Weston trustees send draft fire-fee ordinance to attorney after debate over SAFER grant and mutual aid

At a special meeting of the Village of Weston Board of Trustees on 2025-09-09, trustees voted 3-2 to send a draft ordinance to the municipal attorney to create an annual fire fee if needed to fund fire department staffing.

The vote followed an extended discussion of alternatives including accepting a SAFER grant that would add nine firefighters, a smaller staffing increase of three without the grant, using fund balance for a one‑time gap and putting a public referendum on the ballot. Trustee Cronin moved to send the draft ordinance to the municipal attorney; Trustee Joe Jordan seconded the motion and it passed 3-2.

The village’s fire chief said the department relies on mutual aid and automatic aid frequently and that the local Mavis resource “is not designed to be used for everyday calls” but for larger incidents. The chief reported that this year the department is on pace to request mutual aid about 150 times, and that the village provides mutual aid to other communities about 60 times. He described several recent days in which multiple simultaneous calls left large parts of the area without coverage.

Officials and trustees discussed the financial mechanics of a fee versus a referendum. Staff said the Department of Revenue advises that implementing a fire fee for 2026 would require a levy reduction of slightly more than $120,000 (staff described it as “just slightly over a $120,000” decrease). Staff also estimated that lost ambulance revenue from outsourcing some ambulance runs could be in the range of $50,000 to $75,000 annually if the village cannot staff ambulances.

Trustees outlined three budget scenarios the board and SAFER would consider: accept the grant and add nine firefighters; the grant fails and the village hires three firefighters now and stages further hires later; or maintain current staffing and pursue a fee or referendum. Trustee Cronin summarized the board’s position before making the motion: “I’m not in favor of kicking this down the road,” and moved to send the draft ordinance to the municipal attorney.

The board directed staff to provide an ordinance draft for attorney review and to return the item for board discussion at a future meeting. Trustees discussed timing: to be on tax bills for 2026 the village must be ready for notice and public hearing cycles in October; staff said October 20 would be a critical deadline for notice to meet the tax‑bill schedule. The board estimated attorney review of a draft ordinance would be in the range of $3,000–$3,500 based on prior legal work.

Next steps: the municipal attorney will be asked to prepare a formal ordinance draft and supporting materials for a public hearing and future board action. The board scheduled further budget hearings in September and October and indicated the ordinance would likely return to the board for consideration in October if timelines allow.