Excerpts from foxillinois.com:
The Springfield Fire Department is restructuring its leadership after five chiefs announced their retirement. The city said these retirements happened to keep young cadets from being laid off.
The proposed budget anticipated retirements so that they could employ new firefighters, but if the retirements didn’t happen, the cadets would most likely not be able to take an official place in the workforce. Now the restructuring includes finding a new chief, which the mayor will appoint, and be moving the positions upward, including the trainees into full-time firefighters. There are nine cadets going through training.
Springfield’s Fire Chief Barry Helmerichs is retiring on April 6. He’s leaving along with four other chiefs. Chief Robert Marfell, Battalion Chief Raymond Gillespie, Battalion Chief Bill Carmean, and Chief Mark Hart. The retirements open over $500,000 in the department’s budget. It’s important to note, the chief said they aren’t leaving because of the budget. They say it was just their time to retire.
The city said, when it comes to the budget, they aren’t in the clear. There’s still a $2.5 million shortfall.
