CALUMET PARK, Ill. (AP) – Calumet Park officials have approved an agreement for private fire services in a move the village attorney calls “historic.”
The (Tinley Park) Daily Southtown reports the village board approved a separation agreement with its firefighters’ union and a five-year contract with Kurtz Ambulance Service for fire protection and ambulance services.
Village Attorney Burt Odelson says it will cause a “chain reaction in the south suburbs with the communities that just can’t afford to pay the high salaries, the overtime, and the equipment.”
Odelson previously engineered privatization in North Riverside that state labor regulators overturned.
Kurtz takes over Dec. 1. It will supply 12 full-time staff members who are firefighters and paramedics in four-person shifts. The village currently has 30 part-time firefighters.
Calumet Park will pay $825,000 in the first year.
