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Mount Prospect Fire Department news (more)

May 21

Posted by Admin in Fire Department News, FIre Stations | Comments off

Excerpts from the Dailyherald.com:

Barring any unforeseen obstacle, Mount Prospect will be moving its downtown fire station to the north side of the village. With one dissenting vote, trustees agreed to pay about $1.48 million for a building at 111 E. Rand Road. The building will be remodeled and replace the current fire station and headquarters at 112 E. Northwest Highway.

The village now has a 60-day due diligence period to review the property’s environmental suitability and structural condition.

Officials say the new location will mean significant improvements to response times in areas where the fire department has struggled to achieve its four-minute objective. An independent study by the Illinois Fire Chiefs Association indicated there would be major improvement in areas that include Prospect High School, Randhurst Village, the Boxwood neighborhood and the Kensington Business Center.

Buying an existing building and remodeling it will save the village as much as $3.7 million compared to building a new fire station from the ground up, officials say.

thanks Dan

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Mount Prospect Fire Department news (more)

Apr 21

Posted by Admin in Fire Department News | 4 Comments

Excerpts from the Journal-Topics.com:

Mount Prospect trustees approved borrowing $12.1 million to purchase land for new police and fire headquarters locations. Trustee Paul Hoefert, a member of the board since 1991 who approved the existing shared police and fire headquarters on Northwest Highway 25 years ago, continues to voice concerns about the village’s effort to move the police to the Kensington Business Center and Fire Station 13 to a site on Rand Road, as being too quick and costing too much. It is projected to cost $40 million to renovate the existing building at 799 Biermann Court in the business park to accommodate police and to retrofit Fire Station 13 operations for the site at 111 E. Rand Rd.  The rest of the board did not see it that way.

If it is determined in the future that the two projects should not move forward, the village manager said the village would sell the properties it just acquired. Many of the board members said moving the departments would ensure better and safer policing for officers due to a lack of space in the current station, and better response times for firefighters.

Before the current police and fire headquarters was built 25 years ago, the village went out to referendum twice, developed an ad hoc committee, hosted many forums and obtained a lot of community input prior to any construction.

“To say that citizens have been involved and informed this time, I would disagree. And if there were 10 meetings, no one has been aware,” Hoefert said. “We know we need to do something, but it is a matter of what we do. Since we got the space needs study Nov. 28, which took two years to get, we have been moving at lightning speed, and in my mind, the people of Mount Prospect need to have their voice heard, but have been left out of the process. There has been no real time to bring them in.”

The $12.1 million that is being borrowed will go toward water and sewer improvements worth $4.93 million with the remainder to acquire property at 799 Biermann Ct. in the Kensington Business Center for a new police headquarters, and at 111 E. Rand Rd. for a new Fire Station 13.

The village anticipates this borrowing to cost $6 million in interest, which would be paid back over the next 25 years if not sooner. Finance Director Dave Erb said the borrowing would not impact the village’s tax levy. Water/sewer revenues and Tax Increment Financing (TIF) incremental revenue would be used to pay back the $12.1 million plus interest, Erb said.

It is expected in the fall that trustees will approve more bonds, in the amount of $21.8 million, and additional bonds next spring worth $15.8 million to help with construction and furnishing the two facilities. In total, the projects are expected to cost around $77 million, which includes interest.

A resident with a home market value of $350,000 would pay approximately $205 annually to fund the two stations over the next 25 years. If these two projects were not occurring, the debt service portion of the tax levy for property owners would have been reduced in the years to come. Instead, taxes will not increase, but will remain level over that period of time.

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Mount Prospect Fire Department news

Apr 9

Posted by Admin in Fire Department News | 2 Comments

Excerpts from the Journal-Topics.com:

A recent study by the Illinois Fire Chiefs Association recommends that Mount Prospect Fire Station 13 move to 111 E. Rand Road, which is still occupied.  The study from 2014-17 showed that some areas in town see fire response times exceed the four-minute goal and the fire department as a whole responds to calls within 4 minutes and 35 seconds approximately 90 percent of the time; 3 minutes and 42 seconds approximately 80 percent of the time; and 3 minutes approximately 70 percent of the time.

Should Station 13 move, the area that Station 12 at Golf and Busse roads serves would become larger. In contrast, Station 14 on Kensington Road just west of River Road would serve a smaller area since the new station would take over a portion of 14’s district.

If Station 13 moves to the bank site, the study states the department would respond to all calls throughout the village at 3 minutes and 33 seconds approximately 90 percent of the time; 3 minutes and 6 seconds approximately 80 percent of the time; and 2 minutes and 48 seconds approximately 70 percent of the time.

Station 12 would see response times increase by 8-15 seconds on average, but still be under 4 minutes overall. Station 13 would see response times decrease by an average of 3 to 42 seconds and be under 4 minutes. Station 14, which sometimes sees response times over 5 minutes, would also see a decrease in response times by an average of 59 seconds to as high as 1 minute and 24 seconds, and most times all under 4 minutes.

Firefighters and paramedics should then be able to arrive to all scenes in under four minutes almost every time. Response times throughout the community will decrease by approximately one minute. 

Negotiations to purchase the bank site are expected soon. The village board could approve a bond ordinance to purchase the land at the board’s April 17 meeting.

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