As the Village of Bellevue continues to grow, so does the need for 24-hour emergency response. “Right now, we've got 155 single family residential units that are coming in; and just across the street here, this has come up in the past two years,” Village Administrator Diane Wessel said.
Currently, Bellevue’s Fire Station 1 is staffed 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. On weekends its 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. resulting in slower response times after hours. Fire Station 2 is not staffed at all.
“When we're here, it's anywhere from 5-6 minutes would be a good average when you look at the area we cover. When we're not, you're looking at anywhere from 12-13 minutes, and that's a substantial difference,” said Fire Chief, Jack Mlnarik.
The department has nine full time firefighters and about 35 part time.