Politics & Government

Palos, Orland Fire Merger Floated By Board President

Palos Fire Protection District Chief Steven Carr was surprised to hear news about possibly merging with the Orland Fire Protection District.

Updated 4:55 p.m. Friday with details from Hickey's release

The to address budget issues that have plagued the organization in recent years. Yesterday news broke that a merger with the was being floated by at least one board member.

Jim Hickey, president of the Orland district's board, shared the notion in a news release yesterday. Hickey spoke with Sun-Times Media

Find out what's happening in Paloswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Hickey said he didn’t know what made more sense — an outright merger or Orland providing fire and ambulance services to the Palos district on a contractual basis.

“If we were able to combine forces, we would be able to better provide fire services,” he told the SouthtownStar.

Find out what's happening in Paloswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Palos Fire Chief Steven Carr told Patch the talk took him by surprise.

"It was the first time that I had been made aware that there was movement in that direction," he said. 

While area fire chiefs and other organizations do talk about consolidating services and other cost cutting options, a direct merger between Palos and Orland has never been discussed, Carr said. 

He added that neither he nor Palos board members have discussed the issue with Orland.

"We are trying to address the situation that we have here before us," Carr said.

Hickey described a possible merger as "just an idea." He is planning to propose creating a task force to explore merging at the OFPD board meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 24.

“Consolidation is something government has to consider across the board, not just in the Orland Fire Protection District,” Hickey said in the release. “The governor of Illinois is doing it. Officials across the country are doing it. We should be vigilant for opportunities to reduce the tax burden on our taxpayers especially in today’s economy.”

Read: 

The Palos Fire Protection District currently serves all of Palos Park and portions of Palos Heights and Orland Park. The district boundaries are The Cal-Sag Channel and 135th Street in the north and south, and 76th Avenue and Will-Cook Road to the east and west.

If the two were to merge, the new singular district would be charged with providing services to about 104,000 residents.

The Palos district recently cut six part-time positions and this month began to shut down one of its two stations several days a week.  

The Orland Fire Protection District regularly makes news on Orland Park Patch. To read past stories visit the topic page devoted to the subject


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