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Chestnut Fire Station will be open
again soon; Board of Trustees working for a more unified district
[March 11, 2026]
On Monday, March 9, The Mt.
Pulaski Rural Fire Protection District (MPRFPD) Board of Trustees
hosted a public meeting in the Aetna Township building in Chestnut.
The sole purpose of the meeting was to discuss the recent closure of
the Chestnut Fire Department, and the pending re-opening and
re-organization of that same department.
The meeting room at the township
building was filled and overflowing with guests.
Background
On Saturday, February 28th, the board of trustees voted to terminate
the Chestnut volunteer fire fighters and close the fire house
effective immediately. On the following Monday, those actions were
taken, and the locks changed on the building. Chestnut EMS was also
eliminated.
The news soon hit the social media circuit, with residents of
Chestnut voicing fear and outrage over the sudden loss of emergency
services.
March 9th meeting called to order
From the left: Mt. Pulaski Rural Fire Protection District
Trustee Kevin Coers, Attorney for the MPRFPD Darrell Parish, Trustee
Crystal Kern, Trustee Mike Patridge, District Fire Chief John
Aylesworth, District Assistant Chief Greg Holmes.
On Monday evening, all members of the trustee board were present for
the meeting. This included trustees Kevin Coers, Crystal Kern, and
Mike Patridge, along with MPRFPD legal counsel Darrel Parish,
District Fire Chief John Aylesworth, and District Assistant Chief
Greg Holmes.
Kern presided over the meeting, and opened with the call to order,
then turned the floor over to Parish who delivered a history of the
MPRFPD.
He stated that the Mt. Pulaski
Phoenix Fire Department had formed in 1885. In 1957 the MPRFPD was
formed and included Cornland, Mt. Pulaski, and Chestnut. He said
that in reality, there is no Chestnut Fire Department. Chestnut is
MPRFPD Station Two, and the station assets are owned by the MPRFPD.
He said that the issues with the Chestnut fire house and staff boil
down to the Chestnut staff thinking they are “in charge” and
consequently not working with the MPRFPD as required.
He further noted that there had been grant funds received by the
Chestnut station that should have been given over to the MPRFPD.
This included a $35,000 grant through the Howard Buffet Foundation
because the MPRFPD services a small corner of Macon County. There
was also a grant paid from ARPA (American Recovery Plan Act) that
was received by Chestnut. Parish said that grant was supposedly used
to purchase equipment that legally belongs to the district. When
Chestnut personnel were asked to produce the equipment, they refused
to do so.
He continued that there were allegations that the trustees had
violated the civil rights of the Chestnut firefighters by
terminating them without cause or notice. He said that delving into
the law, it was clear that the alleged violations did not exist
because the firefighters at Chestnut are not paid employees of the
district, and volunteers are not entitled to a hearing.
Parish commented briefly on the posting that had taken place on
social media saying that when people go on social media to say what
they know, they are also showing just what they do not know.
Kern picked up on that and stated that the information on social
media had been erroneous and made assumptions that the Chestnut
station was being shut down permanently. She stated that the closure
of the station had been to allow opportunity for community
involvement, and to begin the process of re-aligning the station
with the district. She said that the station is “basically
re-opened” now.
She asked Aylesworth to expand on the comment. He said that he has
talked with six people in the community who have stepped up,
agreeing to observe the proper chain of command and participate in
joint training with the Mt. Pulaski station as is required by the
MPRFPD documents.
Regarding Chaim of Command, the MPRFPD documents state that there is
to be one District Fire Chief, one District Assistant Chief, and
Battalion Captains at each of the stations. No station is to have an
actual fire chief, and all Captains are to report and answer to the
District Chief, who reports to and answers to the MPRFPD board of
trustees.
Patridge showed a map of the MPRFPD
district and talked about a document prepared by local attorney Doug
Muck in 1997, outlining the chain of command. He said that despite
the document, the chain of command issues has been ongoing for the
past 30 years. Previous trustees had chosen to “let it go,” but now,
the existing board is trying to correct the issues and get the chain
of command re-established. He said, “the district cannot run with
two chiefs trying to operate in their own little world,
independently of one another.” He went on to say that when multiple
stations are paged to the same incident, and the personnel are not
working together it causes great confusion on the scene. He
continued that with joint training multiple responding units would
be in tune to each other with each one knowing what to do and how to
do it.
Patridge said the goal was to get everyone organized again, get
people working together and being better than they have been. He
said that he knew the board did not have all the answers, and they
would make errors, but was certain that the outcome would be better
than what has been going on for the past 30 years.
Floor opens for public comments
Prior to the beginning of the meeting, a sign-up sheet had been laid
out for those who wished to address the board. Kern said that each
speaker would be permitted three minutes and she called on the first
person, Greg Gobleman.
Greg Gobleman
Gobleman said that lives were more important than structures and
that he was concerned for the return of the EMS. He said his wife
was a former EMT and qualified to do training. She is not available
to serve as an EMT but is willing to train or assist with training
so the EMS can be brought back.
Patridge responded to the comments saying that the issues with the
Chestnut EMS were not coming from the trustees.
He explained that there was an audio recording of an EMS call that
had been evidence of multiple errors during the call. EMS is
monitored locally by SAMIC (Springfield Area Mobile Intensive Care
System, a program to provide area EMS providers with training and
support.).
The errors are being investigated by SAMIC and consideration is
being given by that agency as to how to proceed with the EMS issue
in Chestnut. Patridge reiterated that the trustees are not
controlling what happens in the future regarding EMS.
Aylesworth did add that four of the six prospective firefighters are
willing to be EMTs and have talked about taking the appropriate
classes.
Dale Karrick
Karrick began by noting that he is the son of the recently
terminated fire chief Dennis Karrick. He said that he had joined the
department in 2000, left and then returned in 2009. He said that the
problems being addressed are not new. The trustees, except for Kevin
Coers, had shown little respect for the Chestnut station and
personnel.
He added that one of the biggest problems the district has is its
current District Chief John Aylesworth. He said the Mt. Pulaski
station never wanted to work with Chestnut, and that he personally
got more training with the Beason Fire District than he ever got
with the MPRFPD.
He went on to talk about a call for his dad where Chestnut showed
up, Latham came, but Mt. Pulaski never did.
He said that re-organizing Chestnut
Fire would be a great disservice to the community.
Kern responded first saying that it was Kevin Coers who seconded the
motion to disband the Chestnut station.
She went on to talk about an instance where there had been a fire
call for Mt. Pulaski and at the same time a brush fire call for
Chestnut. The Mt. Pulaski call ended up being a non-issue, so they
were dispatched to assist Chestnut.
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When Mt. Pulaski
arrived, she said Chestnut was sitting along the edge of the
fire, doing nothing because no one knew how to get the water out
of the tank truck to extinguish the fire.
Jerry Dronenberg
The next speaker from the audience was Jerry Dronenberg. He
began by saying he knew the fire that Kern had referred to and
was the one who filled the Chestnut tanker with water. He said
that the department had delivered one tank full of water and the
second tank was the one on the scene. He said that the true
issue was that the Chestnut truck is large with a 1,000-gallon
tank and is only a two-wheel drive. Mt Pulaski on the other hand
has a four-wheel drive with a 300-gallon tank, which makes it
better able to manipulate in and around such a fire. He said
this was part of the bigger issue because Chestnut does not have
the proper equipment in house and often must wait for the Mt.
Pulaski station to arrive with their better, more appropriate
equipment.
Dronenberg said he had been contacted to take over as the
captain so that the Chestnut station could continue to operate
after Karrick had been let go. He said he had seven
conversations with Aylesworth, and it was all moving forward.
But he has not been contacted since the closure.
Regarding the grant, he said that the grant had been awarded and
equipment purchased. Kern immediately countered asking if there
was equipment, where is it? Dronenberg told her to unlock the
fire house, and he would “put it back.” Kern asked, “where is
it” and he said it is in the EMS room because that is where the
firefighters do their training.
Kern went on to say regarding the grant, the acts of the
Chestnut station were fraudulent because that money should have
been given to the district.
Dronenberg attempted to argue that point, but Kern shut him off
saying she would now move on to the next person.
Reynold Goff
Goff took up the grant issue saying that Chestnut did not ask
for the grant, it was sent to them, and that the equipment
purchased is not hidden, it is in Chestnut.
Goff went on to say that Attorney Parish had been approached in
the past to represent Chestnut when the department desired to
become a separate district from MPRFPD. Parish immediately
denied that, saying he was approached but did not accept the
request.
He was asked why he had not accepted, and Parish responded that
he couldn’t represent a district that did not exist. The
question was thrown back at Parish by other members of the
audience multiple times, with Parish not responding. Finally
Kern said that the question had been answered, there was no such
thing as a Chestnut District and therefore no one to represent.
She moved on to the next speaker.
Dennis Karrick (former Chestnut fire chief)
Dennis Karrick said that in 1957 the fire stations did have
chiefs, and each chief answered directly to the state Fire
Marshal. Then that was taken away by the MPRFPD, but the Fire
Marshal asked why the individual chiefs were no longer
reporting.
He said that the animosity between Mt. Pulaski and Chestnut had
always existed and that the board of trustees had not helped the
situation. He noted as an example that the notice for the March
9th public meeting had not been posted anywhere in Chestnut. He
said he understood that the trustees work out of Mt. Pulaski and
were within their rights to post the notice at the Mt. Pulaski
fire house, but it should have been common courtesy to make the
same post in Chestnut.
Karrick also asked if there are no station chiefs, why does the
district continue to purchase a Chief helmet for the stations.
Patridge responded that no one was claiming that the issues
between Mt. Pulaski and Chestnut were new problems. It is known
that the problems have been ongoing for years.
He said that governing bodies can write and approve all the
ordinances and resolutions they wish, but if no one is enforcing
them, they are worthless. He said that it happened 30 years ago
and the powers that be, signed the documents, then chose to
ignore the edicts. He said that it must change one way or
another, and one way is to mandate joint training between the
two stations, and if anyone refuses, that one will be relieved
of duty immediately.
There was a question regarding the
document that had been mentioned repeatedly by Patridge, was it a
public document and could anyone get a copy of it? Patridge said yes
it was a public document and copies could be obtained.
He said that the document outlines the command structure of the
MPRFPD and dictated that the order be followed, which indicated that
there would be battalion captains who reported to the district
chief. The captains would run their own fire houses, but the chief
would run the district.
Patridge said that there have been problems, and that there was
“enough blame for everybody.” But the goal now was to correct the
problems and get the MPRFPD back on track.
A question from the audience was about the training schedule. It was
observed that volunteers have other jobs and there were going to be
conflicts. If a firefighter could not attend a MPRFPD training,
would he or she be permitted to train with another district.
Ayleworth said under those circumstances, yes it would be permitted.
Karrick talked about the condition of the Chestnut Fire House and
its equipment. He said that Mt. Pulaski literally gets all the good
stuff and the new stuff from a new station to new trucks and more,
while Chestnut gets the scraps. Patridge said that his only comment
was that MPRFPD owned everything, but Karrick said that wasn’t the
issue, the issue is that Chestnut doesn’t get anything but scraps.
Rick Volle
Rick Volle was called on for his turn to speak. He said that he was
happy to hear that Chestnut will reopen. As a past member of the
Chestnut firefighters, he recalled that Chestnut used to train
together with Mt. Pulaski as well as Latham. He said it was an asset
to the community to do so, and he agrees that the district must
return to working together.
He added that nothing was going to be accomplished by bickering with
one another and “the bickering has to stop.”
Rebecca Drake
The last person who requested to speak was Rebecca Drake. She
recalled an episode with her husband when he had been found passed
out on the kitchen floor. The call was made to 911. Though it was
the wee hours of the morning, Chestnut responded within six minutes.
It was quite some time until backup arrived, and even then it was
not Mt. Pulaski, who did not show up.
Drake said that those prolonged minutes can be life or death for the
person who is sick or injured and are pure torture for the loved
ones surrounding that person. She said that having EMS services in
Chestnut was vital, and she is hopeful that the service will soon be
restored.
Meeting comes to an end
Throughout the evening, Kern kept a tight rein on the guest
speakers, sometime cutting people off before they had finished.
As the evening wore on, there were more and more instances of people
in the audience calling out comments and questions though not called
upon. With Drake resuming her seat, there was an onslaught of
spontaneous questions and comments.
One question that was addressed was who had been contacted about
being a part of the new station personnel. The response from Kern
was that it didn’t matter who they were at this point in time. The
audience argued that it did matter, that they wanted to know who was
on board when the community needed them, in other words who to call.
The answer was call 911, don’t call personnel directly.
There was an accusatory question aimed at Kern specifically, had she
ever bothered to attend a firefighter meeting. Her response was that
she had not, she is not a firefighter, she is a trustee and she
faithfully attends trustee meetings.
With more comments and questions being thrown out, Kern decided it
was time for the night to end and promptly announced that the
meeting was adjourned.
People immediately began leaving, with
several people going to the front of the room to have
one-on-one time with Kern, Patridge and others.
As of Monday night there was no specific date given as to when the
Chestnut station will officially be manned and put back in service.
Early in the meeting the statement had been made that it would be
soon, possibly within the next week.
[Nila Smith]
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