The members of the Eldridge Fire Department say they need $766,516 from the city to cover their expenses for 2026. That’s a number $400,000 higher than the one included in the current city budget, and more than double any past city contribution.
So what are the new expenses?
Fire Chief Keith Schneckloth and department business manager Bryan Yanke told The North Scott Press that the funds will pay for a full-time chief and capital improvements they say are essential to the department’s function.
The department delivered a three-year budget proposal to the city June 12. It asks $271,586 for salaries and benefits and $200,000 for capital improvements next year.
Schneckloth called the fire department a “standalone business” and described the request as “what it costs to provide the service” that the city needs. Volunteers voted to remain an independent nonprofit rather than become a city department earlier this month.
“Volunteerism is struggling,” Yanke said. “We’re looking at… how do we get somebody in here who can help cover the tasks that all the volunteers are being asked to do, that are taking a bunch of time from the department.”
The answer is a paid chief, whom the fire department would hope to hire this year at a $108,000 salary. Yanke said that figure matched the salary of the Eldridge police chief.
The fire chief would audit fire reports, oversee station and vehicle maintenance, apply for grants—“all of those tasks that take daily time during normal business hours,” Yanke said.
In 2024—the most recent year for which financial reports are available—the fire department spent just $95,690 on pay for its chief and other staff, much of which was covered by a grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Yanke said that capital improvement funds would be used to furnish the second floor of the fire department building with bunkrooms and other spaces for volunteers.
“Right now, we don't have a place for volunteers to stay if they're at the station. In order to recruit volunteers from outside the city limits of Eldridge, we have to provide them a place to stay while they're on shift,” Yanke said.
Capital funds would also support the fire department’s fleet. Several expensive equipment purchases were upcoming, Schneckloth said, including a tanker truck that dates to the early 2000s. Equipment costs have doubled over the last decade, he said.
Fire department financial returns filed as a 501(c)3 nonprofit show that the department had depreciated 75% of its assets by 2024—indicating that a large portion of its assets are near the end of their expected lives.
The budget proposal asks for contributions to grow in the coming years. Salary expenses rise to $500,846 in two years’ time. Yanke said the department planned to hire multiple full-time employees, “based on the trends that we're seeing for volunteerism and increase in call volume.”
“We believe we need additional paid personnel to help and field calls during the day,” he added.
City council members balked at the budget request at a meeting June 15.
“The doubling of the budget is outlandish,” councilman Jeff Ashcraft said. “How can we negotiate on anything?... How can you negotiate when our budget has already been approved and set, and it’s been certified?”
Schneckloth and Yanke said their $766,561 ask was firm.
“If the city comes back with a number that's less than this, or someway, somewhere halfway between—I don't see that as being a sustainable solution,” Yanke said. “This is our attempt at saying what we need as is to be a sustainable department.”
The city’s new fiscal year begins today, July 1. Yanke and Schneckloth said the city council would have to pass a budget amendment—reallocating city spending through a series of public meetings—to fund fire service through the fiscal year.
“I don't know whether that would be pulling from other departments or whether that would be pulling from their cash reserve, but it would be a budget amendment,” Schneckloth said.
Breaking down the budget
Here is how the budget proposal breaks down.
The fire department requests $271,586 for salary and benefits. Yanke said that sum would cover salary and benefits for a full-time fire chief and to continue to provide volunteers with a $20 per-call stipend.
It would also pay staff and volunteers’ workman’s compensation premium, he said.
Ten years ago, the department paid less than $20,000 in wages, employee benefits and compensation, according to financial reports filed with the IRS. That number rose to $95,000 in 2024.
The salary and benefits figure also includes $50,000 paid to a member of the department to administer a grant from FEMA, which the grant would in turn reimburse, Yanke said.
The budget proposal sees salary expenses jump to $428,331 in 2027 and $500,846 in 2028, to pay for additional full-time staff at the department.
The proposal requests $20,000 for facility and vehicle insurance this year. That figure increases by $2,000 in 2027 and 2028.
Fire department insurance cost have varied drastically in recent years, according to financial reports. In 2024, insurance costs—apparently including workmen’s compensation—totaled $63,581. But they totaled just $14,565 the preceding year.
The department asks for an annual $200,000 capital improvements sum, which includes new equipment and construction at the fire station on 2nd Street in downtown Eldridge.
The department’s tanker truck dates to 2001, Schneckloth said, and its second fire engine dates to 2007. Those are two million-dollar replacements that the department will have to make in the near future.
The National Fire Protection Association recommends that departments fully retire vehicles after 25 years of service.
The department also hopes to furnish living quarters on the second floor of its fire station.
“We’ve seen people reaching out from Davenport, Bettendorf… They're looking to volunteer, and they want to get experience in fire and EMS services, but we can't accommodate them right now because their travel time to get here is too high,” Yanke said.
“Finishing upstairs gives them a place to stay while they're here, and then they can volunteer and obviously make the calls in a reasonable amount of time.”
“That's a big chunk of the capital request,” he said.
The budget lists operational expenses at $148,500 in 2026, $141,600 in 2027, and $98,700 in 2028. Those funds would cover “consumables that we use on calls, hoses that fail certification on an annual basis, diesel fuel for the trucks, all those sort of things,” Yanke said.
The budget also requests $19,100 for building maintenance in 2026. That figure rises to $29,400 in 2027 and $87,900 in 2028.
Financial reports do not give a clear picture of how much the department has historically spent on operations and maintenance. The fire department appears to have spent between $30,000 and $70,000 annually on occupancy, truck maintenance, fuel, fire gear and equipment since 2013.
The budget requests $12,000 for public relations and fire prevention outreach in 2026. That number increases by $300 in 2027 by a further $300 in 2028.
In 2024, the department spent $17,692 on advertising and promotion, though a portion of that sum was reimbursed by a FEMA grant. The department spent $3,877 on promotion in 2023. It did not list any promotional expenses the three previous years.
Schneckloth said the public relations and outreach budget would fund in-school programs as well as site visits to businesses in Eldridge. The fire department has not historically separated those expenses from its operational costs in financial reports.
The new budget asks for $29,000 for legal and administrative expenses in 2026. That figure drops to $26,200 in 2027 and $22,500 in 2028.
Schneckloth said that would cover contracts with counsel, accountants, human resources and other professional services.
The department listed just $950 in professional service fees in financial reports from 2024, and $850 in 2023. It did not list any professional expenses the previous three years.
The department requests $12,000 for training and professional certifications in 2026. That figure rises to $12,400 in 2027 and $12,900 in 2028.
Financial reports do not offer a clear picture of department spending on training and certifications, but do indicate that the department has spent between $1,000–7,000 to attend conferences and conventions.
Other revenue for the department?
The current budget proposal lists just two sources of funding: the city of Eldridge and Rural Benefitted Fire District No. 3, the group of county taxpayers who subsidize Eldridge’s fire department.
The budget does not indicate what expenses—if any—would be covered by grant funds.
Yanke said the department often waited months to receive grant reimbursements and was worried about the instability of federal grant dollars. So they have listed all expenses as if they will not be reimbursed.
“And if it gets reimbursed later, that money can come out of other expenses, or can be saved for capital expenses, or things like that,” Yanke said.
The proposal does not request any funds from neighboring municipalities. City council members have questioned what portion of Eldridge fire calls go to neighboring communities and whether they should share a burden of the cost.
“Every department in Scott County, and even some on the Illinois side, have a mutual aid agreement,” Schneckloth said. “We would not expect to be billed from them for coming down here.”
He said that the number of calls Eldridge answer for Long Grove or Donahue fire departments is roughly reciprocal with the number of calls they answer in Eldridge.
The Benefitted Fire District will provide just $62,000 annually to the department, the proposal forecasts.
The district is currently at its maximum levy rate. Its contribution can only rise if property valuations increase.
Independent of the city
Fire department volunteers voted in June to remain an independent nonprofit, rather than join the city. City officials and some members of the department had previously seemed to agree that a merger could help facilitate hiring a full-time chief.
Yanke said that the fire department ought to function like any other city contractor. Republic Services, for instance, which provides garbage hauling.
“Republic comes to the table and says, ‘Here's how many tons of garbage we expect to haul out of here, here’s what it's going to cost. You want to pay us or not?’ So it's similar in that regard… We're being asked to provide fire protection services, EMS services for the city, and we're saying we're happy to do that as an independent agency. Here's what it costs,” he said.
The vote to remain independent followed Schneckloth’s return to the role of fire chief in April. He had stepped down in December, after he was fired from his role as city mechanic for alleged misconduct.
Would the fire department accept an increased contribution from the city on the condition that Schneckloth not assume the role of chief? Yanke said that “legally, they cannot do that.”
“They cannot coerce us into hiring or not hiring somebody based on withholding funds, they legally have no say in who is hired by this department,” he said.