By Marney Simon
Bugle Staff
www.buglenewspapers.com
The city of Joliet has struck a deal with Chicagoland Speedway and the Route 66 Raceway through for the next three years of police and fire protection.
On July 2, Scott Paddock, President of Chicagoland Speedway, gave members of the City Council a brief overview of operations at the property at Route 53 and Laraway Road.
Paddock said the track is in a good position to continue to attract visitors to Joliet for events.
“We find ourselves in a very competitive environment,” Paddock said. “A large part of my job is to bring new events to the facility. We bid on those… and locking in these rates will help us make it competitive.”
The council approved a resolution to execute a memo of understanding between Chicagoland Speedway and the City of Joliet, and the Joliet Police and Fire departments.
The speedway will pay for fire services at the rate corresponding with pay rates of respective employees, capped at $53.19 per hour for Local 44 members, and $65.19 per hour for Local 2369 members.
For police services, pay rates are capped at $69.17 per hour for Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) union workers, and $85.06 per hour for FOP supervisors.
Workers who report to an event that is subsequently canceled will receive two hours of pay.
Paddock said the agreement comes on the heels of a successful race weekend that attracted thousands of visitors to the racetrack.
“We just completed NASCAR weekend… under very trying weather circumstances, as many people can attest to, with the heat indexes we had,” Paddock said. “We can attest that our police and fire representatives responded non-stop to heat related illnesses. Several of our fans were transported, although I don’t know the condition of those fans to the best of our knowledge, there’s no one who was seriously injured. We were reviewing the call sheets at the staff meeting this morning, and they remarked that it’s very unusual and it’s remarkable that we didn’t lose anybody during the event.”
Paddock said this year’s event even included an unusual emergency.
“My assistant pointed out that we may have actually gained one,” he said. “We had a fan who went into labor during the race. NASCAR fans are loyal.”
The raceway was annexed into Joliet in 1997, with annexation of the speedway following two years later. Joliet police and fire have provided services for the track and its adjoining properties since they were opened. The new contract is effective through Dec. 31, 2021.