council unanimously approved a repayment agreement Monday with its police and fire pension funds, effectively resolving a months-long dispute over withheld state tax revenues that Harvey claimed had placed it on the brink of financial collapse and forced it to lay off 40 public safety workers.

The agreement, which apportions previously withheld and future tax revenues between the involved parties until the city’s debts are paid in full, resembles an interim pact reached last month as Harvey scrambled to make payroll and pay for essential services.

The Illinois Comptroller has withheld approximately $3.3 million in sales, income, local use, transportation, motor fuel, replacement and excise tax revenues from Harvey since February at the request of its police and fire pension funds. The funds, which claim the city is more than $23 million delinquent in combined pension payments to them, took advantage of a never-before-utilized state law that requires the comptroller to seize a municipality’s state tax revenues when it’s been certified delinquent in making required pension payments.

It wasn’t immediately clear whether the release of the withheld funds would enable Harvey to bring back any of the employees it let go in April. Multiple police sources said they had yet to hear anything from the city about it bringing back workers as a result of its pension funding agreement and expressed skepticism that it would happen.

According to the comptroller’s office, Harvey will receive about $1.65 million of the $3.3 million that had been withheld since February, with the remainder split between the police pension fund, the firefighters pension fund and a trustee for city bondholders. The trustee is further directed to pay a portion of the funds it receives to the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund and both public safety pension funds, according to the deal.

Going forward, the comptroller will distribute 35 percent of state tax revenues earmarked for Harvey to the police and fire pension funds until the debts owed to both funds are paid in full. It would take about six years before the city pays down the full $9 million owed to the police pension fund and even longer before it satisfies the firefighters’ $14.2 million claim, but expressed hope that the funds would eventually be made whole.

The deal also makes the pension funds responsible for appointing an actuary to ensure the tax levies used to fund them are set appropriately, because the city had under-levied previously.

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Mundelein Fire Department news

Excerpts from the Dailyherald.com:

Mundelein trustees have approved a plan to reserve land that one day could be the site of a new fire station in a heavily wooded area on the southeast side of the University of St. Mary of the Lake campus, just inside the main entrance on Route 176 and east of the Hawley Street split. 

The village board on Monday approved a letter of intent to lease the land from the Archdiocese of Chicago. The letter doesn’t commit the village to a lease or to building a new fire station. According to a joint statement from the university and the archdiocese, the university values its relationship with Mundelein and was glad to be able to accommodate the new fire station.

Both of Mundelein’s fire stations — the headquarters at 1000 N. Midlothian Road and a small station at 1300 S. Lake St. — are west of the Canadian National tracks that divide much of the town. Officials long have discussed building a fire station east of the tracks to be closer to residents and businesses in that part of town. 

Other possible sites for a third station that were discussed but rejected include the old village hall on Hawley Street and a former fire station on Seymour Avenue that’s now a public works facility.

The lease won’t cost the village anything right now. The deal gives Mundelein 30 rent-free months to examine the town’s fire safety needs, to ensure the location is the best spot for a station and to do financial analysis for the project.

If the village eventually builds a fire station on the property, rent will begin at $100,000 annually, according to the agreement. The rent may increase or decrease up to 5 percent annually based in inflation or deflation, the deal states.

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Mattoon Fire Department news (more)

Excerpts from jg-tc.com:

The Mattoon Fire Department’s ambulance service ended at the scheduled time of 7 a.m. Wednesday, and the two private services in Mattoon are now handling all of the local ambulance calls. City officials set the July 25 end date after the Mattoon City Council voted on July 18, 2017 to eliminate the fire department’s ambulance service as a cost-cutting measure.

Firefighters are disappointed that they will no longer be able to provide an ambulance service for Mattoon, however they appreciate that the city has opted to keep the fire department’s advanced life support equipment in operation.

Mattoon firefighters will no longer provide emergency medical transportation, but they will be dispatched to emergency scenes if an ambulance is not immediately available. Firefighters will be able to provide advanced life support care on scene if needed until an ambulance crew arrives to take the patient to the hospital.

Bart Owen, president of Mattoon Firefighters Local 691, said firefighters on Wednesday transferred advanced life support equipment from the department’s three former ambulances to three fire trucks. 

The two private services in operation in Mattoon are Mitchell-Jerdan Ambulance Service and Dunn’s Ambulance. Mitchell-Jerdan, based in Mattoon, has provided an ambulance since 1934. Dunn’s, based in Taylorville, has been operating in Mattoon since 2008. The fire department’s ambulance service started full time in 2011.

The city plans to keep the fire department’s three former ambulances in storage for the time being. The city and the firefighters union are still going through grievance processes regarding the ambulance service elimination and an arbitration process for completing a new contract.

City officials have said that the fire department’s ambulance service lost money and duplicated the work of private providers. The firefighters union countered that the department’s service generated needed revenue for the city and provided essential ambulance coverage for Mattoon.

thanks Dennis

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Tinley Park Fire Department history

This from Mike Summa:

Fort TBT- Truck 208 in Tinley Park was this 1968 IHC/? 0/0/65′ Snorkel.  Enjoy and comment.
Mike Summa
Tinley Park FD 656' Snorkel

Mike Summa photo

Tinley Park FD 656' Snorkel

Mike Summa photo

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