Ill. Fire District Passes 88 Percent Levy Increase for Ambulance Service

Dec. 07--GERMANTOWN HILLS -- About one hour of contentious discussion Tuesday night was rendered moot in less than 10 seconds.

That's about how long it took for a truncated Germantown Fire Protection District board to go through the motions of approving almost an 88 percent property tax levy increase.

A meeting that attracted about 40 -- "More than we've ever had, by far," Fire Chief Chip Wilmot said -- left attendees grumbling and one board member questioning his service.

"I'm doing some soul searching as to whether I want to keep doing it," Greg Harman said afterward. "It's tough. It's a big commitment, and then you've got a room like this and it's obviously very stressful."

Harman and Bruce Mathes were the only board members present. The third member, President Mark Pierce, was out of town on business.

Harman and Mathes approved the levy of $631,600, an increase of almost $300,000. That extra money is to pay to establish full-time ambulance and paramedic service in the district. The current provider, Metamora-based Emergency 116 Ambulance Service Inc., said it can't afford to station an ambulance in Germantown Hills.

Harman said the increase will add about $60 a year to the property tax bill of the owner of a $100,000 home.

In April, district voters approved a tax, but a firefighters' association flier indicated a cost of $60,000.

"If you put $295,000 in that notice instead of $60,000, you wouldn't have gotten anybody to vote for it," district resident Randy Perau said.

Many of those who spoke at the meeting said the board did a poor job of communicating how much this move would cost. Almost all of them stood to support district resident Charles Cluskey's request to keep the levy at its current level for another year while continuing talks with Emergency 116.

Wilmot didn't shut the door on the latter part of that proposal, but an agreement with the Eureka-Goodfield Fire Protection District appears likely. A deal could be done by July.

"Right now we're leaning that way, but we're not done by any means," said Wilmot, who also said talks with East Peoria and Washington weren't fruitful.

Moments after Cluskey's suggestion, Harman and Mathes approved the levy hike, and that was that.

"They should have postponed it until they could have had (Pierce) here and had the full board to vote on something this important," Cluskey said afterward. "I think it's ridiculous."

Nick Vlahos can be reached at 686-3285 or nvlahos@pjstar.com. Follow him on Twitter @VlahosNick.

Copyright 2011 - Journal Star, Peoria, Ill.