Special Service Area No. 1 Update

The Village Board voted to adopt the  "Mount Prospect Elk Grove Township Fire Protection and Emergency Medical Assistance Special Service Area", commonly known as Special Service Area No 1. or SSA No. 1, on Tuesday, January 9, 2024. 

View the presentation from the January 9, 2024 Village Board Meeting, which details how SSA No. 1 would function and the background associated with the SSA. 

SSA  No. 1 Ordinance (Adopted January 9, 2024)

Map showing areas included in SSA, with Fire Station locations

What is the Elk Grove Rural Fire Protection District?

The Elk Grove Fire Protection District (Fire District or District) is responsible for providing fire and emergency medical services (EMS) for unincorporated properties within Elk Grove Township. American Fire and Rescue Services Corporation (American) has been providing contractual services for the District since 1979. All employees serving the District are employees of American. The District covers several unincorporated areas between Elk Grove, Mount Prospect and Des Plaines and has an annual call volume around 902 calls. Of 902 calls, 325 calls are District calls in the unincorporated area and 577 are mutual aid calls in other municipalities. See map below. Elk Grove Rural Fire Protection District runs service out of Fire Station 11, located at 1415 E. Algonquin Road, Arlington Heights. 

Current Challenge

The District has been operating in a structural deficit for the last several years. The annual operating contractual service expense for the Fire District is around $1.8 million, while the maximum allowable levy amount per the PTELL laws are approximately $800,000. The Fire District is losing more than $1.0 million each year and that is rapidly depleting their fund balance. With this significant structural deficit, the District cannot serve its residents and property owners in the future years. An assessment of the District's cash position indicates they will run out of reserves in early 2022. If nothing is done, the Office of the State Fire Marshall may (eventually) assign a territory or portion of the territory to Des Plaines, Elk Grove and Mount Prospect. In that case, the municipalities may provide the same services but may not have any taxing authority or revenue to levy any taxes.

District Status

The Village of Mount Prospect has been working with the District since several annexations were completed in 2016 and 2017 to develop a permanent solution to provide residents and business owners in unincorporated Elk Grove Township fire and EMS protection. The agreement proposed in  2022 was an IGA shared services agreement with the City of Des Plaines, Elk Grove Village and the Village of Mount Prospect, and was signed by all parties except the District. 

Over the next several months, an agreement was not reached while the District continued to lack funding to continue operation. In September 2023, Mount Prospect and Elk Grove Township sought an injunction to prevent the District from selling its fire station, vehicles and equipment (see Daily Herald article, September 12, 2023).

The District ceased operation abruptly on October 1, 2023. 

On October 20, 2023, the District board met to discuss a settlement agreement which would address distribution of assets and take steps toward dissolution of the District (as a taxing body). 

Special Service Area  & Public Notice

Due to a change in participation with the parties included in the Special Service Area adopted by Village Ordinance #6619 on August 16, 2022, the Village of Mount Prospect is proposing a new SSA be established to provide Fire and EMS services to unincorporated areas included in the Elk Grove Township Rural Fire District. The proposed SSA area now covers the entire unincorporated areas under one map, instead of being broken into three separate SSA areas. Areas due to be annexed in the immediate future are also not included in this proposed SSA. The special services to be provided by the Village and other municipalities would consist of the provision of fire response, emergency medical services, rescue services, incident management and mitigation, often referred to as "Fire and EMS", to the Special Service Area. This ordinance simply allows the Village Board to discuss, during a public hearing, the creation and associated benefits of the SSA, which is known as Elk Grove Township Fire Response and Emergency Medical Assistance Special Service Area (SSA). In addition, the adoption of this ordinance allows the Village to publish a notice in the newspaper regarding the public hearing, allows for the mailing of notices to all property owners within the proposed SSA boundaries, and establishes a date of the public hearing - proposed for [held] November 7, 2023. 

Public Meetings associated with the Special Service Area 

Ordinance Proposing the Establishment of the Mount Prospect Elk Grove Township Fire Protection and Emergency Medical Assistance Special Service Area

Tuesday, September 5, 2023
Mount Prospect Village Hall
50 S. Emerson Street

Village Board adopted the aforementioned ordinance. View the Village Board packet. 

Public Hearing at the Regular Meeting of the Village Board 

Tuesday, November 7, 2023 | 7:00 PM
Mount Prospect Village Hall
50 S. Emerson Street

This public hearing is specifically in reference to the creation of the  Mount Prospect Elk Grove Township Fire Protection and Emergency Medical Assistance Special Service Area. The Village has completed all compliance related requirements; the notice to the concerned parties for a Public Hearing on the establishment of this SSA was sent on October 19, 2023. A notice of public hearing for this SSA was also published in the Daily Herald newspaper on October 19, 2023.

View the Village Board Agenda or watch the meeting on MPDC.

Mount Prospect Elk Grove Township Fire Protection and Emergency Medical Assistance Special Service Area SSA Ordinance | Review and Potential Adoption

Tuesday,  January 9, 2024 | 7:00 PM
Mount Prospect Village Hall
50 S. Emerson Street

The Village Board voted to adopt the SSA Ordinance as presented. 

View the Village Board Agenda or watch the meeting on MPDC.

Differences From 2022 Special Service Area

• The SSA proposed in 2022, which was not finalized, included Elk Grove Village's participation in the creation of similar SSAs. The Special Service Area proposed in 2023 is proposed solely by the Village of Mount Prospect. Fire response to unincorporated parcels will continue to be shared with nearby municipal departments including Des Plaines and Elk Grove Village as managed by mutual aid agreements (no change from the prior proposal).
• The 2023 SSA does not include PINS in the "Roppolo" subdivision, as these parcels were approved for an annexation into Elk Grove Village (therefore, covered by their fire department) at their September 12, 2023 village board meeting, per Journal & Topics. This annexation means there is no need for the parcels to be in the proposed SSA, as they would no longer be unincorporated. 

Last page update: January 10, 2024.