Retired assistant chief tells council closing East College fire station would hinder response times

John Greasek, identified in the meeting introduction as a retired assistant chief of the Normal Fire Department, spoke during public comment on Jan. 5 urging the council not to close the East College Avenue station.

Greasek said the NFPA standard requires the first engine on scene within four minutes 90% of the time and argued the town would have difficulty meeting that standard if Station 2 were closed. “The NFPA standard requires that first engine 4 minutes on scene 90% of the time,” he said, and added that automatic aid from Bloomington would not provide guaranteed, automatic dispatch without a formal automatic‑aid agreement.

Greasek further noted that 41% of the population in the affected district is classified in the presentation as vulnerable or high‑risk for fire and recounted a recent call where Station 2 personnel arrived quickly and aided in a recovery; he warned closing the station could jeopardize life‑saving responses.

Council and staff response: Council indicated interest in reviewing internal response data in a future work session; an unidentified town speaker (during the meeting) responded that the town has collected and validated emergency‑response data and that staff have used modeling and GIS to evaluate response coverage, asserting that data modeling does not show a problem that would be created by opening a new Station 2 configuration. The council asked staff to schedule a work session to share the internal data requested by public commenters.

Provenance: Public comment and ensuing exchange recorded SEG 831–926 and 1041–1163.