Antioch Fire Department officials say a tax levy increase is necessary to fund repairs to its fire stations, among other needs.
Last month, the department’s board of trustees voted to raise the tax levy via referendum on the June 28 primary ballot. Since then, the department has been monitoring social media for public response and has seen some opposition. It decided to do something about it:
“To be completely transparent to the voters, we will be doing a #fridayfive (#Friday5) until the referendum vote takes place June 28. We feel this is the best way to get the truth out to voters,” the department says in a memo on its website.
“Let’s be clear: These are your questions on social media. We have been reviewing social media for questions directly from you-the voters-across multiple social media outlets. Like we said, we want the truth out there to give the most accurate information possible before residents vote in June. So, we plan to do a #FridayFive every week, so if we didn’t get to your question this week, we’ll try to get to it next week.”
Some sample questions:
“Why does it have to be a referendum? Why can’t the Antioch Fire Department start a go fund me to get the stations fixed?”
“The fire department is a long-term investment in the community. We are here to provide you with Emergency Services requiring a long-term funding solution. This referendum is for more than just making repairs at all the stations. We need sustainable funding to provide staff to help our residents in the village of Antioch and throughout Antioch Township.
“In our short-term goals spanning the next five (5) years, we need to offer higher wages and a better benefits package to retain a staff that is highly trained to meet the growing needs of the Antioch community. We need to start planning to transition from a part-time/contract department to a full-time department to ensure we have a consistent staff to meet the needs of our ever-changing community.
“We also need to institute a consistent vehicle replacement plan. We have a plan for each vehicle; however, that plan dramatically pushes the life limits of some of these vehicles. Understand, these are emergency vehicles that NEED to run. We cannot ever cross our fingers and hope these vehicles start when we need them on a cold day. It would be catastrophic for residents if we double our response time on one call because our ambulance didn’t start. So, it’s imperative our ambulances start every single time. While we do have a comprehensive maintenance plan that includes scheduled maintenance and emergency repair, the fact of the matter is these emergency vehicles-like your own cars-get old and need to be replaced.”
