Fire Department referendum remains a critical issue
By Kellen Olshefski
Correspondent
The City of Elkhorn is planning on looking into disabled parking in the downtown area in light of concerns raised recently by a local resident.
City Administrator James Heilman said last week he’s been talking to a resident who regularly uses disabled parking and feels that the downtown area is in dire need of more disabled parking.
Heilman said the City is planning to take a closer look at what is available, admitting that disabled parking is lacking along Walworth Street specifically, and the few that are available tend to be occupied quickly when events are occurring in the downtown area.
Heilman said the resident had regularly attended Elkhorn Oktoberfest in the past, though with the inability to find a parking spot this year, decided it was too difficult to handle.
“So, we’re going to take a look at it and bring something back,” he said.
FD referendum update
Heilamn also noted last Monday night that the Fire Advisory Council would be meeting last Thursday to further discuss a future Elkhorn Area Fire Department referendum.
He said the funding projection and wording of the referendum has, for the most part, been finalized at this point and the discussion would likely center around public outreach and which groups to address in the future in areas covered by the fire department, such as Sugar Creek, Lafayette and the Town of Geneva.
“This is not something that we’re trying to sell, we’re just trying to inform the people that times have changed and it’s very hard to get crews out there when that bell sounds,” Heilman said. “We need to assure that, and each year it gets a bit harder.”
While the department still has a robust number of volunteers, Heilman noted it’s becoming more difficult to pull together a crew to run a rig during the daytime hours.
“This is public safety, and you don’t hope for the best or try to make it work,” he said. “We will not send out vehicles, fire trucks or ambulances without a proper crew. Those people and their safety depends on having a proper crew to get them out the door.”
Heilman said this is a critical issue that will be discussed with residents.
“We’ve operated a volunteer fire department for years, and we’re very proud of them, we still are. But, we’ve reached a point where we just have to ensure our public safety, and that’s becoming very hard,” he said.
Heilman said the Council will be working on putting together ways to reach out to the public at Thursday’s meeting, as well as ways to receive and answer to questions and comments from the public on the referendum.
