“We’re at the point now, financially, where the village doesn’t want to keep supporting us. I can’t keep the doors open with a budget of $14,400.”

Harmon Fire Chief Dave Carrington

AMBOY – During an informational hearing Wednesday, Jan. 3 at the Amboy fire station, Amboy Fire Chief Jeff Bryant Sr. and Harmon Fire Chief Dave Carrington addressed the matter of the Harmon Fire Department merging with the Amboy Fire Department.

Amboy looks at the merger as a way to grow and improve, while the merger is an act of survival for Harmon.

“It’s going to allow us the potential to grow. Both areas are small rural departments and becoming one is going to help us grow and share resources,” said Amboy Fire District Chief Jeff Bryant Sr., who also serves West Brooklyn and Ohio as outlying district communities. “The work we’re doing here, we’re planting a tree, but we won’t be enjoying the shade right away. As it grows forward, we’ll have two departments serving as one and taking care of our friends and family.

“We’ve been going to Harmon for a long time. We provide services for them. Because of lack of manpower, they can’t reciprocate, but being able to recruit people in that area, we may have more help coming this direction. That’s our goal.”

The Village of Harmon Board told Bryant Sr. the budget for the Harmon Fire Department is $14,400 a year.

At the meeting, Harmon Fire Chief Dave Carrington said they have 10 volunteers.

“To me, it’s not an ego thing. I know past chiefs had egos. My thing is, I made a commitment to the village to make the department better than it was when I took over,” said Carrington, who has been the Harmon chief for 3 ½ years and has been filling in shifts for Amboy for the last 1 ½ years. “We’re at the point now, financially, where the village doesn’t want to keep supporting us. I can’t keep the doors open with a budget of $14,400.

“If I have a truck break down, my entire budget is gone. I have to juggle, do I purchase a piece of life safety equipment or do I fix a truck. It’s important to get the truck out, but it’s also important to have compliant gear to keep my people safe and to keep the community safe.”

The conversation for the two fire departments to join began two years ago at a Village of Harmon Board meeting.

However, nothing moved past preliminary chats.

“We opted to say, ‘What can we do to make the department stronger and better in Harmon?’ It didn’t happen,” said Bryant Sr. “This is the results of the meeting two years ago.

“We’re excited for the merger to happen. We would not be named Harmon and Amboy. We would be one department known as the Amboy Fire Department. The Harmon station would be called Amboy 2.”

The process of Harmon being taken under Amboy’s wing will start happening as soon as the agreement between the two parties is signed at the next Harmon meeting.

However, the merger isn’t official until the citizens of Harmon vote yes or no for the merger in the November election.

Carrington, who grew up in the Harmon area, spent 40 years on the west coast, and moved back to Illinois in 2016, is strongly pushing for Harmon and Amboy to merge.

He knows a merger is going to have to happen if Harmon’s facilities doesn’t want to be a storage room or abandoned.
“I’ve been in a rob Peter to pay Paul situation for several years. I don’t care what my shirt says, as long as I can still provide protection to my community and the outlying community of the rural area,” Carrington said. “I have a Harmon shirt on, and I have an Amboy shirt on underneath right now. I don’t care what the name is, it’s about the quality of care and the service we can provide. Struggling over the years, we’ve tried the fundraisers. If we do a pancake breakfast, we’re out $400 because we don’t make money.

“With people in the township not paying fire dues (it was reported 40 percent of Harmon village and rural citizens are paying), it falls down to the Harmon population of 130 people trying to support the fire department. We can’t force people to pay the fire dues, but if they call 911, we’re going to respond and come, whether they pay or not.

“When a gentlemen came to the village meeting in July and said other departments could take over the Harmon Fire Department, It opened the village’s eyes to the fact that it was going to happen at some point. We might as well have control over it.

“To me, Amboy is the best choice.”

Carrington added, Harmon is already in Amboy’s tax district for schools and the Pankhurst Memorial Library in Amboy, while there are already mutual aid agreements between the Harmon and Amboy fire departments.

Also, Harmon and Amboy are 12 minutes from each other, while other suitors for a potential merger are 15-20 minutes away.