The Normal Town Council held a presentation of data analysis on the efficiency of fire department responses at its meeting on Monday in its ongoing effort to show that response times will not be negatively impacted by the recent closing of the fire station on College Avenue.
Department goals are to reach emergencies within 4 to 6 minutes of a call going out. Monday’s presentation was meant to determine whether that goal was negatively impacted if Fire Station 2, at College and Blair Drive, was relocated without keeping it open as a third station.
With the recent opening of its replacement at Hershey and Shepard roads, Fire Station 2 was retired last week after 45 years of service.
The Normal firefighters union, Local 2442, has repeatedly claimed in town hall settings and at town council meetings that closing the College Avenue station would negatively impact response times and has urged the council to keep it open after the new east side station came online.
At Monday's meeting, a presentation was made that focused on town staff surveying response times for the 2024 calendar year, plotting response times for each incident, overlayed with expected response times calculated from a prediction model. The model did not account for traffic.
“What we're seeing from these numbers is basically that they're not telling us, at this time, there's a need for an additional station,” said Jenny Keigher, assistant city manager. “We have the capacity to respond to our calls, and we have the capacity to be a responsible mutual aid partner.”
According to the NFD fire report, the department responded to 6,577 emergency medical calls and 1,484 fire calls, for a total of 8,061 calls in 2024. The NFD had an average response time of 5 minutes and 41 seconds from the time a call was placed within the Town of Normal. Incidents where the NFD provided support in surrounding communities, both to Bloomington and rural areas, were higher.
“The four minutes 90% of the time, I mean, that's the NFPA [National Fire Protection Association] gold standard,” said fire chief Mick Humer. That's what everybody tries to achieve as they move forward, you know, with their departments, with their municipalities and everything like that. But most people never obtain that.”
Other action
In other business, the council:
- Approved a Memorandum of Understanding among McLean County, the City of Bloomington and Town of Normal. The MOU defines the scope of an audit of the Mental Health and Public Safety Fund. Bloomington and Normal have been collecting a 1% sales tax since 2016; one quarter is shared with the county to support mental health initiatives in the county. The McLean County Board and Bloomington City Council both have approved the same text.
- Approved a zoning text amendment to adjust certain terminology and more accurately define specific zoning rules. The rules were last updated in June 2025.
