Fire District Consolidation Study Continues, Palos Waiting Until After March 20 to Talk

Update, 5:55 a.m. Wednesday, Feb 29, 2012

A task force created by the Board of Trustees is working with a set of guidelines to determine whether consolidating with the Palos Fire Protection District is a wise move.

Meanwhile, Palos fire officials told Orland that they are now focused on a referendum put on the March 20 ballot asking for more tax money to remain , according to Orland Fire Interim Chief Raymond Kay.

"We sent them a letter to them letting them know our position," Kay said. "The response was that they are involved in a referendum right now and they’ll get back to us. That’s not word-for-word, but that’s the gist of the communication."

The Orland task force is working off of a document produced by VFIS, an insurance provider for emergency responders, called "Fire Department Consolidation Why & How To Do It...Right," to help determine whether a merger is truly worth pursuing, Kay said.

"We’ve taken our mission as we’ll look at feasibility and report back to the board," Kay said. "True consolidation, to do it right, could take two to three years of work."

Board president Jim Hickey, who did not attend Tuesday's fire board meeting, said previously that one of his concerns and motivations for looking into a merger with .

Also at Tuesday's meeting, two longtime Orland fire fighters took voluntary retirement as part of a cost-saving incentive package offered by the board throughout February.

Lieutenant Christopher Smith had served with the district just under 35 years, starting out as a cadet. Engineer Robert Palermo spent 24 years with Orland Fire. Kay described their departures as emotional.

"These guys spent a third of their lives here, as much time as they spend with their families," Kay said. "You have to trust each other with your lives and it's hard to rely on people. There’s a relationship built there. It was hard for these guys to decide it was time to go."

Original Post, 5:55 a.m. Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2012

We just started using a live blog for meetings, and tonight we bring it to the Orland Fire Protection District.

We will be using the live-blogging system Cover It Live to give a minute-by-minute rundown of Tuesday night’s board of trustees meeting. This is still a new effort so we ask for that healthy dose of patience to remain through this round.

Attached is the meeting agenda of what will be discussed tonight. Leading up to the meeting, let me know if there's anything you particularly want to know about in the comments.

Here’s our last meeting covered with the live blogging. The blog’s transcript will remain on the Orland Park Patch site for perusal at a future time as this one.

Questions? Please email me at benjamin@patch.com.