New Lenox to close fire station No. 2, cut 4 positions

March 29--Following the defeat of a fifth referendum for a tax rate increase, New Lenox Fire Protection District officials said their only option is to close one of its four fire stations and cut staff.

Station No. 2, which opened in 1970 at 1205 N. Cedar Road, will close Friday until further notice, and result in the reduction of four firefighter/paramedic positions,Deputy Chief Dan Turner said.

"Without a doubt this will increase response time," he said, adding that calls will be handled by Station No. 1 at U.S. 30 and Prairie Street and Station No. 4 on Schoolhouse Road, south of Francis Road.

The district expects to save between $640,000 and $660,000 per year by closing the station, Turner said.

"This is a growing community. This is not the direction to be going in," he said.

The fire district board of trustees also voted at its March 19 meeting to issue $750,000 in Tax Anticipation Warrants to cover the district's budget deficit. This extra funding will fill the gap between April, when the district runs out of funds and June, when property tax revenues are received.

Nearly all of the district's revenues comes from property taxes, Turner said.

The current levy is $4.7 million, according to district information.

Other funds come from grants, insurance payments for ambulance service, donations, false alarm fines and construction plan reviews.

While grants and donations provide money for special equipment, "our problem is day-to-day revenue to run things," Turner said.

In the March primary, a referendum to increase the fire district's tax rate from 38 cents to 59 cents per $100 of equalized assessed valuation was defeated by 212 votes, Turner said.

They will "have to" try again for a rate hike in November, he said.

The New Lenox Fire Protection District has not had a tax rate increase since 1989, but has tried to pass referendums five times over the past 12 years, in 2006, 2009, 2011, 2014 and March 2018.

During this time, the district cut back on spending and was able to tighten its belt, but it can no longer afford to operate at less than half of the budgets of neighboring towns, while providing the same services, according to a district-issued news release.

Since 1989, the population has more than doubled from 16,574 to 42,172 and the number of commercial and industrial buildings also has grown significantly, resulting in an increase in calls, from 890 in 1990, to 4,252 in 2017, according to district data.

According to a brochure handed out during this most recent campaign, New Lenox Fire Protection District's 38 cents is the lowest tax rate in the area. It is second to the Frankfort Fire Protection District, with a rate of 80 cents, which generates a levy of $10.6 million. Frankfort had 4,377 calls in 2017.

Earlier this year, one administrative position in human resources was eliminated when an employee left. Programs using shift personnel and apparatus for long periods of time will be reduced or eliminated, fire officials said in a news release.

"These decisions were made with heavy hearts, and the task of finding ways to cut the expenses was not taken lightly," said Turner, noting that there will be further cuts if a tax hike is not passed soon.

"Without any additional funding coming our way we will need to keep borrowing money from future taxes and eventually we would owe more than we bring in," he said in the release.

slafferty@tribpub.com

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