This from the DesPlaines Valley News

McCook will ask voters this month to disband the village’s fire department and join the Pleasantview Fire Protection District.

“Because we have so little retail and we are stuck with an industrial tax base, we are no longer able to support a fire department,” said Jeff Tobolski, mayor of the village which has a population of only 228 as of the 2010 census.  Tobolski said the village has been managing a deficit of about $1.5 million for a number of years, but efforts to increase the retail base failed when Walmart pulled out of a plan a few years ago to build a Sam’s Club in town, which would have generated more than $1 million a year in taxes.Tobolski said the nine-person fire department costs the village $1.2 million per year.  He said everyone except the chief is a part-time firefighter and none of them is a trained paramedic.  “We offered to send two a year for paramedic training, but they did not embrace the idea,” he said.

Tobolski said the village notified the Teamsters union, which represents the firefighters, that it was going to ask to terminate the fire department and turn protection services over to the Pleasantview Fire District. The district is expected to maintain and staff the village’s firehouse.

“We will see significant savings by the move,” said Tobolski. “Our costs will go from $1.2 million to $200,000 in the first year.”

He said the fire district would provide better services including firefighter/paramedics instead of firefighter/EMTs as well as a better classification for insurance.  “Homeowners and businesses would see a savings on their insurance costs,” he said. The savings would depend on the fire district’s final rating after it absorbed the village’s service.

Tags: Jeff Tobolski, McCook Fire Department, McCook to disband fire department, McCook to shutdown fire department, Pleasantview Fire Protection District, Pleasantview FPD to provide services to McCook