I served on the Aurora and St.Charles Fire Departments where I spent 38-Yrs in the Fire Service. I moved through the ranks from FF/P to Lt. Capt.Deputy Chief of Operations, Asst. Fire Chief and Fire Marshal. I have the necessary background in building & fire codes. I have an understanding of fire ground operations, and management of support services. In 2009 I retired from the St.Charles Fire Dept. I currently conduct health& life safety inspections for the Kane County Regional Office of Education. I believe I have the the necessary time, and qualifications to serve the community in this capacity.
To maintain respectability as a responsible fiduciary for the citizen taxpayers within the Elburn & Countryside Fire Protection District. As a former fire command staff officer, I realize a commitment to the basic principles of providing emergency services to the community. ”Protection“ represents a wide range of emergency services the dept. provides to protect and serve the citizens of the ECFPD. These include fire suppression,rescue,emergency medical services and other essential services that protect the lives and property within the the community.
I foresee future growth issues within the the fire protection district. ( A real concern when the economy improves.)New development plans are on the docket and scheduled in the near future. For example, Settlements on the Fox, additional retail near the train station, the Anderson road bypass bridge to reroute truck traffic from the downtown area, and the Elburn Station Development, with 2000 units is proposed. All of these concerns will have an impact on how we deliver emergency services. So, I would have to say to maintain current service levels we will need to study, and evaluate if the current tax levy is sufficient. As a taxpayer myself, I understand the housing market crisis and how our property values dropped significantly. I definitely will do all I can to hold the line on any tax increase, while keeping a close eye on the needs for future growth. We do need to keep in pace with growth instead of playing catch up when current resources are exhausted. No one likes tax increases, and we do need to look at imposing impact fees on the developers, while reducing the tax burden on our citizens. While fire protection officials must always be concerned with reducing total cost of fire loss, plus costs of insurance, prevention, and suppression, citizens living in tight economic times will ultimately reserve the right to make decisions on any form of a tax increase.
Currently,I am not aware of any disagreements with decisions made by the present board members.
I feel they successfully interviewed and approved the hiring of a highly experienced candidate, to fill the vacancy of the Assistant Fire Chief position.
I have the background and knowledge of all aspects of running a fire & emergency service. I have the necessary time, and will be committed to deliver the best service to our community.
Working for a municipality I feel that I have a good understanding of certain policies and procedures for a government body so that I can add input to the board to assist in decision making. Also, with my background in mechanics, I feel that I can be an asset when it comes towards purchasing or repairing Fire and EMS vehicles and mechanical equipment.
Increase the current Board of Trustees from 3 Trustees to 5 due to the large size of the Fire District and the amount of tax revenue that it collects. 3 Trustees do not provide adequate representation of the Fire District where 5 would be more suitable.
It is my understanding that the current board of trustees has frozen the levy for the current taxing year. This is something that would have to be looked at every year to see how the economy improves. The fire district certainly needs to maintain its current level of emergency services to the public, if not only make them better, and I believe to continually freeze the levy without just cause could be detrimental to providing continued excellent customer service to the district residents. Each year this needs to be evaluated carefully.
I believe that the current board has done an excellent job with maintaining a very high level of standards for the fire district. If elected I would like to continue this, if not make more improvements in customer service to district residents. Currently, I do not disagree with any decisions the current board has made.
The current board continues to support the community by extensive training of the members of the department, and they also continue to provide essential equipment on an as needed or replacement basis. I feel that this keeps the department current with technology and training of its members using new equipment purchased by the current board.
I would like to bring an outside fresh opinion to the board of trustees and continue to work with the members and leadership staff towards a very positive and progressive department. I would like to see an additional station constructed in the Northern part of the fire district to help reduce response times to that area and I would also like to see the current downtown station relocated to an area away from the Union Pacific Railroad in the event that a rail accident occurs potentially disabling response from the current downtown station.
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