Heated debate: How the future of Peoria Heights' fire department has created conflict

A debate surrounding how to best supplement Peoria Heights' volunteer fire department raised temperatures in the village.

Then, after weeks of rhetoric and fiery public input, the issue is likely to be put to rest after the resignation of a Village Board trustee.

At a meeting on Aug. 15, board members expect that a potential contract with the Peoria Fire Department will be voted down.

"I think it will be rescinded no matter what," Mayor Mike Phelan said, indicating there will not be enough votes for the contract. "We've got to stop, reevaluate and get a chief hired."

Village Board trustees were split over whether to explore a contract with the Peoria Fire Department or find another way to increase the efficiency and staffing of the village's volunteer fire department.

This issue has come up before in Peoria Heights. But this cycle, the debate took a bombastic turn on social media that induced charged rhetoric and led to a contentious meeting at Village Hall.

"The negativity is not helpful; inaccuracies in statements aren't helpful," said Village Board member Beth Khazzam, who was ridiculed by a member of the public for her address and income at a Village Board meeting.

Support for a contract with Peoria waned, a trustee resigned and, ultimately, the idea of pursuing a contract with Peoria will likely be shut down.

At the surface, the debate was centered on the public safety of the village. Below the surface, however, decades of tension in the relationship between Peoria Heights and the city of Peoria are fueling arguments.

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Proponents of a contract between Peoria Heights and the Peoria Fire Department, said a deal would strengthen safety in Peoria Heights and give the village's volunteer fire department a strong backing.

Phelan and board trustees Khazzam and Matt Wigginton supported a contract with Peoria.

"To me, it's about making certain if there's an emergency or God forbid a fire, we get people there as fast as possible to help with that emergency. That's all I care about," Phelan said.

Phelan said his priority now is to see a permanent fire chief installed in Peoria Heights and from there, figure out how to best supplement the volunteer staff. He said he hopes the board will hire approve the hiring of a new chief at its meeting on Sept. 5.

Even those opposed to a contract with Peoria wanted to see temperatures around the debate cooled as public rhetoric flowed. Village Board member Sara Devore said she does not want her opposition to a deal to be perceived as an anti-Peoria stance.

"I am not anti-other agencies; I am for AMT, I am for the Peoria Heights Police Department. ... there is a lot of contention going on right now," Devore said. "My whole time as a trustee I have wanted to bring people together. I don't want there to be this divide. I just wish we could all live a little more harmoniously."

Opponents of a deal believed the village should use its taxpayer dollars to fund a village fire department, not send that money to Peoria. They also worry a deal with the Peoria Fire Department would blur the autonomy of Peoria Heights, a self-governing village that is dwarfed in size by Peoria.

Opponents of the deal included board trustees Brandon Wisenburg, Devore, and Jeff Goett.

"I think first and foremost of democracy," Wisenburg told the Journal Star. "When you live in a town and you have an elected board or government, those governments typically provide your essential core services and as a citizen of that town, you have representation in those services. If we were to get rid of our fire department and solely rely on Peoria, I have no representation in the city of Peoria."

Board Trustee Mark Gauf resigned from the Village Board on Aug. 4. In a vote in July, Gauf backed the contract with Peoria. He later changed his mind.

Phelan will recommend a replacement for Gauf, and that person will have to be approved by the board. Phelan said he hopes this is done at the Sept. 5 meeting, as well.

No contract was ever drawn up for the Peoria Heights Village board to view. It never left a hypothetical state.

How did we get here?

For years, the Peoria Heights Fire Department — made up of roughly 20 volunteers, one chief and one full-time paid firefighter — has struggled with adequate staffing.

Almost all of the department's volunteers are available only during the night hours, leaving daytime staffing perilously thin and volunteers worn out by long schedules.

"The fire department has said when the call volume is high — and we're on pace for over 1,000 calls this year —there's burnout, there's stress," Wigginton said. "So we haven't been able to attract volunteers that are actually going to turn out for calls despite efforts by our paid fire chief and paid assistant chief. They have not been able to secure higher numbers."

Meanwhile, there has been "turmoil" between the village's volunteer firefighters and one full-time staff firefighter, further complicating matters and the need to revamp the department.

"I do believe there is issues between paid professional firefighters and volunteer firefighters," Devore said. "There is a turmoil there, and while I wish that I could solve that, squash it, I don't think that I can. So what does it say to our department that we won't give you money to be stronger, but we will give money to the city of Peoria?"

Proponents of a deal with Peoria say a contract is the most efficient, and safest, way to solve the staffing issues facing the village fire department. The Peoria Heights Fire Department can already call on Peoria's Fire Department using a MABAS box, which alerts neighboring departments to a need for mutual aid.

"What we're trying to do is address those staffing issues, so the choice was to preserve the volunteer fire department by supporting them with a contract with Peoria," Wigginton said. "But it sounds like some of my other trustees are more in favor of paying for staff for our fire department. I don't know how that works with a volunteer fire department."

With plans for a deal with Peoria put to rest, other potential plans put forward by trustees include having three to six paid firefighters in Peoria Heights working to supplement hours when volunteers are unavailable.

"Other departments look at what their peak call volume is and then they schedule to have staff at those times and, obviously, that would have to largely be during the day because people are at work and we have less volunteers to help," Devore said. "My hybrid model would be more like our own paid (staff) and still having volunteers."

Opponents of that plan do not feel it is solid enough to best the contract idea with Peoria.

"What makes me nervous is at what point, if we decide not to contract with Peoria and we decide to financially support our volunteer department and have it a paid department, where is the limit?" Khazzam said. "Is it three full-time paid positions? Is it five? Where is that threshold? There are ideas floating around but nothing that is hard and true. We don't know that information."

Peoria Heights fights to stay separate from Peoria

An outsider visiting the Peoria area probably would not be able to discern Peoria Heights from Peoria. There is no major geographic boundary between the city of 111,000 people and the village of just under 6,000.

But to natives of both cities, there are discernible differences between the village and Peoria — differences Peoria Heights has long sought to protect.

The debate over the village's fire department is just a microcosm of that issue.

"I've worked very hard to protect the identity of Peoria Heights my whole life and that is very, very important to me, but that is not as important as the safety of the people," Phelan said. "I don't want to have a situation where we can't get people help in the quickest manner possible."

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Devore says she is not in any way anti-Peoria but rather believes that Peoria Heights should do everything it can to maintain its autonomy from its larger neighbor.

"People want to see us remain the Heights," Devore said. "I wouldn't say I disagree with that. I have been accused of making my decisions based on nostalgia, but it's not nostalgia for me. We are our own municipality, and I think we should be our own municipality."

Others understand the desire for Peoria Heights to remain strongly independent from Peoria but feel cooperation is still needed for survival.

Wisenburg said he and others on the village board were upset to learn that members of the Peoria City Council, specifically Councilmember Chuck Grayeb, were discussing the potential Peoria-Peoria Heights contract with Sollberger, the Peoria fire chief.

"Community matters, and I think people want a say in their local government," Wisenburg said. "They want a service that not only they voted for but they want it ran by people they voted for. The citizens of Peoria Heights are smart people. They understand the challenges ahead of us and they are determined to support their fire department."

Grayeb said the decision before the Peoria Heights Village Board is a decision for the Village Board to make and he will respect whatever it decides to do. He also argued, however, that he is within his right as a Peoria City Council member to discuss public safety with the fire chief, particularly given that any contract between Peoria and Peoria Heights would have to be approved by the Peoria City Council and Peoria Heights Village Board.

"It's a Peoria Heights issue. I love the people of Peoria Heights and I have a great relationship with their leaders, but it's an internal matter and I don't think the city of Peoria should be telling them what they should do. They should only do what they think they should do," Grayeb said.

Village trustees such as Wigginton say it is a "false narrative" that contracting with the Peoria Fire Department will cause Peoria Heights to lose some of its identity.

"What we're doing with this contract with Peoria is we're preserving our volunteer fire department, we're keeping our own," Wigginton said. "The status quo of our fire department remains the same. In support of our fire department, we're contracting a career-department in Peoria."

Devore said this issue is not a Peoria Heights vs. Peoria issue. Rather, it is an issue of Peoria Heights governing itself.

"I worry we lose control in some ways," Devore said. "Maybe we're not happy with the way things are going with Peoria fire, but if in the process we were to lose our volunteers or our engines — because that's a threat that's been given, too — then what? Then we as a village board have no control. We don't get to vote how Peoria handles its fire department; we don't get a vote on how their city council does things. We were elected to vote for our constituents."

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This article originally appeared on Journal Star: Debate around future of Peoria Heights Fire Department splits village