La Grange Park Adds Two New Paid-on-call Firefighters

La Grange Park added two new paid-on-call firefighters February 24.

La Grange resident Veronica Gussie and La Grange Park resident John “Jack” Powers had their badges pinned by relatives in a ceremony in the La Grange Park boardroom.

“Each of these people were hired in the last two years,” Fire Chief Dean Maggos told a room full of supporters. “Both attended the basic firefighters operations academy. They attended nights and weekends, most of the time two nights a week and the weekend for several hours.”

The firefighters talked about their new responsibilities.

“I‘m very honored and it’s a privilege to work for the department of La Grange Park,” Powers said after the ceremony. “I grew up in La Grange Park and my wife and I are fortunate to own a home in La Grange Park.”

Gussie said she was “honored to be here,” saying when La Grange Park opened its boundaries to allow firefighter candidates from nearby towns, she jumped at the chance to apply.

Maggos pointed out that both firefighters were required to become state-certified EMTs in addition to everything else that was going on in their lives.

“After that, they went through a rigorous training to make sure they could drive our vehicles and, once they were able to drive and were properly licensed, they then had to learn how to operate them at the scene of a fire,” he said.

“Both of them really, really worked extremely hard in getting to this point. … Both have contributed an enormous amount to our community and our fire department.”

Maggos said Gussie and Powers had performed excellently in their probationary period, saying “they are among the most solid firefighters we have at this early point in their careers.”

Maggos stressed the importance of La Grange Park’s existing firefighters in training the new hires.

Contacted later, Maggos noted that the department was in good shape in terms of firefighters available.

“We’re staffed really well right now,” he said. “We hired five additional personnel in January and they’re in the fire academy now. They are in the beginning of training.”

Maggos said the benefit of expanding the department’s boundaries, pointing out that there were already several paid-on-call firefighters working in La Grange Park from nearby municipalities.

In other business, the board unanimously voted to put off determining new lead service line replacement rates to fund the projected $23.5 million cost over the next 17 years.

The specific amount of funding available for the unfunded state mandate is unknown at this time and won’t be clear until the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency decides on which municipalities will get loans and how much those loans will be. That will be decided by June.

The next La Grange Park Village Board meeting will be 7:30 p.m., Tuesday, March 10th in the Village Board Room, 447 N. Catherine Ave.

Hank Beckman is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.