Effingham Fire Department improves insurance rating

Nov. 11--Earlier this week, the Effingham Fire Department and the city announced two big milestones involving a new insurance rating and an important investment opportunity for the fire pension fund.

Just prior to the city council meeting Tuesday evening, City Clerk Kelsey Lock and others announced that the department and the city have been upgraded to an Insurance Service Office rating of two, which could lead to lower fire insurance premiums for residents.

"An ISO class two rating is a significant achievement for a growing municipality of Effingham's ilk," said Effingham Mayor Jeff Bloemker. "It is extremely difficult to capture."

The ISO rating upgrade is a result of a three-part scoring measurement of the local fire department, water systems and telecommunications that together represent the quality of local fire protection. The rating can range between 10 and one with the lower the score, the better the protection, which in turn can affect the price individuals pay for fire insurance. The ratings are grouped in twos, so the city's new rating represents the lowest grouping.

"I am very ecstatic," said Effingham Fire Chief Joe Holomy. "It's been a multi-year goal for me in attempt to get the city to ISO two."

To achieve such a rating, the city made several improvements including increasing its water storage to almost 6 million gallons to further support fire suppression. The city's water department has also replaced many of its older four and six-inch water lines with eight and 10-inch lines. That along with routinely flushing water hydrants ensure the city can maintain a pumping capacity of 3,500 gallons per minute.

"It has taken several years to get to this point within the water division," explained Effingham Public Works Director Steve Miller.

The fire department's many endeavors factoring into the new class two rating have included public education and outreach, such as their summer smoke detector program, the frequency of fire inspections, response times and pre-incident planning.

Over the past several years, the department has measured, toured, and examined over 1200 different buildings in the city and noted where utility shutoffs are and what hazards are present.

"That's been a huge undertaking," said Holomy of the planning. "But the guys and gals have just done a fantastic job in that area."

Most recently, the city has adopted new building and fire codes, which also factored into the new rating.

The rating also reflects on the city's dispatch and telecommunications center and its ability to handle and dispatch fire incidents.

The City of Effingham and the fire department will be one of just 80 communities/fire departments in Illinois to earn the class two rating. Nationwide, they'll be one of just 1,324 fire departments with such a rating with over 46,000 communities and departments reviewed.

As a result of the rating, the city is encouraging property owners, residential and business, to contact their insurance agent for a comparison review of their individual fire insurance premium.

But according to Tim Weis, the property and casualty manager at Weis Insurance, not only will their customers and many others see a decrease in the fire protection rate, between 10 and 20 percent, but it will happen automatically for those with renewals on or after Feb. 1, 2018, when the rating takes effect, assuming there haven't been any recent claims.

"The computer systems scan a protection database by zip code," explained Weis. "It will automatically put in a decreased factor."

Weis did caution that the overall decrease in home or property insurance won't add up to much.

"On a $300,000 home, you're maybe looking at a $50, or $70 decrease," he said.

Instead, Weis says the rating ought to be seen as how safe the city has become.

"It's not about just saving money but if a house catches on fire, you're probably not going to lose it," said Weis. "I think this says that our fire department is kicking some butt. Our guys and girls there are better trained."

After the class two rating was announced Tuesday, Effingham Treasurer Caitlin Phillips then announced that the fire pension had reached just over $10 million, allowing for more aggressive investments and better returns.

"I think it's terrific," said Holomy. "It gives us more opportunity to do some better investments and get more return on our monies that we've been restricted to in the past."

Currently, the department is sitting at 5.4 percent on return but the city treasurer hopes that will increase up to 11 percent, which is what the police pension currently enjoys.

"That is that threshold we've struggled to get to," said Effingham City Administrator Jim Arndt. "You have to break that $10 million threshold. Once you break it, now you can aggressively invest up to 65 percent."

Arndt added that with better returns, the investments will shoulder more of the pension obligations.

"We levied less for our police pension fund than the previous year because our investments are supporting it," said Arndt. "But that's not the same for the fire pension."

Arndt says if the stock market continues to behave as it has, the fire pension could reach 10 percent on its return a year out.

As of Friday, Holomy was still beaming over Tuesday's announcements.

"The ISO rating was the icing on the cake for me," said the fire chief. "I don't think I could have gotten anything better this week to make me happier or prouder of my department, my staff and my city."

Contact Keith Stewart at [email protected] or 217-347-7151, ext. 132.

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