Allendale Fire District’s Vehicle Used For Private Purposes –

Allendale, Ill. (ECWd) –

On July 11, 2025, we received a tip that the Allendale Rural Fire Protection District was delivering water for a homeowner to fill her pool, and the home was not within the Allendale Fire Protection District.

This is not a permitted use of any fire protection district vehicle as it places the district in direct competition with private water hauling businesses, and depending on where the water was obtained, could have been obtained without being metered. This serves no public purpose.

We were sent photos (see below) of this and also a video of the fire district’s water tanker speeding after he was caught delivering the water.

Before the water tanker made it back to the fire district building, I was sending them a Freedom of Information Act request for the following:

• Copy of any district policy on using district vehicles for filling residential pools or delivery of bulk water.
• Copy of any district policy permitting use of district vehicle to delivery water and fill residential pool on a house not within the fire protection district.
• Name of any person who used a district vehicle to deliver bulk water and/or fill a residential pool on or about 12:00 to 5:00 p.m. on July 11, 2025.
• Name and address of the owner of the residents who received what was delivered by a district vehicle on or about 12:00 to 5:00 p.m. on July 11, 2025.
• Name of person who approved this use of a district vehicle.
• Location this bulk water was obtained from, how it was obtained (purchased or from fire hydrant, etc), and who paid for it.

Then, after reviewing the video of the speeding water tanker truck, I followed up the original FOIA with this request:

• Please also send any policy permitting any district vehicle to travel at speeds in excess of 70 miles per hours on a 2-lane road when not on an emergency call.

The Fire District, instead of providing what I requested, decided to play games. They would not provide the name of the truck driver, would not provide the name of the person receiving the water (although they did provide an unredacted check written the day after my FOIA request, by the person receiving the water)(see check here after we redacted it), would not say who approved this use of a fire district vehicle, and would not say where the water was obtained from.

The Fire District provided no policy prohibiting the use of government vehicles for private purposes, such as filling up private pools with water.