PEORIA, Ill. (25 News) – Peoria’s fire department is set to get some extra cash flow in hopes of reinstating its rescue squad.
This comes as the city debates its budget for the next two years. The fire department dropped its two rescue squads in 2018 due to budget cuts. Six years later, one of those squads is set to be reinstated.
The rescue squad is responsible for saving people and firefighters in the dire situations the department responds to. They are the crew that uses the jaws of life in car accidents, for example.
To make up for not having a dedicated squad, the city has put those life-saving tools inside every fire engine. The rescue squad is currently a jump crew set to go into action when needed.
So far in 2023, that squad has been called into action about 600 times. Around 144 of those calls were for structure fires, and 42 were responding to car crashes.
“I was startled to see that number and I’ve been on the council since ‘95. I had no idea it was at this level,” said Councilman Chuck Grayeb.
Data from the Peoria Fire Department shows most of the department’s calls so far this year were for medical emergencies. Only 16% of calls were fire-related, and the remaining 84% were medical calls.
“There’s not one part of this town that we can’t get to in an appropriate amount of time in regards to medical-related calls,” Chief Shawn Sollberger said in his comments to Peoria’s city council. “Now on 16% of our calls that are fire-related, this is where we struggle.”
Sollberger argued reinstating the squad could help those response times. The rescue squad could also act as a backup EMS crew when EMTs and firefighters are busy with another emergency.
It will cost just over a million dollars to reinstate that squad using fire department overtime.
The rescue truck would operate out of station 11.
“We would assign and bid a captain and an engineer to that spot, and we would backfill their spaces with overtime. That way you would have the consistency of the work in regard to station 11 responding with rescue 1,” said Sollberger.
A crowd of Local 50 firefighter union members showed up to the meeting in support.
City staff slightly pushed back on this and other plans proposed by the council to increase spending, saying they could hurt the city’s rainy-day fund down the road. In funding projections provided to the council, funding this initiative and other projects could result in a significant lack of cash flow.
“We’re in good times right now and we have to protect our cash. Most of you guys know that some of you might know, but it is so difficult to tell your police and your firefighters you have to go home, we have no cash,” said Denis Cyr.
Cyr was the only council person who voted against the rescue squad proposal. However, his no vote came from wanting to fully staff the rescue squad instead of making firefighters work overtime to fill in the gap.
The other approved changes to the budget are sidewalk and road improvements, plus funding to improve the Moffat Cemetery.
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