IL Village Votes to Fund On-Call Firefighters

    Nov. 4, 2020
    The advisory vote doesn't establish a standby crew for Bartonville's volunteer fire department, but it does show that voters support paying for those on-call firefighters.

    By Andy Kravetz

    Source Journal Star, Peoria, Ill.

    Bartonville, IL, Fire Department
    Bartonville Fire Dept Apparatus Il 5fa2c80ba972f

    PEORIA, IL—With nine of 10 precincts reporting, Bartonville voters have said they would be willing to pay a bit more to have on-call firefighters within its volunteer department.

    The vote, which is strictly advisory, wouldn't establish a standby crew nor does it set any parameters on how they would be used or serve. Rather, it merely asked if village residents would want such a thing if they had to pay for it.

    Roughly 70% or 1,942 voters, said yes to the referendum while about 30%, or 831 voters, said no. There is still one precinct left to report its totals, but at that margin the outcome is unlikely to change.

    The idea is that with a volunteer department like Bartonville, there are some times when its hard to get people to be on duty. Having a crew that was on stand-by would help with those periods.

    It doesn't, officials have said in the past, begin a path to the elimination of the volunteer fire service.

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