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Posts Tagged Rolling Meadows Fire Chief Scott Franzgrote

Rolling Meadows discusses rebuilding fire stations (more)

Oct 12

Posted by Admin in Fire Department News | Comments off

Excerpts from the DailyHerald.com:

Rolling Meadows could purchase property less than a mile from its existing fire station on Plum Grove Road for the second of two proposed fire stations.

The city plans to offer $800,000 for 42,246 square feet of land at 2320 and 2350 Hicks Road, just west of Route 53 and north of Kirchoff Road. On Tuesday, the city council voted 4-3 in a first reading vote to authorize the purchase. A final, second reading vote is scheduled for Oct. 24.

The land deal would be the second piece to the fire department’s controversial $9 million plan to relocate both city firehouses, aimed at improving response times and reducing fire risk throughout town.

Last month, the council voted 4-2 to buy land for $1.3 million at 3201 Algonquin Road on the south side of town. The 77,195-square-foot site is where a new station would be built to replace the aging downtown Station 15 at 3111 Meadow Drive. While Station 15 would move south, Station 16 at 2455 S. Plum Grove Road would move slightly east.

The plan has rankled residents and aldermen that would lose a fire station close to them.

As architectural drawings are still being completed, the earliest construction could begin to replace Station 15 is next spring, with completion 18 months later.

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Rolling Meadows discusses rebuilding fire stations (more)

Sep 14

Posted by Admin in Fire Department News | 1 Comment

Excerpts from the DailyHerald.com:

Rolling Meadows has identified land on Algonquin Road for one of two proposed city fire stations.

The city council will vote Tuesday night on a purchase and sale contract for a 77,195-square-foot site at 3201 Algonquin Road, where the former Woo Lae Oak Korean restaurant has stood vacant for three years.

Aldermen will take a first reading vote to authorize spending $1.3 million for the land, owned by Judicial Drive Property Holdings, LLC. A final, second reading vote is scheduled for Sept. 26.

The council will also vote on an ordinance amending city zoning code to allow fire stations within T-1 and T-2 office zoning districts. The Algonquin Road site is within the T-1 district.

If approved, the land purchase would lead to construction of a new Station 15. It would replace the aging downtown station at 3111 Meadow Drive.

The city’s other firehouse, Station 16 at 2455 S. Plum Grove Road, would be replaced with a new station to the east, as part of the fire department’s relocation plan aimed at improving response times and reducing fire risk throughout town.

Tuesday’s vote is significant, since the city’s elected officials have been debating whether to move and/or build fire stations for more than a decade. Though new Mayor Len Prejna supports replacing only Station 15, the newly-seated council took a 4-2 informal straw vote in June to proceed with plans to replace both stations.

Critics have said the estimated $9 million cost to acquire properties and build two new stations is too much.

Fire Chief Scott Franzgrote said that number — calculated two years ago — is still a target, but inflation may increase the price.

Aldermen have been meeting in closed session since January to consider about a dozen sites for the two new stations, leading to Tuesday’s planned open session vote on the Algonquin Road site. The location is about a half-mile from where the city considered building a third fire station. The council decided to build that station in 2014 but reversed course the next year and decided to remain with two stations but in new locations.

Negotiations, meanwhile, continue to acquire land for the second station.

Franzgrote said it would be ideal to build both stations and have them open at the same time, but the property acquisition process for the second site may not make that possible.

The earliest construction could begin for the new Station 15 is next spring, with completion 18 months later, Franzgrote said.

The council meeting begins at 7:30 p.m. at 3600 Kirchoff Road.

thanks Dan

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Rolling Meadows discusses rebuilding fire stations (more)

Jun 25

Posted by Admin in Fire Department News, FIre Stations | 1 Comment

Excerpts from the DailyHerald.com:

For now, Rolling Meadows will proceed with plans to relocate and build two new fire stations, though the controversial proposal still isn’t a done deal.

Aldermen voted 4-2 Tuesday night in an informal straw vote to support current plans to replace Fire Station 15 at 3111 Meadow Drive with a new station to the south, and Fire Station 16 at 2455 S. Plum Grove Road with a new station to the east.

Tuesday marked the first time the newly seated council weighed in on the issue since the April local elections. Returning council members Mike Cannon, Robert Banger Jr., John D’Astice and Tim Veenbaas voted to support the current plans, while new Aldermen Jerry Hill and Joe Gallo voted against. Alderman Laura Majikes was absent, but she has opposed fire station relocation plans in the past.

Mayor Len Prejna, the former Ward 2 alderman, ran on a platform that included replacing only Station 15 and holds veto power over any future council decisions to purchase properties or pay for construction. He wouldn’t say after the meeting whether he intends to veto any future decisions, but he wasn’t optimistic things would go his way because he believes the council may eventually reach a five-vote, veto-proof majority.

For the past decade, the city’s elected officials have debated what to do about the aging downtown Fire Station 15 and how to improve response times citywide. The council decided to build a third station on Algonquin Road in 2014 but reversed course the next year, deciding to remain with two stations but in new locations.

Fire Chief Scott Franzgrote has endorsed the plan to relocate both stations. He cited data Tuesday that showed the area with the greatest fire risk is on the south side, with its preponderance of multistory apartment buildings that don’t have fire sprinklers. And the highest call volume is from the east side.

Critics, meanwhile, have said the $9 million cost to build two new stations is too much.

Aldermen have been meeting in closed session since January to consider about a dozen sites for the two new stations. Those discussions were expected to lead to making purchase offers to private property owners, but Cannon said Tuesday no land has been purchased yet.

Gallo added that estimated land costs have increased.

thanks Dan

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Fire Service News

Apr 7

Posted by Admin in Fire Service News | 4 Comments

Excerpts from ilnews.org:

With the state’s deficit spending on autopilot because of the 21-month-long budget standoff in Springfield, Illinois’ backlog of bills is climbing toward $13 billion.

Some local governments have taken steps to work together to create efficiencies, resulting in savings to taxpayers.

Lt. Gov. Evelyn Sanguinetti recently identified the shared fire protection services in Rolling Meadows and Palatine as an example of local taxing bodies doing it right.

“Eliminating duplication, sharing of services, and consolidating entire governmental bodies should be considered at all levels of government from the bottom to the top,” Sanguinetti said. “You share personnel, you share equipment, you share expertise, and that translates into savings. It’s a win-win situation.”

The city of Rolling Meadows, the Village of Palatine, and the Palatine Rural Fire Protection District are doing exactly that with their intergovernmental agreement to operate as a single entity, according to the Rolling Meadows Fire Chief Scott Franzgrote.

“We’ve been working on this project that we call RPM, which stands for Rural Palatine Meadows, for about five years now,” Franzgrote said. “Our guiding principles are to leverage our combined resources to provide better service to our combined communities, to provide a safer work environment for the firefighters in our three jurisdictions, and to see if there are ways that we can do better for the taxpayers by finding efficiencies within our operations.”

One of the ways the three departments have streamlined operations is by changing the way their personnel train on the job.

“Everyone is now trained the same way,” Palatine Mayor Jim Schwantz said. “With the equipment, Rolling Meadows might use one type of saw to cut through a roof in a fire, whereas Palatine uses a different one, so now we are purchasing all the same equipment and we are all trained on the same equipment so there are no missteps on the scene. A Palatine fireman can now go to a rural rig and be able to know exactly where the equipment is.”

Each department also champions different specialized services to eliminate duplication.

“Rolling Meadows is where the hazmat team is,” Schwantz said. “In Palatine, we house the dive team. We pay a stipend to Rolling Meadows as does Rural to handle, train, and equip their hazmat team. The same is true with Rolling Meadows and Rural towards Palatine with the dive team.”

While creating efficiencies and improving services were the driving force behind the arrangement, it also has resulted in cost savings.

“In 2016, we were scheduled to replace a technical rescue van that we’ve had since the 1970s and, because of this effort we are working together here, we were able to downsize the purchase,” Franzgrote said. “It was going to be a medium duty rescue squad for the City of Rolling Meadows, which was going to cost about $300,000, but we were able to reduce that to a light-duty squad and we probably saved around $125,000.”

And while the local governments haven’t quantified the total savings, they offered other examples of how they have reduced costs.

“Rolling Meadows and Rural, they each make a payment to Palatine to provide the dive rescue. So we make roughly $25,000 a year in revenue and for those communities, it’s far cheaper to pay us than to try and staff their own dive and rescue program,” Palatine Village Manager Reid Otteson said. “For us, it’s a revenue enhancement, which means I don’t have to go levy $25,000 more in property taxes.”

thanks Dan

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Rolling Meadows Fire Department news

Dec 23

Posted by Admin in Fire Department News | Comments off

Excerpts from thedailydispatch.com:

In the aftermath of 36 deaths during a fire in a warehouse building in Oakland, CA, Rolling Meadows Fire Chief Scott Franzgrote urged residents, businesses and visitors to report any building or venue that seems to appear dangerous to the city in an effort to prevent another tragedy.

Franzgrote said the Oakland tragedy shares a common set of contributing factors which include overcrowding; lack of adequate means of egress; inadequate fire suppression, and a significant amount of combustible products within the structure.

The chief said if someone discovers a venue that appears overcrowded, has exits blocked, or appears to be a fire trap, to stay out of it and notify the local authorities so the venue can be evaluated by professionals trained in fire code enforcement.

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Rolling Meadows discusses rebuilding fire stations (more)

Feb 24

Posted by Admin in Fire Department News | 1 Comment

Excerpts from the JournalTopics.com:

Rolling Meadows Fire Chief Scott Franzgrote introduced local leaders Tuesday night to Aurora-based R.C. Wegman Construction Co., selected as project manager for site selection, design, and construction of the city’s two new fire stations.

Franzgrote said the scope of the project includes evaluating firehouse location sites, land acquisition, budget outlines, project schedules and coordination of real estate agents, architects, consultants, engineers, contractors, vendors and more.

Seven firms submitted applications for the project manager role city officials said and four firms were interviewed.

The project is expected to cost about $9,000,000, city officials said, and would entail building two new fire stations probably in new locations. Existing Rolling Meadows firehouses are Station 15 (Fogarty Station), at 3111 Meadow Dr., which serves areas east of Route 53, and Station 16 (Neucranz Station), 2455 S. Plum Grove Rd., serving areas west of Route 53.

Station 15 was built in 1958. At the time, it was a one-story structure with two apparatus bays and a kitchen. It was positioned in a location that represented the center of the fire district’s response area. Due to the city’s growth, it is no longer in the center of the response area. Today, there are several problems with its infrastructure, such as wiring and sinking foundations, making the fire station almost inoperable at times.

Franzgrote has said a new station is needed to meet the increasing demand for service in an expanding city, especially on the south side, and to maintain quick response times.

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Rolling Meadows discusses rebuilding fire stations (more)

Jan 25

Posted by Admin in Fire Department News | 5 Comments

Excerpts from the DailyHerald.com:

Rolling Meadows officials will start interviewing project management firms next week as the next step in the city’s efforts to relocate both  fire stations … the city council last year decided to move both stations to improve emergency response times.

Seven project management firms responded to a request for qualifications, Chief Scott Franzgrote told the city council Tuesday and interviews with four of the companies will help make sure the costs estimates are all-inclusive. Rolling Meadows has Fire Station 15 at 3111 Meadow Drive, which was built in 1958, and Fire Station 16 at 2455 S. Plum Grove Road, which was built in 1980. Under the plan, both would be relocated — though it hasn’t been determined to where — to better balance the calls the department receives.

According to city documents, the cost of building two new fire stations is about $9 million, which includes all design, land acquisition, engineering, architectural and construction costs.

Deciding what to do about the city’s fire stations has been somewhat of a moving target over the past few years. In 2014, the council decided to build a third station, but reversed course last year and voted to remain at two stations, but in new locations.

thanks Dan

Excerpts from the JournalTopics.com:

As the city continues to grapple with the issue of whether to pour funds into fixing a 57-year-old fire station in need of extensive repairs, and whether to move the second station to better meet the needs of a growing community, aldermen last year gave the fire department and city staff the go-ahead to develop a plan on building and relocating the two fire stations.

The request for qualifications that went out from the city said the project will have an anticipated budget of $9,000,000. The project manager would oversee planning and implementation of the project including relocating both fire stations, evaluating station location sites, land acquisition, relocation to temporary facilities if required, creating budgets and project schedules, and coordination of relevant entities such as real estate agents, architects, consultants, engineers, contractors, vendors and more.

Rolling Meadows firehouse are Station 15 (Fogarty Station), 3111 Meadow Dr., which serves areas of the city east of Route 53, and Station 16 (Neucranz Station), 2455 S. Plum Grove Rd., which serves the city west of Route 53.

Station 15 was built in 1958 by the newly formed Rolling Meadows Fire District. At the time, it was a one-story building with two apparatus bays and a kitchen. The station was positioned in a location that represented the center of the fire district’s response area.

Franzgrote has said a new fire station is needed to meet an increasing demand for service, especially on the city’s south side, and to maintain quick response times.

More posts on this topic are HERE

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Rolling Meadows to review status of their fire stations

Feb 13

Posted by Admin in Fire Department News | 3 Comments

Excerpts from the Journal-Topics online:

It was announced at Tuesday’s (Feb. 10) city council meeting that a history and detailed report of the serious debate over what to do with Rolling Meadows’ fire stations, is available online for residents and those planning to attend the  Rolling Meadows Committee of the Whole (COW) on Feb. 17, 7:30 p.m. at city hall, 3600 Kirchoff Rd.

The history of this long-debated issue, in a series of simplified documents put together by Rolling Meadows Fire Chief Scott Franzgrote, is available online at www.ci.rolling-meadows.il.us.

What to do about the decades-old Thomas Fogarty Fire Station 15 at 3111 Meadow Dr., which is sinking and in need of repair, will be discussed. Discussion is expected to center on whether or not to tear down and rebuild Station 15 and/or build a new third fire station on city-owned land at 2301 Algonquin Rd. or at another location.

The city’s other fire station is the more modern Neuckranz Fire Station on Plum Grove Road.

The debate not only just deals with what to do about Station 15’s crumbling infrastructure, but also how to address increasing emergency response times to a growing city, both in residents and businesses, and how to pay for any changes.

Franzgrote notes city staff has submitted a request for approximately $50,000 through the 2014 Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program to replace the emergency power generator at Station 15. Last September the generator broke down during a major storm resulting in the station’s garage doors only opening manually for a few weeks while the generator was repaired.

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Rolling Meadows FD creates new position

Jan 21

Posted by Admin in Fire Department News | Comments off

Excerpts from the Daily Herald:

Rolling Meadows on Tuesday created a new position of fire marshal, but officials said it would not cost the city any additional money.

The move is one to clean up city codes and put an actual person in charge of fire code enforcement, a job that has previously fallen to the fire chief, said Chief Scott Franzgrote.

City Manager Barry Krumstock said the move — which allows him to appoint a fire marshal, won’t result in any new personnel. Likely an employee who is shared by the Palatine Rural Fire Protection District and the Rolling Meadows Fire Department will be moved into the role.

There is no intention to provide additional salary for the position, Krumstock said. According to the ordinance that was passed on Tuesday, any salary associated with the position would require city council approval via resolution.

The fire marshal will be in charge of fire code enforcement and other fire prevention bureau duties and will work with homeowners making changes to their residences as well as businesses in the city to ensure they are meeting fire codes.

Previously the codes referenced a fire marshal, but Rolling Meadows didn’t have anyone in such a position, Franzgrote said.

“This is going to allow us to expand our resource-sharing agreements with the Palatine Fire Department and the Palatine Rural Fire Protection District,” Franzgrote said. “This also helps the business community have an easily identifiable contact to reach out to with any questions.”

thanks Dan

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Rolling Meadows discusses rebuilding fire stations (more)

Apr 29

Posted by Admin in Fire Department News | 2 Comments

The Daily Herald has an updated article on the Rolling Meadows proposal for new fire stations:

The Rolling Meadows City Council voted 4-3 on April 15 to build two new fire stations in new locations, but aldermen and citizens on the losing side are making it clear they will not give up easily.

Sixth Ward Alderman John D’Astice said Tuesday he wants to discuss putting the issue of moving the city’s fire stations to voters as a referendum. He also said he wants the city council to study basing an ambulance on the city’s south side as an alternative to moving the stations.

Mayor Tom Rooney said Tuesday that both topics are suitable for discussion at future council meetings.

Supporters of the plan approved earlier this month say replacing the decrepit downtown fire station with a new one farther east, near New Wilke and Central roads, will provide faster service to the area along Algonquin Road, especially older multifamily complexes more at risk for serious fires. However, D’Astice, who represents much of the area, said he thinks most of the calls there are for ambulance service.

A second station also would be moved from 2455 Plum Grove Road, west of Route 53, to Hicks Road, between Kirchoff Road and Euclid Avenue.

The cost of the plan has been estimated as high as $10 million.

For years the city council has been strongly against the expense of building and staffing a third station, even at one point rejecting a grant that would have funded much of the construction costs.

Second Ward Alderman Len Prejna, also an opponent of moving the fire stations, said he also has received considerable correspondence and “even a knock on the door.”

thanks Dan

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