Do you live in a fire department or fire protection district?
By Charles Bolinger
Editor
Some taxpayers may think as long as they pay for fire service and it works when needed, it doesn’t matter what they call it.
However, there are differences between a fire department and a fire protection district. Maryville Fire Chief Doug Dankenbring has worked in both.
“I have worked for both a municipal fire department, Maryville, and a fire protection district, Godfrey,” he said. “Technically, I work for both now, as Maryville does still have a small fire protection district, located in the unincorporated parts of Madison County.
“A municipal fire department is funded by its village, town or city,” he said. “I have a budget that is developed by the fire chief, the village administrator, the mayor, and a village trustee who is also the finance liaison,” Dankenbring noted. “That budget (along with budgets of other department heads) is presented to the village board of trustees for approval. The fire department follows ordinances established by the village, along with our own policies and procedures. I answer to the village administrator, then the mayor and trustees.”
In other words, his department competes with the village’s police, parks and recreation, public works, human resources and information technology departments for the same pot of money, usually the general fund.
“Someone who lives in the village limits does not have a separate ‘fire protection’ line item on their tax bill,” he went on. “Our budget is based on taxes generated under ‘Village of Maryville’ on their property tax bill.”
In a fire protection district, the district has its own board of trustees and are not part of the village, city, town government, he said. “The fire protection district is its own governmental agency. The fire chief still answers to the protection district board. Revenue is gained through taxes separate from the respective village, city, town, etc. Someone who lives in a fire protection district will have an ‘XYZ Fire’ line item on their tax bill. This is how revenue is generated in a protection district.”
According to the Mazon, Illinois Fire Protection District’s website, “The main driving factor [of a fire protection district] is to bring smaller communities and unincorporated areas together under one fire service provider. This helps to provide better service to all the area while reducing redundancy in service and costs associated with this redundancy.
“Often, small neighboring communities will have stations very close together because of the size of these communities,” the site continued. “Each of these communities will have several types of fire apparatus as well to service each community. This close proximity and large number of apparatus causes an overlap in coverage based on time and distance. Stations staffing and apparatus are a big cost to each community. Having the ability to share these resources while providing better area coverage makes fire districts very effective.”
Aside from Maryville, Collinsville, Highland and St. Jacob also have fire departments. Glen Carbon has a fire protection district, as does Marine. In neighboring Troy, Fire Protection District Chief Darren Davis echoed Dankenbring’s comments.
“A fire department is a department typically found within a municipal agency, which is a division of a city, town, or county, for example, Edwardsville,” Davis said. “Their funding comes from property sales taxes and other revenue sources, such as ambulance fees if they provide that service. They are typically governed by the mayor or the city council. The firefighters/paramedics are employees of the city or county. The leadership and the fire chief typically report to the mayor, the city manager or the council members.”
Meanwhile he said a fire district is an independent special district created under state law to provide fire and emergency services to a defined geographical area. A fire district is governed by a board of trustees that is appointed in most cases by the county chair. Funding is typically derived from property taxes or ambulance fees if they provide emergency medical services. The fire chief reports directly to the board of trustees. Staff can be 100 percent volunteer, paid on call or a mix.
Fire protection districts tend to have more latitude to get things done, such as buying supplies, uniforms, new vehicles and conducting training, since they do not have to compete with other entities for the same pool of funds.
Davis has been a fire protection district lifer. “I have not worked for a fire department; my entire time with the fire service has been with the fire districts,” he said. “Having said that, I am familiar with how fire departments operate and conduct day-to-day operations.”
