It seems the adage is true: It takes a village.
In this case, an outspoken one.
Following a recent decision from village officials to close the fire station at 831 E Lake Ave. and reallocate its resources to the other stations, a group of Glenview residents spoke out. In response, the village decided to reverse its plan, keep all five stations open and revisit the data to explore other options.
Residents, first responders and other stakeholders said they should have been more involved in the process and expressed concern that closing a station on the east side would lead to longer response times. A rally held outside the station Saturday brought out a few hundred attendees.
“When I saw the village of Glenview completely ignoring their taxpayers, their residents, their firefighters, I was mad, and I felt like I had to do something,” said Glenbrook High School sophomore Drew Duffy, who organized the rally. “This is us taking a stand.”
In response to the growing backlash, the Glenview Village Board called a special meeting Monday night to hear public comment and discuss the issue further.
“While our job is to make decisions based on data and expert opinions that we believe are in the best interest of the entire community, our job is also about representing you,” Trustee Michael Jenny said during the meeting. “That means listening and hearing your concerns.”
More than 50 individuals called in to the virtual meeting to share their thoughts. They pointed to public safety issues and a lack of transparency from the village. Many shared personal stories and instances in which the timely arrival of the fire department saved their loved ones.
“The worst moments of my life in the last year are the minutes that we wait for the fire department to show up,” one resident said, referring to incidents with his infant daughter. “You have no idea how much relief I get when I hear those sirens and I see the flashing lights.”
The original decision to close came after a review process of the fire department that began in 2019 and a report presented in September by Missouri-based consultants Fitch & Associates.
The study found that Station 13’s resources were the least used in the village and that about 65% of annual calls to the department fall under emergency medical services rather than incidents like fires.
The aim of the study and the subsequent decision to close the station had goals of using resources more effectively and efficiently while saving money, according to officials. They said the closure and reallocation were expected to provide annual cost savings of about $1.25 million.
Closing Station 13 was also intended to increase the number of 24-hour ambulances and move resources and staff “where they are most needed,” according to the report.
Opponents of the plan said the board didn’t actually listen to the experts, though, who said during their September report that they didn’t see a need to eliminate the facility. Consultants pointed out that the next closest station, Station 6, is the village’s busiest. This means that without Station 13, Station 6 would have to cover both areas and could lead to longer response times, they said.
After listening to the hours of public comment Monday, several trustees apologized to the community and said they need to find better ways to ensure residents’ voices and perspectives are acknowledged and understood.
“As a board, we could have and should have done better,” Trustee John Hinkamp said. “I think we should have involved people in an earlier time. All I can really say is that we were, in my opinion, wrong in not doing it — I don’t want to say more open. We weren’t being deliberately deceptive. But we should have been more conscientious of it.”
The board directed staff to instead explore efficiencies through jump companies, also known as cross-staffing. This was a previous option explored and discussed through the study. According to reports, it involves personnel staffing multiple vehicles, “jumping” from ambulances to fire trucks depending on the type of call, for example.
Some residents and firefighters are still unsure of this solution, though. Jesse Gallagher, president of the Glenview Firefighters Local 4186 union, said jump companies sound good but introduce new risks and could still lengthen response times.
“Our next actions will depend on how these changes are implemented,” he said after the meeting. “We hope the village trustees are willing to listen to the concerns of the people that do this work for them every day.”
Gallagher has been vocal about the closure for weeks, providing updates on the union website and encouraging people to reach out to village officials with their concerns.
The union also organized yard signs for those interested. The red signs, emblazoned with their “Save Fire Station 13? message, speckled the yards of many homes on the east side of Glenview Saturday. Some were scattered throughout the rest of the village as well.
A similar sea of red signs and shirts filled the space in front of the fire station during the rally.
Michelle Kaufman lives near the fire station and said her family made the move to that spot because of its proximity to the facility. As a nurse, she said she knows how important every minute is in a crisis and that trains and traffic keeping other engines from getting to the east side could lead to a “detrimental” situation.
“Those are minutes and minutes and minutes of lost time,” she said. “It makes all the difference to have somebody right there, knowing that they are there to save you just in case you need it.”
Duffy, Gallagher and other firefighters spoke to the crowd about their grievances and the ways in which the village didn’t listen to them or experts throughout the process.
“If elected officials are going to change public safety and cut services to your neighborhood, they should talk to you first,” Gallagher said, returned with applause from attendees.
Duffy also invited sitting board members to speak to the crowd, but no one stepped forward. Village President Jim Patterson was present at the rally and spoke to individuals and members of the press but did not offer a widespread address.
On Monday night, he explained that neither the decision to close nor the reversal of that decision were formally voted on by the board. Since they were administrative rather than legislative issues, the board gave direction to staff who then made the decisions.
“It was somewhat of the opinion that we were giving it some light with the September presentation and the February presentation, but apparently not enough, given the community’s response, so I will acknowledge that,” he said, referring to claims that the decision was made secretly.
Fire Chief Tony DeRose and staff were directed to keep monitoring data and to develop and implement a new plan involving jump companies. They are expected to back an update to the board at a later date.
“We’ve committed to continual review of the data, just like any decision, and I think it will unfold over the coming months as 2021 goes on,” Jenny said. “We’ll have to ask staff to continue to monitor the call data in as transparent a manner as possible.”
Twitter: @kaitlinedquist