Voters in Cahokia Heights will be asked on the March 2026 primary election ballot for their permission to consolidate three fire departments into one.
The advantage, city officials say, should be faster response times, easier recruitment, and tax dollar savings.
In the meantime, Cahokia Heights Mayor Curtis McCall worked with members of the Cahokia, Camp Jackson and Alorton fire departments on intergovernmental agreements to temporarily bring the three units under one roof immediately. They’ll go back to three separate departments if voters reject the referendum next spring.
The newly formed Cahokia Heights Fire Department was launched officially on May 19 with 27-year veteran Stephen Robbins as its chief.
“This is a unique situation. I have worked on a lot of consolidation, but this one is different where the combined fire department is being created ahead of the legislation,” said Alton attorney Jim Sinclair, who assisted in the writing of the intergovernmental agreements. “It is being done to make sure there is a good and stronger fire service in the area.”
Cahokia Heights City Attorney Jordan Augustine worked with McCall and the police department officials to draft an agreement they say required great compromise. But after “putting their egos aside,” Robbins said, all agreed consolidation will be the most efficient and effective way to keep citizens safe.
“This combination will give them more people available to respond to calls. There should be better response times to calls. It also gives you a larger organization to recruit people to come to the fire service,” said Sinclair. “This is not a career service. These are part-time and volunteer people.
“The other side of it is money – trying to establish a tax base so they can generate their funds through the tax levy that will support this fire service organization and enable it to provide good service.”
McCall said the idea of a consolidation originally was conceived in 2021, which is when Alorton, Cahokia and Centreville merged into the City of Cahokia Heights by referendum of voters in the two former villages and one city. Merging public safety units was an easy sell to members of the city council, he said.
“All of the fire districts were their own taxing bodies and all of them were struggling to get taxing money,” he said. “Some brought in $30,000, some brought in $375,000, and they all were hurting for manpower. This is simply the best option to maximize our money, manpower and ability to respond to fires faster and more efficiently.”
Robbins said recruiting volunteer firefighters has been an issue nationwide for decades. According to the National Fire Protection Association, the number of volunteer firefighters reached an all-time low in 2020 with a 6% decline from the prior year. The numbers have remained mostly flat since then, but the population has continued to increase, the study noted.
What’s more, the percentage of firefighters over the age of 50 also is rising nationwide, according to the same National Fire Protection Association survey.
The Cahokia Heights consolidation, Robbins said, will afford him a more focused recruitment effort across a broader area. McCall also said he will propose to the city council a plan to pay current city employees a stipend for joining the fire department.
“We’re going to have the opportunity to bring in more manpower and get new equipment to better serve the people,” Robbins said. “It has never been done before in our area, so a lot of eyes will be looking at us. I am going to do everything I can to make sure we get this right and we become one of the best departments around.”
Robbins has 27 years in total in firefighting and 14 as chief of the Cahokia Fire Department.
Editor's note: This story was originally published by the Belleville News-Democrat. Carolyn P. Smith is a reporter for the BND, a news partner of St. Louis Public Radio.
