The Park Ridge City Council met as a Committee of the Whole on Monday, June 1, 2026, at 7:30 PM in City Hall Council Chambers. The meeting covered action items from Public Works, the introduction of a new HR Director, and a detailed presentation of the 2025 Fire Department Annual Report. No public comments were made on non-agenda items.
Fire Chief presented the 2025 Annual Report, highlighting the following key statistics and initiatives:
Council discussed response times, noting that the department's goal of 300 seconds (5 minutes) for EMS incidents has not been met since 2021. Chief explained that the standard is from NFPA 1710 and that response times vary due to station location, closest resource model, and mutual aid. The department uses a closest resource model with 10 fire stations (2 Park Ridge and 8 neighbor stations) regardless of jurisdiction. The potential departure of Des Plaines from the Red Center dispatch was discussed as a concern that could affect response times. Council also discussed calls to healthcare facilities (the "big six" residential care facilities) and efforts to reduce unnecessary 911 calls through communication and partnerships. The number of incidents at healthcare facilities has decreased due to improved communication and follow-up. The department also noted that hydrant testing began June 1, operating Monday-Friday 7 AM-2 PM (noon on Fridays) for 10 weeks, with notices sent to residents.
Like to call the order of the committee of the whole meeting for the Park Ridge City Council for Monday, June 1st. Do we have a roll call, please? Mayor Maloney. Here. Alder Person Moran? Here. Here. Lawrence. Here. You know. Here. Steinfeld? Here. Absolutely. Here. Left there. Here. We have a quorum. Excellent. Thank you. Citizens who wish to be heard on a non-agenda item. If you're going to speak on something that's not on the agenda, this would be your opportunity. Seeing none, uh, we'll jump in with procedures and regulations. All right, this should be fairly quick this evening. Return to procedures and regulations. We don't have any action items tonight. Don't have any discussion items, and our department had reported as our review of upcoming procedures and regulation items. Anything you want to discuss on that list? No, just if there's any questions or comments or anything you want me to send back to Drew, happy to take those notes, but other than that, no. Anything anybody want to add, discuss? Not the public. Back here. All right. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. That's it for procedures and regulations. Okay. Public works has two action items. The first has me making a motion to approve the first reading of an ordinance amending articles 13, Article 13-11-4 of the municipal code passenger pickup zone on Bussey Highway, Northeast Side in a 60 foot area between Morris and Elm Street between April 1st and November 1st. Second. Thank you. And Director Mitchell. Staff has received a request from organizers of sports leagues that use Hinckley Park for their activities to install a 60-foot drop-off zone on the northeast side of Busy along the park. This area is currently a three-hour parking zone and is underutilized except during activities. Historically, vehicles have temporarily parked in the curbside travel lane to unload passengers, and traffic was able to proceed in the other travel lane. However, since the installation of the new bike lanes, there's only one travel lane, so vehicles that temporarily stop to unload now block the only travel lane. This is a safety concern for passengers on loading as well as vehicles attempting to pass. Staff concurs that the installation of a drop-off zone would provide a safe area for vehicles to stop and unload, and traffic flow can be maintained. Since the concern is limited to sports season, staff recommends the installation of a drop-off zone from April 1st to November 1st. Thank you.