Weeks after the Cary Village Board discussed subsidizing the Cary Fire Protection District to prevent the district from changing dispatch providers, the fire district’s Board of Trustees said it is not interested in taking money from the village.
Trustees made their position clear at a meeting last week in which they directed Fire Chief Jeffrey Macko to tell representatives from the village and SEECOM it will not accept a subsidy from the village.
Village Administrator Chris Clark had raised the idea of a $25,000 to $30,000 “financial bridge” at the Committee of the Whole’s May 6 meeting after the fire district received a less expensive contract offer from NERCOMM, the McHenry dispatch center.
Currently, both village police and fire services are dispatched through Crystal Lake-based SEECOM. If the fire district moves to the McHenry center, all calls would be routed there, and police calls would require a transfer to SEECOM, which would lead to a short delay.
At Thursday’s meeting, fire trustees said much of the county already has fractionalized service, including parts of Cary’s district in unincorporated McHenry and Lake counties.