The former Chicago Ridge Tower 6504 (2001 E-ONE Hurricane 2250/300 95′ tower ladder) that was previously sold off with two engines is in a new home in Dauphin, Manitoba. Dauphin Truck 12 was repainted with a white roof.
Scott Wilkes photo
Scott Wilkes photo
Scott Wilkes photo
Dauphin FD Truck 12 is former Chicago Ridge Tower 6504. Scott Wilkes photo
Scott Wilkes photo
Scott Wilkes photo
Scott Wilkes photo
Russell Pelletier photo
Excerpts from the reporteronline.com:
The Chicago Ridge village board voted unanimously to approve a three-year contract on Aug. 15 with firefighters.
“Because of the very positive labor/management relationship, we were able to negotiate a three-year extension of the current contract,” said Fire Chief George Sheets. So the new agreement will be in effect through 2020.
“This contract was negotiated by labor and management, and without attorneys. This alone, saved the Chicago Ridge taxpayers thousands of dollars,” he said.
International Association of Firefighters Local 3098 Union President Chris Schmelzer, who has held that position since 2000, said in a prepared statement that this negotiation was the most amicable, most productive, and least stressful I have ever been a part of.
He said the agreement represents cooperation between labor and management on a scale that we have never enjoyed. He said it literally has something for everyone, and will allow firefighters to serve the residents and visitors to Chicago Ridge for years to come, all while maximizing the productivity of the fire department as a whole.
In a related matter later in the meeting, the board also approved the purchase of a replacement ambulance, a 2016 Ford F450 Demo.
Chicago Ridge Q6504 – 2015 E-ONE Typhoon 2000/500 78′ HP78. Drew Gresik photo
Chicago Ridge Ambulance 6502 – 2014 IHC/Road Rescue. Drew Gresik photo
May 12
From the Fire Service, Inc. FaceBook page
New E-ONE HP78 Typhoon for Chicago Ridge. Fire Service, Inc. photo
Fire Service, Inc. photo
Fire Service, Inc. photo
Fire Service, Inc. photo
Mar 26
This from Ron Wolkoff:
chicago ridge E-One HP-78 Aerial
E-ONE HP78 quint for Chicago Ridge. EONE photo
Excerpts from a Southtown Star article about changes in Chicago Ridge:
For the first time in many years, the Lombard Avenue fire station in Chicago Ridge soon will be staffed with full-time firefighters and also will provide ambulance service, now that the village and fire union have agreed to hire several part-time firefighters.
The agreement means the station, 10658 Lombard Ave., will be staffed at all times by two full-time firefighter/paramedics, starting in about three weeks, along with a yet to be determined number of part-timers, who also must be certified as paramedics. Sheets said response times for calls east of Ridgeland Avenue will be shorter through the new staffing at the Lombard Avenue station, which for years has not been manned.
Fire Chief George Sheets said using part-timers will enable the village to provide better fire and emergency medical services that it otherwise could not afford while also give the fire department more flexibility in handling multiple calls.
Chicago Ridge has 13 full-time firefighter/paramedics with a median salary of $65,000, and using part-timers will be much more cost-effective because of reduced overtime and … not paying health benefits and pensions.
The staffing of the Lombard Avenue station means the fire department will have two stations operating. The other station, 10063 Virginia Ave., opened in 2009.
thanks Dan
An article in the Reporteronline looks describes current challenges with the Chicago Ridge Fire Department:
The Chicago Ridge Fire Department remains at odds with village officials over a variety of hot-button issues including what the firefighters union describes as a “staffing crisis.”
“We are currently faced with more issues than I care to count,” Chris Schmelzer, president of the Chicago Ridge Firefighter’s Union, wrote in an Dec. 13 email to Trustee Bruce Quintos obtained Monday by the Reporter.
“First on the list is the absolutely outlandish possibility of staffing a second station using only current personnel resources. To staff a firehouse with two people is unsafe, reduces services to the entire town, and just simply doesn’t make sense,” Schmelzer wrote.
In an interview Monday, Schmelzer said poor communication between Fire Chief George Sheets and the firefighters remains a serious problem. “There is no communication. We’re coexisting. We’re doing things under threat of discipline,” said Schmelzer, who added the teamwork that existed at the house has transformed into a ”dictatorship.”
Mayor Chuck Tokar said Monday that plans to reopen the Lombard Avenue fire station by Christmas have been delayed until the end of January. But he contends that the decision is a good one. The station will be open 12 hours a day during the period that the fire department receives the most calls, Tokar said.
The decision to reopen the Lombard station was made because it is located closer to the village’s residential area than the fire station in the village’s industrial park. Additionally, providing ambulance service from the Lombard Station would reduce the number of times service is provided by neighboring communities—a service for which residents must pay, Tokar said.
But union officials said there are drawbacks to the plan to decrease response times. “While some residents may see a short decrease in response times for an ambulance, under the new plan, fire protection is eliminated within the entire town every time we get an ambulance call. “The new plan calls for two ambulances to respond to every call, reducing fire response within the village by 100 percent. Nobody is left to answer the next call,” Schmelzer wrote in his email. “To blindly place all of the village’s already limited resources into an ambulance response is short-sighted at best.”
He added that two firefighters who retired in 2014 and were not replaced, a move that places a strain on the department.
“We run with a four-person minimum per shift, as anything less than that would be unsafe, according to all applicable consensus standards, past practice and common sense. Two of the three shifts are currently staffed with four people, creating overtime whenever a member is off,” he said.
“With all but one member having over 10 years seniority on the department and having the commensurate accrued time off, someone is scheduled off the majority of the time. On these shifts, overtime is created every single time someone is off,” Schmelzer said.
“Don’t believe everything that you hear,” he said, adding that decisions regarding the fire department with “the input and cooperation of the union.” “I understand the union’s position, but I represent the taxpayers of Chicago Ridge,” Tokar said.
The union also has issues with the village’s recent decision to purchase a quint, a fire apparatus that has a pump, water tank, fire hose, aerial device and ground ladders.
Purchase of the quint led the fire department to remove from the fleet an aerial truck and two pumper trucks, one that is badly rusted and requires significant repair, Sheets said. Those vehicles will be sold and the proceeds will be used to help pay for the quint, he said. The quint will cost $685,000, which will be offset by the $250,000 the village expects to receive for the sale of the three vehicles it is removing from the fleet. A $350,000 state loan could be used to pay for the bulk of the balance, Sheets said.
“To spend three quarters of a million dollars on a vehicle that will, according to the new response plan issued by the department, only be staffed with two people seems like an improper use of resources,” Schmelzer said.
thanks Dan
Oct 30
The Reporteronline.net has an article about the new Chicago Ridge fire chief introducing a quint to Chicago Ridge as he did in Oak Lawn:
Chicago Ridge Fire Chief George Sheets promised to improve efficiencies when he took control of the department in July and he’s wasted little time working toward that goal. Sheets outlined a plan at Tuesday’s village board meeting designed to reduce by 50 percent the department’s vehicle maintenance budget by upgrading the fleet of trucks.
The department currently spends about $60,000 to maintain 11 vehicles … He maintains that figure is too high considering that the Oak Lawn Fire Department has a $50,000 maintenance budget for 18 vehicles. Sheets knows that first-hand because he also serves as fire chief in Oak Lawn.
Sheets called for Chicago Ridge officials to purchase a quintuple combination pumper, or quint, an apparatus that serves the dual purpose of an engine and ladder truck.
“It combines several vehicles into one,” said Sheets, who added that the truck features that latest technology tools used in firefighting.
The vehicle does not come cheap. Sheets estimated that a demo unit would cost the village about $650,000. But state or federal grants could help offset the cost, he said. The village board did not approve a purchase, as some trustees expressed a desire to see the quint up close. Sheets, however, was authorized to negotiate a deal for the truck with the manufacturer. The chief told the trustees that a 4 percent increase in the purchase price of a quint is expected soon. He added that demo models do not stay on the market for long because of the discounted price.
“We need to consolidate some of the apparatuses,” Sheets said. “It will make us more efficient. Vehicle maintenance costs can’t continue to escalate.” Specifically, Sheets proposed removing from the fleet an aerial truck and two pumper trucks, one that is badly rusted and requires significant repair. Sheets said he was offered $164,000 for the three trucks, but is holding out for more.
In September … after learning that the firefighters responded to 86 [false alarms] in 2013 [he] called for stiffer penalties and increasing fines 300 percent. He said that a village ordinance lacked the teeth to reduce false alarms. The ordinance required business owners to pay $25 for each false alarm beginning with the seventh call. The fee is now $100 beginning with the second false alarm, Sheets said.
Sheets also recommended an increase in the ambulance rate after realizing that the village’s rate was one of the lowest in the region. The fee had not been increased in six years.
For the finest department portraits and composites contact Tim Olk or Larry Shapiro.
