Andy Kravetz
Journal Star, Peoria, Ill.
PEORIA, Ill. — With nine of 10 precincts reporting, Bartonville voters have said they would be willing to pay a bit more to have on-call firefighters within its volunteer department.
The vote, which is strictly advisory, wouldn’t establish a stand-by crew nor does it set any parameters on how they would be used or serve. Rather, it merely asked if village residents would want such a thing if they had to pay for it.
Roughly 70% or 1,942 voters, said yes to the referendum while about 30%, or 831 voters, said no. There is still one precinct left to report its totals, but at that margin the outcome is unlikely to change.
The idea is that with a volunteer department like Bartonville, there are some times when its hard to get people to be on duty. Having a crew that was on stand-by would help with those periods.
It doesn’t, officials have said in the past, begin a path to the elimination of the volunteer fire service.
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(c)2020 the Journal Star (Peoria, Ill.)