Posts Tagged towns consider consolidation of fire departments

Fire department consolidation proves complex

Excerpts from the ChicagoTribune.com:

Citing nearly impossible legal hurdles at the state level, the Carpentersville Fire Department, East Dundee Fire Protection District and West Dundee Fire Department will not seek a complete consolidation at this time.

However, the fire chiefs do agree it should be a goal for the future. “It doesn’t mean we’re stopping and just not doing anything,” West Dundee Chief Randy Freise said. “We’re just not jumping in all at once. We’re breaking it down into smaller pieces.”

In November of 2014, members of the Carpentersville Village Board, East Dundee and Countryside Fire Protection District Board, and West Dundee Village Board shared the $30,908 expense to initiate the study by Emergency Services Consulting International. In October of this year, results from that in-depth study concluded consolidating fire services would make sense.

However, Freise said during a presentation at Monday’s board meeting, when the fire chiefs were tasked with analyzing the study and discussing the results with their respective boards “we came to the conclusion a complete legal consolidation at this time would be too difficult to do.”

Freise said a state law passed in the last year and a half requires more hurdles in order to make consolidations possible. “Now we have referendums and court appearances and all these different things we have to do in order to do this,” he said. “It kind of takes the decision away from the local boards and makes it much more difficult.”

They plan to keep working toward the ultimate goal of a potential full consolidation. That includes the possibility of forming work groups represented by members of each department and municipality and tasked with developing a regional approach to providing the best outcome, and a regional board that would include a fire chief from each of the respective towns and a trustee from that town to consider the recommendations of the work groups.

The fire chiefs are also meeting with Sen. Karen McConnaughay this month to discuss the roadblocks in state law considering consolidation, Freise said. “One of our goals is to meet with local legislators to make them aware the state is making it more difficult and to see if we can’t change the legislation and make it more streamlined,” he said.

Freise said in the last few weeks he has also heard from the Rutland-Dundee Township Fire Protection District chief who is interested in joining the conversation of a possible future consolidation. “A big piece of our regional puzzle that has been missing from the onset is participation of Rutland-Dundee Township Fire Protection District,” he said. “Through all of this we’ve continued to work closely with them and will most likely continue to do so in the future, no matter what it holds.”

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West Dundee will study options for consolidation of fire services with neighbors (more)

Excerpts from the DailyHerald.com:

The West Dundee and Carpentersville fire departments and the East Dundee Fire Protection District engaged in a cooperative services feasibility study with the goal to improve services while saving taxpayers’ money, West Dundee Fire Chief Randy Freise said.

The results of the study, which began in January, were presented to fire officials and their governing bodies Monday.

Kent Greene, of Oregon-based Emergency Services Consulting International, said the three entities already have worked well together in certain operational areas, such as sharing an automatic aid agreement. However, further and more formal methods of consolidating could save costs and expand services, he said.

The departments have three options: merge into a single fire department, maintain separate entities while combining some efforts, or decide to make no changes.

The study determined the departments are efficiently serving their intended areas with “very good response performances,” Greene said.

Merging the three departments, however, could streamline the use and efficiency of resources. The number of administrative and support positions, for example, wouldn’t change significantly. But instead of having three fire chiefs, they could allot resources to a training officer and an inspector — positions that currently don’t exist.

There are also ways to join efforts without becoming one entity, such as developing a pre-incident planning process used by all three departments so they have the same emergency strategies. They could also combine training and fire prevention education programs.

“I’m 100 percent behind some form of (consolidating), and they gave us a lot of things to think about,” East Dundee Fire Chief Steve Schmitendorf said.

Freise said fire officials had been discussing consolidation possibilities for years before deciding last year to conduct the study for $30,908, a cost that was split among the three entities.

Excerpts from theChicagoTribune.com:

An in-depth study has concluded consolidating fire services makes sense.

Now, members of the Carpentersville Fire Department, East Dundee Fire Protection District and West Dundee Fire Department have to find out if elected officials and the community agree.

On Monday, Kent Greene, senior vice president with Emergency Services Consulting International, unveiled the results during two different presentations with the fire chiefs and emergency services employees.

“The study was not intended to be a merger study,” Greene said. “It was never our intention to come in and say, ‘Let’s take these departments and make them one.’ I don’t want anyone to think we came in to merge your organizations. It was more to give you the information you need to make changes in the future to help you work better.”

Already, the fire departments are served by QuadCom Regional Dispatch Center, the multi-agency dispatch center in Carpentersville that also covers East Dundee and Rutland Dundee Fire departments.

He said there are several options for even more cooperative efforts, including a functional consolidation, an operational consolidation, or a legal unification. Officials could also choose autonomy, where the fire districts stay as they are.

Greene noted a consolidation would not mean reducing personnel. He said the amount of firefighters for the combined 24.82 square miles the three departments serve is lower than the national and regional average.

However, he said rather than having three chiefs, positions can be reallocated. “You could fill positions that should be filled so services can still be delivered at the current or higher level without a significant cost increase.”

Other cooperative efforts include working together to adopt a shared capital replacement plan that adequately funds the purchase, replacement or rehabilitation of future apparatus, combine their administrative and support services, jointly purchase equipment and apparatus, and consolidate training programs.

Now, elected officials have to decide whether to authorize a continuing investigation into the cooperative efforts that may or may not result in the consolidation of the local fire departments.

thanks Dan

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Talks progress towards consolidating fire department services

The Courier-News has an article about the consolidation talks between the Carpentersville and West Dundee Fire Departments:

As talks continue on the possibility of Carpentersville and West Dundee consolidating fire services, local officials are eager to keep the momentum going.

To that end, West Dundee board members authorized village staff Monday to develop a request for proposal to determine the cost of an in-depth study on consolidation.

West Dundee Village President Chris Nelson said an outside entity can help officials “evaluate the prospect of the consolidation because it is a very complex issue.”

The scope of the possible consolidation has also broadened, with both East Dundee Fire District and Rutland-Dundee Township Fire Protection Districts showing an interest. Efforts are underway currently to take steps toward a more functional consolidation, where the fire department districts would remain separate but work together more in responding to incidents and purchasing equipment.

West Dundee Chief Randy Freise told village officials that Carpentersville has agreed to provide battalion chief coverage in West Dundee for all structure fires, vehicle accidents with extrication, and major incidents at Spring Hill Mall.

Freise also plans to meet with East Dundee Fire Chief Steve Schmitendorf and Carpentersville Deputy Chief John Skillman to discuss the possibility of sharing a training officer.

Nelson said having consistent training not only saves money but also makes sure firefighters are working together and operating as a team.

“Not just for the village of West Dundee but for the other departments and taxpayers,” Nelson said. “Our ultimate goal is to enhance the service level in an affordable way. It’s great we’re able to move the ball on this.”

thanks Dan

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West Dundee will study options for consolidation of fire services with neighbors

The Daily Herald has an article

West Dundee officials this week took a small, but significant step toward possibly consolidating its fire services with neighboring departments by ordering a study on response times, where most emergency calls occur and related information.

The study will focus on the coverage area that encompasses the West Dundee and Carpentersville fire departments, as well as the East Dundee and the Rutland-Dundee Township fire protection districts.

The document, which the Illinois Fire Chiefs Association will compile, would also give an overview of the area and list the individual departments’ strengths and weaknesses.

Once the information comes back, … neighboring fire chiefs [will meet] to review it and figure out the next steps. Carpentersville, West Dundee and East Dundee support the study and are dividing its cost among themselves. Rutland-Dundee has agreed to submit information for the study, but is not making a financial contribution.

Talks about consolidating services have been ongoing for many years, but got serious in January …

“Certainly everybody’s got tight budgets and it makes sense to look at it at this time, but my ultimate goal would be to provide better service,” Friese said.

thanks Dan

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Villages consider fire department consolidation

The Courier-News has an article about consolidate talks between the West Dundee and Carpentersville Fire Departments.

In February, officials from Carpentersville and West Dundee began talking about the possibility of consolidating fire services. The idea has since gained some traction and at Monday’s West Dundee board meeting, officials from both communities, as well as union leaders and firefighters, agreed to move forward with a consolidation study.

Consolidating services is not a foreign concept for either the Carpentersville or West Dundee fire departments, as both are served by QuadCom Regional Dispatch Center, the multi-agency dispatch center located in Carpentersville that also covers East Dundee and Rutland Dundee Fire departments.

But further research has to be done to determine what type of consolidation would work best for the two communities.

“The time is right where we can take it to the next step and gather information so we can make an educated decision,” said West Dundee Chief Randy Freise.

“We’re all having economic difficulties but I think on a larger scale we can provide better service,” he said. “I think it’s worth the effort of getting the information.”

He said there are a few different types of consolidation, including a functional consolidation, meaning the fire departments would remain separate but work together more in responding to incidents and purchasing equipment. As far as fire station locations for both communities, Freise said already most are “laid out pretty well.”

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