Nearly a year after Peoria Heights originally approved a plan to hire full-time firefighters, projected budget deficits have some village board members questioning the move.
At Tuesday’s meeting, the board unanimously deferred a vote on a motion by trustee Sarah DeVore to rescind a May resolution authorizing the hiring of three firefighters. Those hirings had been planned for Wednesday, but are now on hold until the board takes action.
“We are really trying to make the best decision possible, and to not let people down in either way – not to let the fire department down and the people who have given so much hard work, and not to let the residents down, and also not to bankrupt you,” DeVore said during the meeting.
A post on the village’s Facebook page detailed a three-year budget outlook projecting more than $1 million in deficit spending over the next three years to cover the new positions.
Mayor Mike Phelan said setting up a full-time fire department would be an “expensive endeavor,” but is needed to respond to the current call volume.
“The board knew the cost of what it would cost for salaries and benefits. So, I don’t know what the surprise is, really,” said Phelan.
The delay is the latest turn in the village’s nearly five-year saga of wrestling with how to handle its volunteer fire department.
Last year, Peoria Heights considered and ultimately abandoned the possibility of pursuing a contract with the City of Peoria to handle fire service. In November, the village hired Dan Decker as fire chief and tasked him with assessing the best course of action.
Decker was not able to attend Tuesday’s meeting, and DeVore decided a deferral to allow the chief to provide more input at the next meeting would be preferable to completely rescinding the hiring plan.
That also allowed the newly created police and fire commission to keep the firefighter candidates in consideration, while abandoning the plan likely would’ve resulted in the applicants looking elsewhere.
“We’ve gone this far down the road. We've had people apply, they paid money to be tested; they went through written and physical tests, and so people are ready, already in the pool,” said Phelan.
“Members of the fire and police commission happened to be in the audience at Tuesday's village board meeting, and they agreed to hold off on hiring temporarily if the item was deferred and it was.”
Phelan acknowledged Peoria Heights is facing other major expenses, like multi-million dollar water upgrades. But he said a public safety needs assessment showed the current all-volunteer department is overwhelmed.
“In my opinion, public safety is the No. 1 priority. So we have to finance the fire department some way, in a way that when people have an emergency, we get personnel there as quickly as possible,” he said.
Phelan says he believes some combination of sales or property tax increases will ultimately be necessary.
The board is set to consider the fire department hires again at the Sept. 17 meeting.
