During Monday’s Sycamore City Council meeting, Sycamore firefighter and resident Dan Marcinkowski announced that the fire department has agreed on a solution to the problem of overspending on employee overtime.

“My purpose tonight is just to advise that we’ve entered into an agreement ... a temporary 90-day platoon system for callbacks,” Marcinkowski said.

The decided system includes three platoons which will each respond to alarms for 24 hours, until the next platoon comes on call. This system is to be put into trial on Nov. 1 at both Sycamore fire stations.

“Our challenge is to reduce the excess response-hours for calls where only a few firefighters are needed, but to preserve the larger response capability in severe emergencies,” said Sycamore Fire Chief Bill Riddle.

The fire department and city council hope that this will help keep the budget down on overtime hours.

“The purpose of our trial is to test a hypothesis that there may be some savings that can be realized from the platoon system,” said Sycamore City Manager Bill Nicklas.

Riddle said that there has been a growth of 3,300 call back man-hours, and 96 percent of the department’s budget goes toward wages. Riddle also explained that overtime is the fastest growing area of expenditures.

“These are dire financial times,” Riddle said. “We have to look for ways to deliver the same level of service for less money.”

Marcinkowski said this system had been in place three other times in the history of Sycamore.

Assistant Fire Chief Mark Kessler said the platoon system was in place when he began working at the Sycamore fire station in 1985. At that time, there were only three to four employees on a shift, and there simply was not enough staffing to make the system work appropriately.

“Over the years, staffing has increased, we have more availability of manpower on the particular shifts or on the particular platoon,” Kessler said. “So now we think we have sufficient staffing in order to accomplish this.”

While Marcinkowski voiced that there were some reservations about the safety of citizens and firefighters with this system, Nicklas said residents should not be uneasy.

“I don’t want the press to think there’s any issue here of safety to our residents,” Nicklas said. “This is a system that can be called off on any day, at any moment.”

Kessler said the system will be evaluated throughout the trial period and after discussion, any changes needed to make this system more efficient will be initiated. If the system works well after the trial period, a review of the progress will take place between the firefighters’ union, IAFF 3046, and the city. Kessler said if the system proves to be worthy and money-saving, he hopes discussions would take place to make it permanent.

Riddle said that the fire department will be there to assist anyone in need of help, however, they need to manage resources wisely.

“No one calls 911 on the best day of our life,” Riddle said. “We are called when citizens are in distress and need help. We will be there.”

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