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Mattoon Fire Department news

Jan 17

Posted by Admin in Fire Department News | Comments off

Excerpts from jg-tc.com:

The city recently paid a total of $79,000 in compensatory damages to 32 current and retired firefighters in a Mattoon Fire Department staffing level case that began on Feb. 22, 2018, when the city and Mattoon Firefighters Association Local 691 were in arbitration on union claims that the city failed to maintain minimum staffing of 30 firefighters as required by contract.

Arbitrator Gill Vernon found on April 9, 2018, that the city had violated this requirement and ordered the city to bring staffing up to 30, from the low 20s. He also ordered the two parties to reach an agreement on a monetary penalty. The city and the union were unable to reach an agreement, and this dispute ultimately led to a hearing before Circuit Judge Matthew Sullivan on Dec. 3, 2019.

Sullivan granted the union’s motion for summary judgment and the arbitration award that Vernon had issued on June 17, 2019. This remedy included $79,000 in damages for distribution among all current and former firefighters who served at the time in question. The city also was ordered to pay $19,059 in attorney fees for the union, $9,225 in reimbursement for lost union dues, and $3,900 in arbitrator fees. The Mattoon City Council voted on Jan. 7 to pay the compensatory damages, which will be covered by the city’s insurance fund. 

Meanwhile, the Mattoon firefighters union awaits the scheduling of an Illinois Labor Relations Board hearing, the outcome of which could affect the upcoming arbitration session for a new collective bargaining agreement with the city. They have been operating under the previous contract, which expired on April 30, 2018.

The arbitration session will not be held until after the Illinois Labor Relations Board hears an appeal from the union about the board’s 2018 dismissal of an unfair labor practice against the city. The charge had alleged that the city engaged in unfair labor practices when it eliminated the Mattoon Fire Department’s ambulance service without providing notice to or bargaining with the union.

Arbitrator George Fitzsimmons ruled on April 18, 2018, in favor of the city’s plans to eliminate the Mattoon Fire Department’s ambulance service on July 25, 2018, as part of efforts to deal with city budget deficits. Mitchell-Jerdan Ambulance Service, a longtime provider in Mattoon, was part of the ambulance call rotation with the fire department’s service and is now the sole provider in town.

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Mattoon Fire Department news (more)

Mar 21

Posted by Admin in Fire Department News | 2 Comments

Excerpts from wandtv.com:

In less than a year, Mattoon has gone from three ambulance services to one. Now, the city council is placing a moratorium on a new service trying to come to town for up to the next six months.

The city pulled the fire department out of ambulance business in July 2018, citing budget issues. Last week, Dunn’s Ambulance Service announced it was leaving the city due to staffing issues. Mitchell-Jerdan is now the only ambulance provider left.

The local firefighters union is still trying to get the city to reconsider the ambulance service as they also negotiate a new labor contract. Union president Bart Owen says Mitchell-Jerdan has had issues fulfilling the need on its own in the past.

“It hate to say ‘wait and see’ again, but we’ll have to watch this,” Owen said. “We are not staffing [our ambulances]. They are in storage…they are technically still an option here. But we’re being told they’re not an option at this time.”

But the mayor and city council have remained firm: the city-run ambulance service was cost this city money and wasn’t viable long term.

“Do you want us to cut police officers?” asked city commissioner Preston Owen. “Do you want us to cut ambulance services duplicated? Do you want us to stop filling potholes? That’s the choice.”

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Mattoon Fire Department news (more)

Mar 15

Posted by Admin in Fire Department News | Comments off

Excerpts from jg-tc.com:

Taylorville-based Dunn’s Ambulance has given notice that it plans to close its Mattoon operation sometime on or before May 31, which would leave Mattoon based Mitchell-Jerdan Ambulance Service as the sole provider of ambulance services in Mattoon. Dunn’s has been operating in Mattoon since 2008 and has an ambulance station at 1821 Marshall Ave.

The city ended the Mattoon Fire Department’s ambulance service on July 25, but the department has retained advanced life support equipment on its fire trucks to provide backup service as needed. The fire department operated an advanced life support ambulance service from 2010 to 2018. City officials have said that the department’s ambulance service lost money and duplicated the work of private providers. Firefighters countered that their service generated needed city revenue and provided essential coverage for Mattoon.

Mitchell-Jerdan has increased its ambulance and staffing levels since the fire department’s ambulance service ended and it has provided backup for Dunn’s as needed. There have been a few instances in recent months of Charleston Fire Department ambulances needing to be dispatched to Mattoon for backup.

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Mattoon Fire Department news (more)

Oct 17

Posted by Admin in Fire Department News, Fire Service News | Comments off

Excerpts from jg-tc.com:

The Mattoon City Council voted Tuesday night to eliminate the city’s assistant fire chief position due to budgetary restraints and transfer the current assistant fire chief, Sean Junge, to fill a vacant shift captain post.

One council member said this post is being eliminated to help reduce the city’s budget deficit and to put another firefighter into the field to help meet union minimum staffing requirements. He and the mayor emphasized that the elimination has nothing to do with Junge who declined to comment after the meeting. The city administrator estimated that Junge’s annual salary will decrease by approximately 8 percent, not counting overtime, with the transfer to shift captain.

The council also heard concerns from residents about ambulance service coverage in Mattoon, including two accounts of Paris ambulances needing to be dispatched to Sarah Bush Lincoln Health Center to transfer patients to Carle Foundation Hospital in Urbana.

Four residents spokes about ambulance coverage in Mattoon since the city eliminated the Mattoon Fire Department’s ambulance service on July 25 due to budgetary constraints. Private providers Dunn’s Ambulance and Mitchell-Jerdan Ambulance Service are continuing to offer coverage in Mattoon.

The city has been making budget cuts as it faces a $750,000 deficit this year and the prospect of an even larger deficit next year. The city is facing growing pension costs and  expenses.

Residents who feel strongly about the ambulance issue were encouraged to form a committee to pursue a sales or property tax referendum for bringing back the fire department’s ambulance service.

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Mattoon Fire Department news

Oct 17

Posted by Admin in Fire Department News | 3 Comments

Excerpts from jg-tc.com:

The Mattoon city council is scheduled (Tuesday) tonight to consider eliminating the assistant fire chief position within the Mattoon Fire Department due to budgetary restraints.

The proposed ordinance also calls for restructuring the management of the fire department by transferring the assistant chief, currently Sean Junge, to fill a vacant shift captain position.

Regarding the budgetary restraints, the proposed ordinance states that the city approved a deficit budget for fiscal year 2018-19 and continues to make adjustments in an effort to reduce this deficit.

In addition, the proposed ordinance states that the city is in negotiations for a new contract with Mattoon Firefighters Local 691. The city is making efforts to comply with an arbitration ruling to return staffing levels to 30 firefighter bargaining members. Mattoon currently has 23 firefighters.

If Junge becomes a shift captain, he would be eligible to become a bargaining member of the firefighter union and would have to take a 15 percent reduction in salary if this change occurs.

The Mattoon firefighters posted a statement on their Facebook page that says the elimination of the assistant chief position puts “the community and our department in a more compromised position” and is “another direct attack on department staffing.

The statement indirectly referred to the city’s recent elimination of the Mattoon Fire Department’s ambulance service. City officials have said that this service was losing money as the city dealt with a budget deficit and that this service duplicated the work of existing private ambulance providers in Mattoon.

thanks Keith

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Mattoon Fire Department news

Sep 15

Posted by Admin in Fire Department News | Comments off

Excerpts from jg-tc.com:

The Mattoon Fire Department recently received a $200,000 federal grant that will enable it to replace all 30 of the aging air tank sets for the department’s firefighters. The Federal Emergency Management Agency awarded this grant through the Assistant to Firefighters program, and the grant was matched by $10,000 in city funding.

The grant funding arrived as one third of the department’s bottles are scheduled to retire at the beginning of 2019 and another third are set to expire at the beginning of 2020. Each new set of grant funded equipment will include two bottles, a harness, and a face mask. One feature of the new equipment will be a warning signal that indicates when 33 percent of the air supply is left, instead of the current signal at 25 percent.

In other matters, the department recently purchased a washing machine and a clothes drying cabinet for turnout gear with the help of a $15,700 small equipment grant from the Illinois State Fire Marshal’s Office. They installed the new cleaning equipment this week at the fire station annex building behind city hall.

The new equipment will enable firefighters to clean their own turnout gear on site without having to send it to a cleaning service. The washing machine can clean two sets of gear at a time.

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Mattoon Fire Department news (more)

Sep 2

Posted by Admin in Fire Service News | Comments off

Excerpts from wcia.com:

It’s been over a month since the fire department’s ambulance service ended. Now some families are feeling the effects of it.

When Jace MacDonald has a seizure, a response from emergency services can get tough for his family. Recently he had a seizure while they were running errands. His mother called for help. She stopped when she saw an ambulance. Two of them drove past her. Then she took matters into her own hands    

“We drove by Mitchell-Jerdan. [They] Didn’t haven’t any ambulances there. I took him to Mattoon Fire. I walked in with him postictal and they cared for him through his entire postictal phase. Monitoring his heart rate. His oxygen saturation.Stayed there unless I had to administer his emergency medication and were very very helpful,” says MacDonald.

Alissa MacDonald says she was grateful to those firefighters. She took her concerns to city council, hoping for sympathy or a solution; but, she says there was no response at all. 

“Their job on the city council is to represent the citizens of Mattoon and if a citizen of Mattoon comes with a legitimate concern and is respectful and professional I feel like it’s their obligation to express their concerns whether or not they agree with me, the fact that they didn’t have the decency to address me is horrific,”states MacDonald. 

We reached out the private ambulance services that have taken on the emergency calls. They say when they’re pulled away to transfer calls which takes away from responding locally. Those can take them as far as an hour or two away.

Still, MacDonald says the council should have been ready for it all. 

“They’re lack of preparation is not my emergency. It’s not my son’s emergency and I should not have to suffer the consequences. He certainly shouldn’t have to suffer the consequences because of their poor planning,” says MacDonald.   

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Mattoon Fire Department news (more)

Aug 25

Posted by Admin in Fire Department News | 2 Comments

Excerpts from jg-tc.com:

Nearly one month has passed since the city ended the Mattoon Fire Department’s ambulance service on July 25. The two private ambulance providers operating in Mattoon have been adding to their staff and fleets as they adjust to handling all of the calls for emergency medical services. The private providers have been assisted at times by the Mattoon Fire Department, which has retained its advanced life support equipment, and by the Charleston Fire Department’s ambulance service.

The number of calls for emergency medical services in Mattoon totals well more than 300 per month on average, according to fire department records. Fire Chief Tony Nichols said there were 13 times between July 25 and Aug. 18 that the Coles County 911 system needed to dispatch other ambulance services to help while the two private providers were busy with other calls.

The Mattoon Fire Department’s calls for backup included needing to use its advanced life support equipment at the scenes of two vehicle crashes and at one medical emergency. Charleston Fire Department ambulances transported three patients. Neoga or Sullivan ambulances were dispatched a total of three to four times, but were called off en route.

Ambulance providers in Mattoon are still helping transfer patients from Sarah Bush Lincoln Health Center to higher level trauma centers, although the health center also has Abbott EMS ambulances assist with transfers if available. 

Dunn’s has been keeping three ambulances in operation in Mattoon during peak hours from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. and two overnight. Their goal is to soon have three ambulances available 24 hours per day in Mattoon. They has been hiring more staff, but competition for applicants in the region has increased now that Abbott EMS is providing an ambulance service in Effingham and that Horizon Health’s Paris Community Hospital has started its own ambulance service.

Dunn’s and Mitchell-Jerdan are working together to try to ensure that there are always at least two ambulances available in Mattoon while still transferring patients for Sarah Bush Lincoln.

Resident Alissa MacDonald told the city council on Tuesday that her 22-month-old son, Jace, collapsed last weekend at home due to an epileptic seizure. MacDonald said she and her husband were already aware from the scanner that Mattoon had no available ambulances at the time and neither did Charleston. She said they later found out that the nearest available ambulance was 22 minutes away in Sullivan. MacDonald said she is a neonatal intensive care unit nurse and her husband is a critical care paramedic, so they were able to provide medical assistance for their child. However, she asked the council to consider what could happen to other families during such situations or to people in other emergencies, such as a shooting, if an ambulance is not readily available to help them.

“This town, in the wake of a school shooting (Sept. 20 at Mattoon High School), voted to move forward with eliminating the MFD ambulance system,” MacDonald said. “My own stepchildren were in that building last fall. And if God forbid they would have been injured, it would be my expectation that help be there immediately. One would think that after such a tragedy our city council would take action to increase safety in this city, not take it away.”

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Mattoon Fire Department news (more)

Aug 12

Posted by Admin in Fire Department News | 2 Comments

Excerpts from jg-tc.com:

Medical calls Thursday evening and an accident Friday afternoon resulted in Mattoon emergency personnel calling in ambulances from out of town for help with patient care and transport. This comes after the Mattoon Fire Department’s ambulance service ended July 25 in a move directed by the city council that drew criticism in the community. The council has cited budget concerns for the decision.

“We were short ambulances,” MFD Chief Tony Nichols said Friday. Thursday night, as well, a shortage of ambulances to cover Mattoon was seen, according to Nichols. “CFD had to come over cover for Dunn’s two times. They were both medicals. I don’t know the severity of them,” he said. “They did dispatch our ALS engines out. We were able to respond and start care until CFD arrived and then they took over.”

Greg Jerdan, owner of Mitchell-Jerdan Ambulance Service said finding personnel is not a problem for his service. “This morning for a couple-hour period we were down to one ambulance,” Jerdan said Friday. “We were fully staffed at that time. We are fully staffed and for the next coming two-week period in our staffing time we’re a minimum of two ambulances or three deep. “Today there was a two-hour period when we were down to one rig and on a rare occasion that’s what happens and that’s what did happen — that’s what mutual aid is for.”

Jerdan, said the auto accident occurred during a time when Mitchell-Jerdan was temporarily short staffed.

“We are not on 911 this week,” he said, explaining that this means Dunn’s is first to be called out for a 911 call on Mitchell-Jerdan’s off week, and vice versa. “Every other week is rotated between Dunn’s and us. We were only short-staffed for a period of a few hours under a rare situation (and) something happened beyond our control,” Jerdan said. “This is not a situation that is common. Since the City of Mattoon has gotten out of the ambulance business, I believe the events have been very calm and handled quite properly.”

“If it’s not going to be able to be handled (by two private ambulance services), then we have some options of either requiring a certain number of ambulances every day or opening up a third ambulance service,” City Administrator Kyle Gill said. “I hope this is just a growing pain. The ordinance that we passed does not say how many ambulances they have to run on a daily basis. It’s all on performance. Of course the less ambulances they have available, the performance is going to go down.”

“Some of the things that happened I’m still looking into,” he said. “The bad car accident … there was three people that needed to be transported so it took three ambulances, that way Charleston had to get pulled over. That’s not what we want to see happen of course. We don’t want that to continue.”

Mattoon emergency services requesting aid from other communities is not unprecedented.”There’s always been times when other agencies would come over even when we had three ambulances,” Gill said. “There are times when everything happens all at once; we just don’t want that to be a common occurrence.

Bart Owen, president of Mattoon Firefighters Local 691, said there is a need for more ambulances than are now running in Mattoon.

thanks Dennis

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Mattoon Fire Department news (more)

Jul 29

Posted by Admin in Fire Department News | 1 Comment

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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