Daily Archives: June 6, 2007

City Council, City of Peoria, Peoria Fire Department

Fire Station 11 compromise in the works

21 Comments

Fire Truck GraphicMy sources tell me that a compromise is in the works for Fire Station 11. You may remember that a previous council cut an engine company from the station as a cost-savings move three years ago. Ever since then, every election has included the question of how/when the council will fully staff Fire Station 11.

Well, the fire department has recently been utilizing the city’s GIS system to plot response times from each of the fire stations. Basically, they map out where each fire station is and then draw a circle around it representing a four-minute response time for water coverage. When they analyzed the results of that exercise and looked at where the circles overlapped and intersected, they determined that Fire Station 11’s area of service was adequately covered by the other fire stations.

Although water coverage is good, there is another issue, and that’s Basic Life Support (BLS) calls. In that area, Fire Station 11’s coverage is not so good. Since they don’t have an engine, they have to run a ladder truck for BLS calls. Well, there are many problems with that, not the least of which is speed. People in need of basic life support need help fast, and ladder trucks are not the speediest vehicles.

But another problem is wear and tear on the vehicle. Ladder trucks cost about three quarters of a million dollars and should last 15 to 20 years, according to Fire Prevention Chief Greg Walters (I found this out while researching another story; Walters is not the source for this post). However, by sending the ladder truck out on BLS calls, that’s beating the heck out of the truck and if something doesn’t change they’ll probably have to replace that truck sooner. That kind of blows the cost savings the council was hoping to get by removing the engine company.

So, the compromise that’s being talked about is this: Instead of putting an engine company back in at Fire Station 11 (which is, I believe, 11 firefighters), they would put in, for lack of a better term, a BLS company (which would only be 5 firefighters, if I understand correctly). The BLS company would have their own vehicle, but it wouldn’t be a fire engine or the ladder truck. That would be cheaper than reinstating an engine company (5 more firefighters instead of 11), would save wear and tear on an expensive ladder truck allowing it to stay in service longer, and would adequately serve the Fire Station 11 area.

That’s all the information I have. I couldn’t find anyone willing to talk on the record about it. And I still have some questions, like why couldn’t they just add a vehicle instead of a vehicle and five more guys. If I had to speculate, I’d guess that it has something to do with the firefighters union. But I imagine those details will come out eventually. In fact, I understand it will be coming before the council sometime relatively soon. Said one person I asked for comment, “I don’t want to jinx it.”

City Council, City of Peoria

Council Roundup: June 5, 2007

5 Comments

It was a looong meeting Tuesday. Here are the highlights:

  • The council surprisingly reversed course — again — on the issue of whether to charge fees for vaults and walkways that encroach on the public right-of-way. Last October they voted 8-2 to keep the fees, then last month they voted 9-1 to eliminate the fees. And tonight they voted 6-5 to keep the fees again. Well, I’m not going to complain about their fickleness too much because they made the right decision tonight. There’s no reason for the city to eliminate those fees. As Councilman Manning said, it’s not an unreasonable fee; it’s just a normal cost of doing business. And the city needs the revenue.
  • The Heart of Peoria Commission received a stay of execution for two weeks, but not a pardon. Second-district Councilwoman Barbara Van Auken made the motion to defer to allow time for the members of the various commissions and the council to come to some sort of compromise. The Heart of Peoria Commission may call a special meeting to discuss whatever compromise is brought forward.
  • A minor change was made to Mr. Abud’s liquor license conditions so he can open his grocery store on the south side of Peoria. The original agreement called for Abud to hire off-duty Peoria police officers to patrol the business during all hours of operation. The revised agreement only requires officers to provide security from 2:30 p.m. until the store closes (10:00 p.m.). This is a reasonable request, in my opinion. The goal is to provide a secure environment, and I think this accomplishes that end.
  • The council approved reducing their meetings to twice a month. It wasn’t mentioned last night, but I heard on the news today that the new schedule will start in July. Under the new schedule, the council will meet on the second and fourth Tuesdays of the month. I predict that schedule will last one year or less.
  • The council deferred a request from Councilman Gulley to appropriate funds for the improvement of Griswold Street on the south side. This is a budget amendment right before the council is getting ready to negotiate next year’s budget, so some think the timing is wrong. Others want to know what projects are going to be delayed by allocating money to this project instead. There will be a report back next week.
  • It wasn’t mentioned in the meeting, but I heard afterwards that a new website was launched for the Peoria Promise. Check it out.