Rural fire district made big mistake

My family lives just west of St. Charles in the Village of Campton Hills. We are currently in the Fox River & Countryside Fire/Rescue District and all of this will change on May 1.

There are many people in our village who are very concerned about the district’s recent change, the formation of a new fire department and the quality of service this appointed group will be providing.

For many years our community had a good working relationship with the City of St. Charles and the neighboring fire districts. So good that Campton Hills residents approved an advisory referendum question last November to increase our taxes so we could continue to contract fire and rescue services with the City of St. Charles and surrounding towns to share services if needed.

Why did the district board ignore the will of the people of Campton Hills and start buying equipment and building fire stations before anyone knew what they were up to? Through April 30 we have agreements with other surrounding towns and fire districts to share services, but after that date the new district takes over and no information have been given to the citizens about continuing to share services with other communities.

We are forced to accept their idea of acceptable levels of service based on their numbers. This group disregarded the Campton Hills taxpayers’ desire to increase taxes to keep the current level of services provided by the City of St. Charles and jeopardized our mutual aid agreements with surrounding communities for the standby help.

The people of Campton Hills should explore the idea of our own Campton Hills Fire and Rescue service and separate from Kane County politics. Vote YES to “investigate” the formation of a Campton Hills Fire Department on April 5. Early voting is available now.

Cliff Speare

Campton Hills