Joliet may contribute $15,000 toward the purchase of a 30-foot boat, which will be used for emergencies and law enforcement efforts along the waterways between Lemont and Channahon.
The Lockport Township Fire Protection District received a $482,814 federal grant in 2009 that will go toward the $639,000 cost of purchasing a FireStorm 30 aluminum boat and training of emergency workers. The boat can assist in a variety of emergencies and includes a fire pump, equipment for monitoring and clean-up of oil spills and night vision capabilities.
“We’ve had this void out there,” said Lockport Fire Chief David Skoryi. “What happens if something happens out on the water? There is nothing like this in the area.”
The Joliet Public Service Committee is reviewing the expense, but Fire Chief Joe Formhals said committee members seem likely to approve the $15,000 contribution.
“If you can share an asset like this among other communities, it makes it more economically feasible to do,” Formhals said. “It’s a big cost for something that gets used not a whole lot, but is one of those items that would be nice to have.”
The balance of the cost will be shared among fire departments along the Des Plaines River, Chicago Sanitary & Ship Canal and the I & M Canal, including Lemont, Lockport, Romeoville, Joliet, East Joliet Fire Protection, Elwood, Rockdale and Channahon.
“When you look at this project, it’s not a Lockport fire department project, it’s a Will County project,” Skoryi said.
However, due to budget restraints, Lemont, East Joliet, Elwood, and Rockdale have said they will not be able to contribute, Skoryi said. He added those communities could request use of the boat.
In Will County, pleasure boats and commercial barges travel the rivers, but there are also a variety of businesses along the river including oil pipelines, a refinery, casinos and warehouses.
Formhals said the emergency boat would have been helpful with recent fires at the Empress Casino, now called the Hollywood Casino Joliet, and a tire warehouse. In those instances, the boat’s fire pump would allowed officials to pump water right out of the water to supplement their efforts.
So far, about $70,000 of the needed funds has been contributed by businesses along the rivers, including Harrah’s Casino, Exxon Mobil Corp., Midwest Generation coal power plant, Enbridge Inc. and Shell, Skoryi said.
It is undetermined when the boat will be acquired, but when it does arrive Skoryi said the boat will likely be stored on a trailer full-time and moved throughout the region because leaving it in the water would make it too time consuming to move. There are three locks between Lemont and Channahon and navigating past a lock could take up to an hour.
