City Council To Allow Employees To Serve As Firefighters
By Gordon Hopkins
With the recent spate of wildfires in mind, particularly the Rock Creek Station fire that occurred in April and burned an estimated 1,800 acres, the Fairbury City Council voted to approve a resolution to allow city employees to serve as volunteer firefighters.
Resolution 1228 states, in part, “City employees who are members of the Municipal Fire Depot fluent may, while conducting their duties as City employees, respond to calls for service as a member of the Municipal Fire Department where doing so would not immediately or proximately endanger or place in harm the life of another or cause destruction or damage to property of the City.”
The resolution also establishes employees will get paid for their time, “City employees responding to a call for service as a member of the Municipal Fire Department while conducting their duties as City employees will not be required to take time off, whether paid or unpaid, during the duration of the call for service.”
At a meeting of the Fairbury City Council on Tuesday, May 2, City Attorney Kurth Brashear said, “Members of the volunteer fire department, if there is a fire call, while they are doing their city duties can respond to that as long as leaving their current duty would not imperil life.”
“I surely would appreciate the resolution to help support our volunteers. Right now I know that we have one city employee,” said Fairbury Rural Fire Chief Ken Krause. “I would hope this would encourage city employees to help us out.”
