Politics & Government

Tinley Firefighters Want More Staff

A breakdown of what the village's public safety departments want to see in the coming year, 2 of 2.

On Thursday, Tinley Park's police, fire and emergency management workers pitched their budget requests for next fiscal year to the village board's Public Safety Committee.

We've been posting the different departments' requests through the day.

The committee will take their recommendations to the full board in an all-day budget meeting on March 24. The new budget will start May 1 and run until April 30, 2012.

Find out what's happening in Tinley Parkwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Here's what the fire department and emergency management agency asked for:

Fire Suppression Budget Request: $3,310,617, a 0.8-percent increase over this year

Find out what's happening in Tinley Parkwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Fire Suppression Capital Requests:$284,178 (the biggest requests were a $100,000 transfer into the fire apparatus replacement fund and $54,300 for rescue tools)

Fire Suppression Staffing Requests: $383,412 (of that, $361,588 was for hiring two firefighters and $21,824 for a reorganization of assistant and deputy chiefs)

Fire Prevention Budget Request: $820,364, a 1.2-percent increase over this year

Fire Prevention Capital Requests: $36,720 (the three requests were $23,520 for a 2011 Ford Explorer, $10,000 to equip the Explorer and $3,200 for the village's share of a $15,400 FEMA grant the department is applying for)

Fire suppression is putting out fires and the usual services people associate with a fire department. Fire prevention is the education, public safety and outreach on everything from fire safety to CPR training people are coming to associate with a fire department.

Although the department asked for $361,588 for a new full-year officer and a new full-year engineer, the committee went with Niehaus' suggestion of approving $92,303 for one half-year officer now and considering the request again in November.

The department wants to start staffing Station 2 full-time. Currently, the department has four full-time firefighters and a shift commander at Station 1, three full-time firefighters at Station 3 and four at Station 4.

These are different than the approximately 120 part-time firefighters active with the department.

The department and the village board both want to get to having three and eventually four full-time firefighters at all four stations. It's just a matter of how quickly that happens.

"I think I would rather walk than run and see if, budget-wise, we can support it," Niehaus said.

Those numbers include benefits, FICA and retirement contributions. Officers get paid $18.16 an hour and engineers $17.41 an hour, both double on holidays. If approved by the full board later this month, the half-year officer's base salary will be about $82,000.

The department also wants $21,824 to reorganize the deputy and assistant chiefs. The distinction between "deputy chief" and "assistant chief" made sense when Tinley Park was a volunteer fire department, but now all four men have basically the same job, if not the same pay, Chief Kenneth Dunn said.

The nearly $22,000 would get the four salaries aligned, as well as cover some shuffling as a captain becomes an assistant chief and a lieutenant becomes a captain. This is the second year the department has tried to get this approved.

Emergency Management Agency

Budget Request: $801,540, a 3-percent increase over this year

Capital Requests: $12,550 (the three requests were $10,250 for a portable light tower, $1,275 for 25 carbon canisters for and $1,025 for 40 gas mask canisters)

Most of the 3-percent increase in the EMA budget was because Director Pat Carr went from 20 hours a week to 30 hours a week.

See the police department's requests, posted earlier this morning.

See , posted earlier this week.


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