With voters rejecting an assessment increase four straight times, most recently in March of 2020, the Higgins Fire Department continues to look for ways reduce response times. Appearing recently on KNCO’s “On the Town”, Chief Jerry Good says the current assessment of just 25 dollars has been on the books for about 40 years. The last proposal was to raise it 240 dollars…

click to listen to Chief Good

The Dog Bar station was closed in 2017, after grant money ran out that kept it running when a 2015 assessment proposal failed….

click to listen to Chief Good

Good admits the two-thirds approval threshhold has been daunting. He says a strategy meeting has been scheduled for January. And he says that will include a discussion of possibly floating a measure that would only need majority approval, similar to the success, in November, of the Peardale Chicago Park Fire Disrict. And they’re also planning a Rookie Academy to improve volunteer firefighter staffing.