Ric Warchol says the century-old Northbrook Rural Fire Protection District is between a rock and a hard place.
As neighboring municipalities gobble up developed portions of the unincorporated district, it loses tax dollars. And as the village of Northbrook increases its budget for capital projects, the district’s prorated share of the village Fire Department’s annual budget climbs.
For that reason, the rural fire district, for which Northbrook village firefighters provide services, is asking on the March 17 ballot for a new tax of 0.1% of equalized assessed value, said Warchol, trustee and treasurer for the district.
The tax would generate more than $425,000 annually and cost the average homeowner in the unincorporated district about $152 a year, he said.
“We haven’t gone for a referendum in 20 years,” Warchol said. “We had reserves, but in the last couple of years we burned through those reserves. The district is near bankruptcy.”
Before Northbrook incorporated, the rural district provided fire services for the area with its sole truck, he said. Eventually, Northbrook got its own fire truck and the two departments shared fire protection duties, Warchol said.
The district sold its only truck about 80 years ago and has since relied on the village to provide fire and emergency services to the unincorporated areas, he said.
“Today the Northbrook Rural Fire Protection District is essentially a paper district,” Warchol said. “We collect a tax and contract with the village of Northbrook. The current contract has been in place since about 1996-98.”
The rural district pays a prorated fee based on the percentage of calls Northbrook answers that are outside village boundaries but within the unincorporated district, he said.
“If there are 100 fire calls in a month and 10 are in the district, then we pay 10 percent,” Warchol said.
That rate is now at 17% after climbing recently from between 13% and 14%, he said.
“It’s way out of control because the budget for the village has climbed dramatically,” Warchol said. “Legal counsel, the village of Northbrook and district trustees felt the least we could do is go in for a referendum and get some immediate relief.”
The Northbrook fire budget has increased significantly because the village is building a new fire station and a new fleet maintenance garage, which stores fire vehicles covered under the Fire Department budget, Warchol said.
The district’s finances are further complicated by the gradual annexation of valuable property within its boundaries by municipalities such as Glenview and Deerfield, he said.
The district still contains some developed property along Lake Cook Road and on the east side of Waukegan Road, but much of that property along Lake Cook is for not-for-profit buildings, such as senior housing, that don’t pay property taxes, Warchol said.
“Some months we get 150 emergency calls in one facility,” he said. “And we can’t always bill for each call because of billing restrictions if there is no ambulance transport involved.”
Medicare and Medicaid cap the amount of such calls at $235 each, which does not cover the expense incurred by emergency personnel, Warchol said.
Warchol said the chances of voters approving the district’s request were improved when the Northfield Township Republican Organization voiced its support.
“I met with them and explained what was happening,” he said. “They said they like to say no to all referendums, but they approved mine and endorsed it. They will be sending their endorsement out in a mailer.”
According to the Village of Northbrook website, most of the residents in the district reside in the area including unincorporated Cook County parcels in Glenbrook Countryside, Mission Hills, Citation Lake, Northbrook West, Mission Hills Estates, pockets of properties along Techny Road and on Sunset Ridge Road, and portions of the Village of Deerfield south of Lake Cook Road.
The wording that will appear on the March 17 election ballot is as follows.
“Shall the Northbrook Rural Fire Protection District, Cook County, Illinois, be authorized to levy a new tax for emergency and rescue crews and equipment purposes and have an additional tax of 0.10% of the equalized assessed value of the taxable property therein extended for such purposes? (1) The approximate amount of taxes extendable at the most recently extended limiting rate is $2,850,155.00, and the approximate amount of taxes extendable if the proposition is approved is $3,276,419.07. (2) For the 2026 levy year the approximate amount of the additional tax extendable against property containing a single-family residence and having a fair market value at the time of the referendum of $100,000 is estimated to be $30.36.”
