The Village of Peoria Heights will keep its mostly volunteer fire department but also contract with the City of Peoria for fire service, the Village Board decided in a narrow vote earlier this month.
Mayor Michael Phelan broke the 3-3 tie among trustees with his “aye” in favor of partnering with Peoria Fire.
The mayor’s tiebreaker followed a passionate and sometimes contentious debate, with trustees deliberating over two basic options: one, to keep the volunteer force with a full-time chief and perhaps a small dayside crew, “the most cost-effective option” proposed by Trustee Brandon Wisenburg; or two, the “combo plan” offered up by Trustee Matt Wigginton that ultimately was adopted.
“We won’t be putting all our eggs in one basket,” said Wigginton. “We will be paying for public safety … As far as dollars and cents, I can’t think of a better place to spend it.”
The back-and-forth between the trustees largely revolved around the issues of local control, community identity and comparative cost versus response times and what prompted the discussion in the first place: the difficulty the Heights has had recruiting and keeping volunteer firefighters while call volumes rise.
The arguments ranged from Trustee Jeff Goett’s “if we’re going to spend this money, let’s invest it in Peoria Heights and not give it to Peoria” to Trustee Mark Gauf’s “if your house is on fire, response time is everything.” The Peoria Fire Department maintains that about 93% of the time, it can have first responders on scene in under 4 minutes. Peoria Heights’ volunteer crew usually arrives in under 9 minutes, with Wisenburg emphasizing that “we meet the response time (guidelines) for towns and villages our size” across the nation.
Trustee Sarah DeVore, meanwhile, said that finances should drive the Village’s decision and that going with Peoria would be “a slap in the face of the department we already have.” Trustee Beth Khazzam offered an amendment to put an advisory referendum on the ballot, saying that “hearing the voice of our residents is very important.”
That idea was quickly shot down, with a majority of trustees favoring prompt action. “We need to quit diddling around,” said Wisenburg, noting that conversations about the future of the local fire department began back in 2019. “His plan or my plan, that’s it. Up or down.”
Ultimately, the vote was Wigginton, Khazzam, Gauf and Phelan in favor of entering into an agreement for service with Peoria’s fire department, and Wisenburg, DeVore and Goett against.
Wisenburg was vocal in his frustration at the outcome, which he predicted “could well be the end of our fire department.” He vowed to continue fighting to keep the service entirely local. “This is a mistake,” he said.
In any case, the board majority directed the village attorney to begin negotiating a contract with the city that will set out the terms, including cost, of the arrangement. The Village spends about $407,000 annually on fire protection now. According to previous testimony from Peoria’s fire chief, the a la carte cost for fire protection only would be in the ballpark of an additional $307,000, based on the previous year’s call load at an average of about $1,600 per call. The cost could be more, or less, depending on the number of calls, the severity of the blazes and the manpower required to extinguish them. The city would prefer a three-year agreement.
Meanwhile, Village officials are interviewing candidates to succeed former Fire Chief Donovan Thompson. Advanced Medical Transport (AMT) will continue to provide emergency medical and ambulance response.