PEORIA, Ill. — Peoria City Council’s decision two weeks ago to decommission fire engines 20 and four is being met with stiff resistance.
The 6-5 verdict came after months of deliberation over restructuring the fiscal year 2021 budget because of COVID-19.
A crowd that peaked at about 50 people gathered Sunday afternoon at the corner of Allen and Wilhelm Roads to voice displeasure over the vote that will lead to the shuttering of stations four and 20 as of Nov. 1 and the reduction of 22 firefighters from the city payroll.
Organizer Jillian O’Dell isn’t related to or married to any affected firefighters.
She said she was blindsided by the vote.
“My main reason for organizing this is when I heard about the cuts, first it made me angry and made me think our city council and mayor don’t care about our safety as citizens, and that should be their number one priority,” she said.
“I don’t know a lot of the facts as far as how many people going to be affected, however I do know the citizens of Peoria and surrounding areas will be directly impacted, and I do know it’s going to increase response times because what’s that doing is putting an increased burden on our existing fire stations and spreading around the work they have to do. They have a limited number of equipment and people.
“Regardless of any of the facts, we do know for sure it’s going to increase response time, and all of us know with a fire emergency, time is the biggest factor, and if we can make sure we don’t have any increase in the amount of time it takes for a response to happen, that can save lives.”
O’Dell said she chose the corner of Allen and Wilhelm because residents of that area are served by engine 20.
One of those residents is 14-year-old Daniel Weidner.
When Daniel’s 16-year-old brother, Micah Weidner, went into cardiac arrest in March of 2020, Daniel Weidner administered CPR.
However, the Weidner family credits the firefighter/paramedics who responded and treated Micah Weidner with a shock for saving his life.
“If they were to cut out a couple fire stations, it would take longer (to respond) in general, and every second counts for somebody’s life, and everybody’s life counts,” Daniel Weidner said.
“Their [city council’s] lives could be lost because of their decisions.”
O’Dell said further protests haven’t been planned, but could be.
“I don’t have a set deadline, but I am hoping we will get an official response from our leaders, and then we’ll go from there,” she said.
“I would hope it would elicit some sort of response. By not responding to this protest and to our concerns, that basically is city council and the mayor saying they don’t care about our lives, so if they want to not respond to this, that means they don’t care.
“If we have to have another protest, we’re going to do it. Our safety and our lives should be number one priority.”
In the meantime, O’Dell directed fellow concerned citizens who have not already done so to sign a petition that, as of Sunday, had garnered just short of 5,000 signatures.
Messages sent by WMBD News to city leaders were not immediately returned.
