Pingree Grove candidates discuss if village needs its own fire dept.

Two of the three candidates for a two-year seat on Pingree Grove's board of trustees disagree on whether the village should start its own fire department.

The village currently receives emergency services through the Pingree Grove Fire Protection District, but board hopeful Charles Jackson says Pingree Grove's rapid growth warrants a "more modern fire department."

"I think we need to take more steps to become more independent," Jackson said during a Daily Herald endorsement interview. "If we can put seeds in the ground now, we can start sowing them."

Contender Larry Gillie disagrees, saying the current arrangement suits the village. He questions how the village would finance such an endeavor, given the sagging economy.

"Everything is fine the way it is right now," Gillie said. "Planning something is not out of the question, but spending money on something is."

Jon Peschke also is running for the two-year open seat, but could not be reached for comment.

As far as financing the project, Jackson suggested that the village apply for stimulus money and ask Cambridge Homes for help, since the vast majority of Pingree Grove's residents live in the Cambridge Lakes subdivision.

But a top official there could not say whether the developer in a position to lend a hand.

"We haven't had any dialogue with anybody connected to the village regarding that matter, so I'm kind of in the dark," said Jerry Conrad, senior vice president of DRH Cambridge Homes. "I don't have an answer for (Jackson) right now."

The Pingree Grove Fire Protection District covers 49 square miles out of three stations, with three or four firefighters on duty around the clock, 47 paid-on-call firefighters, four fire engines and two ambulances, said Chief Mitch Crocetti.

Last year, the district responded to 875 calls, 77 of them from Pingree Grove, Crocetti said. The district's average response time is seven minutes.

"How do you justify spending millions and millions on 77 calls," Crocetti asked, noting that a fire engine without equipment costs $460,000.