Bernie Vahlkamp
QUINCY — No injuries were reported late Tuesday morning during a three-alarm fire at a single-family home in northwest Quincy. The Quincy Fire Department said in a press release that firefighters were dispatched to a fire at 623 Spring. Engine companies 2, 4 and 5 and the incident commander were on the initial general alarm…
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QUINCY — The Quincy City Council isn’t expected to address again the proposed retail development at the intersection of 54th and Broadway until July 15, but one alderman appeared to show where he stands on the issue during Monday night’s meeting at the Quincy Public Library. A proposal from Omaha, Neb.-based developer Jim Otis to place…
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QUINCY — Approximately 37,000 vehicles pass through the intersection of 36th and Broadway on an average day. That number is about to go up dramatically. Target is completing its move into the former 111,000-square-foot space on the northeast corner of the intersection that Kmart occupied for nearly 50 years. Quincy Mayor Mike Troup said during…
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QUINCY — The Quincy City Council recommended approval Tuesday night to go into a contract with Banner Fire Equipment from Roxana to spend $1.182 million on two 2025 E-One fire trucks that the department won’t receive for two years. The Quincy Fire Department operates five trucks in “front line” status. However, Engine No. 7 is…
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QUINCY — Chief Bernie Vahlkamp and Deputy Chief Steve Salrin with the Quincy Fire Department couldn’t convince the Quincy City Council not to make three changes to an ordinance to adopt the 2018 series of the International Code Council model code for the city’s building code. Aldermen voted at the end of the meeting to…
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QUINCY — Quincy firefighters responded Monday night to a fire in the second story of a home at 314 N. Eighth. Bernie Vahlkamp, chief of the Quincy Fire Department, said the call came into the Quincy Fire Department at 8 p.m. Firefighters with Engine 2 at Central Fire Station, 906 Vermont, were the first to…
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QUINCY — A building on the northeast corner of Seventh and State, where three people died in a fire in 2008 and a man was convicted for setting the fire and murdering them, was ablaze again Wednesday night. Quincy Fire Chief Bernie Vahlkamp said the call came in at 5:48 p.m. Wednesday, and it quickly…
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QUINCY — Quincy Police Chief Rob Copley said his department is “drowning” and needs to hire 10 more officers during a Monday meeting in City Council chambers as aldermen reviewed the city’s proposed 2022-23 budget. Chief Bernie Vahlkamp said the fire department is proposing a $12.9 million spending plan, a 5.48 percent increase over the…
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QUINCY — Quincy firefighters responded to an apartment fire at 901 N. Ninth that displaced two families from their homes on Friday morning. The Quincy Fire Department was dispatched at 8:55 a.m. to the Frederick Ball apartment complex after it received a report of visible smoke and flames. Two trucks were on the scene. Fire…
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QUINCY — Fire Chief Bernie Vahlkamp, Deputy Fire Chief Steve Salrin and Michael Seaver, director of inspection and enforcement, made a presentation Monday night before the Quincy City Council to explain the importance of updating the city’s building and fire codes. Seaver explained the city’s last updated its building and fire codes 2008, adopting codes…
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QUINCY — Fire Station 6 at 24th and Cedar was briefly closed twice in the past 30 days because of a lack of available firefighters. “A guy called in sick in the morning. We had four guys in Chicago training, and we had some guys taking vacation days,” Fire Chief Bernie Vahlkamp said of the…
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QUINCY — Quincy Mayor Mike Troup outlined an eight-point plan Monday morning to be added to his proposed ordinance that would change how future police and fire chiefs would be hired. Troup met for approximately an hour with Steve Meckes, Kerry Anders and Barry Cheyne — members of the city’s Fire and Police Commission —…
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QUINCY — Quincy Mayor Mike Troup called Police Chief Rob Copley’s annual report to aldermen last month “misleading,” believes there’s a “lack of performance” in regard to Copley and doesn’t believe Fire Chief Bernie Vahlkamp was “the top candidate” when he was hired in July. Troup made those comments during a Fire and Police Commission…
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QUINCY — An amendment to the Code of Ordinances for the City of Quincy that would call for the mayor — instead of the three-person Board of Fire and Police Commissioners — to appoint and terminate the city’s police and fire chiefs raised a few eyebrows. The City Council chambers were filled for Tuesday night’s…
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QUINCY — As the Quincy City Council recognized the new, it also took an opportunity to say thanks to the old. Bernie Vahlkamp, who has been with the Quincy Fire Department since August 1997, was introduced as the next fire chief at Monday night’s City Council meeting. He was one of three finalists to meet…
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QUINCY — Assistant Fire Chief Bernie Vahlkamp has been recommended to city’s next fire chief, according to the agenda for Monday night’s Quincy City Council meeting. Vahlkamp succeeds Joe Henning, who is stepping down on July 15 to take a teaching position at Western Illinois University. Vahlkamp was one of three finalists for the position.…
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