The vacancy was left by board president James Thompson, who resigned from the board and the Fire & Ambulance Department in June 2026. The board tabled a vote on appointing new positions (president, vice president, secretary, and treasurer) due to the absence of trustee Joe Pratt.
Trustee Valorie Armstrong said she’ll be at the fire station on Wednesday, August 26th from 5-6 p.m. with nomination packets for anyone interested in running for trustee in the April 2027 election. Armstrong and Anderson will both have to run for their seats.
Agenda
The board approved Ambulance bills totaling $37,661.89 and Fire Department bills totaling $9,755.00.
For the Treasurer’s report, trustee Keith Crady reported $1,366,161.52 in CD investment accounts; $244,601.65 in Ambulance checking and money market accounts, $322,173.81 in Fire checking and money market, and $101,410.31 in the building money market account for a grand total of $2,034,347.33 in account funding.
Chief Mike Thompson reported 31 calls in July and upcoming events: multi-department training on Saturday, August 22nd on Ridge and Osage Rd. for a house burn and Touch a Truck at Prophetstown Proud’s 4th Friday Car Cruise on August 28th, noting they were also at Back to School Bash in July. Fire drills have been scheduled at the schools and hose testing is this month.
The department received $26,000 from the Illinois State Fire Marshal Small Equipment Grant Program, which will be spent on spreader and cutter extrication tools for the Lyndon Fire Station. The department had a tool demo last Saturday to try three different battery-powered brands, with the Lyndon members agreeing to go with the company TNT Rescue. Thompson said he’ll place the order soon, as it could take 6-8 weeks. They’re looking at selling the old hydraulic equipment to recoup some money.
Ambulance Administrator Julie Pope reported 60 calls for July. Mason Lundy passed his EMR testing and is waiting for his IDPH license to start. The cameras are back to working at the ESDA station after an issue with two of them; she ordered three new thermostats for the garage which will be locked. They had a loading system issue on one of the vehicles and it was out of service for a couple days. EP football games will be starting soon and she has sign-up sheets for covering the games. The Ambulance Department’s picture board should be here next week, and they’ll be participating in the 4th Friday Car Cruise as well. She said James Thompson asked to be back on the EMT department, so she had him reactivated since he’s good at it.
New Business – Fire
The board voted to approve changing budget line items following last month’s discussions.
New Business – Ambulance
The board approved two patient lifts for the ambulances at a cost of $250 each. Pope provided a billing update and problem with the clearing house, saying it was slow earlier this year but it’s picking back up to where they should be with Medicaid funding. The board discussed talking to state representatives regarding this ongoing issue.
The next regular meeting of the Prophetstown Fire Protection District’s Board of Trustees will be on Monday, September 14th at 6:30 p.m. at the Prophetstown Fire Station.
