Forest Park will accept firefighter applications year-round under a new hiring process approved unanimously by village commissioners on Oct. 13.
The ordinance, first reported by the Forest Park Review, replaces a system in which the village tested candidates only when needed. Under the old process, those who passed were placed on a hiring list that stayed active for two years or until everyone on it was hired. Only then would the village hold another test.
Fire Chief Lindsey Hankus told the Review that approach no longer works. Where the list once held dozens of names, a national firefighter shortage has shrunk the pool. By the time the months-long testing process wrapped up, she said, "there might only be like six people on the list," with some lacking qualifications and others already hired elsewhere.
The new system collects applications roughly every 30 days and tests those candidates. Qualified applicants go on the hiring list, which still lasts two years. The village hired Stanard & Associates, a consulting firm that specializes in public safety testing, to run the process for a trial period of about six months.
"We won't miss opportunities," Hankus said.
The department is budgeted for 27 firefighters but has 23. Two new hires came on recently, and one firefighter is set to retire at the end of October.
Even reaching full strength may not solve the workload problem. The department responded to 4,742 calls in 2025, about 250 more than the year before and the most in its history, according to the Forest Park Review. More than 600 of those calls went to CTA stations.
Hankus told the Review that overtime has left firefighters completely burned out.
Travis Myers, a Forest Park firefighter and Local 2073 union president, said at a June 8 village council meeting that the department answered 2,953 calls in 2011 with the same staffing level it has now. "You're putting the community at risk," Myers said, according to the Review's June report on firefighter staffing.
The hiring change is one of several developments at the fire department. A $1.5 million state grant from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO) will fund a second-floor remodel of the 120-year-old firehouse, including a bunk room that has not been updated since the 1970s. That money cannot be spent until spring.
Firefighters filed an OSHA complaint this summer over respiratory symptoms and headaches they attributed to a degrading fiberglass duct liner in the HVAC system above their sleeping quarters. Some moved their beds into TV rooms and an office. The Illinois Department of Labor tested air quality in July but did not test for fiberglass. Hankus said she requested a separate test and had not yet received results.
A new fire truck is expected in November, though Hankus said equipment installation and training will delay its entry into service.
The village also stands to receive more than $1 million in reimbursements from the CTA for emergency responses to CTA stations, under an intergovernmental agreement approved Sept. 14.
