Excerpts from theDailyHerald.com:

Fox River & Countryside Fire/Rescue District trustees were poised to bring on two new board members Thursday to help the district deal with some of the biggest changes its leadership has ever contemplated.

Trustees though accepted the resignation of Carl DeLeo, the district’s chief of operations and de facto chief. It was actually the third time DeLeo quit, according to Ken Shepro, the attorney for the fire district.

Trustees are expected to announced an interim chief possibly as soon as Friday … [and] a group of dozens of district residents put trustees on notice this week that they didn’t like DeLeo’s plans to convert the full-time staff into part-timers in an effort to save money and at least stall the need to ask residents for a tax increase.

The district has been running on a shoestring budget for many months. The district had only about $48,000 in reserves coming into the fiscal year. That total was bolstered by the sale of some rental property. But the one-time boost won’t be enough to sustain operations in the long term. Finances are so perilous that trustees have even contemplated what would happen if the district was forced to dissolve.

Three trustees interviewed replacements for former President Jim Gaffney and Terry Jeglum, who previously resigned. The interviews occurred in closed session. It appeared there were no more than three people interested in the trustee positions.

thanks Dan

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