The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.



Letters To The Editor:

Dear Residents of Henderson County,

I'd like to bring up a discussion amongst our residents regarding our county ambulances and fire.

First of all and most importantly we appreciate those volunteers both firemen and ambulance personnel for all you do. You are asked to stop your lives and respond to those in need and it goes without saying, you are all heroes.

Our county is based on volunteers in every way possible. From those that sit on boards to the First Responders you all are a special kind of people!

Because everyone's lives are so busy and it is hard to donate time, with work and other commitments it is getting harder to have enough volunteers for both ambulances and firemen.

The generation of volunteers that have been doing it for many years is dwindling down and we are need of more First Responders both ambulance and firemen.

So, here is my plea for those who can commit to each village/township, please notify the department you would like to join. If you don't know who to contact, let me know and I will hook you up.

A discussion is occurring now about our ambulance services and the response time of each service.

As I mentioned, our existing volunteers (God bless them) aren't always able to go, and sometimes an ambulance service from (Iowa's) Burlington Fire or Galesburg Ambulance has to respond.

These units are called ALS (Advanced Life Support) and thank goodness for them, they have helped our county on many occasions and there are times that even our BLS (Basic Life Support) units still need them to respond due to the nature of the call. Such as cardiac, severe injury, bleeding etc.

There have been many discussions on the county level of ways to fix this but nothing has been agreed upon or implemented.

Some suggestions were hiring an ALS Unit to cover 24/7 which is very costly and will probably be to the tax payers.

Before having to go to this, I would like to see our county support our services by recruiting more volunteers.

It would also be great to have a schedule for our volunteers so that when a call comes through at the Sheriff's Office dispatching, the dispatcher will know that the service already has a full crew (EMT, EMR and a driver) available during a certain time frame.

I'd also like to see our villages/townships and county begin paying the volunteers on the ambulance services which is in a great need at this time.

Pay a volunteer? Yes pay a volunteer. If you don't want to accept pay, you don't have to. But, if it helps ensure availability then that would be great.

As it stands now, when an ambulance call comes through, the dispatcher at the Sheriff's Office begins the task of paging out a crew that can respond closest to where the patient is located.

They page for two minutes. If they can't get a crew they then begin calling the next nearest village.

Two minutes may not seem like a long time, but it is when you are on the wrong end of the call and you need help.

It's also hard on the dispatcher who is trying to coordinate a response team.

We have volunteers that often drive in their own personal vehicles to another village to help make a full crew.

Again, bless these folks because they are awesome, but it also delays the response time. A schedule will help the dispatcher to know that on a certain day, this village will not have a full-crew and to page the next nearest village from the beginning.

We all know that the biggest goal is saving lives. As a volunteer, you do what you do to help out your neighbor, community or just to help your fellow man.

Times are changing all around us, some for the good and some for the not so good. But in Henderson County, Illinois we can still make good, positive changes.

This is not meant at all to hurt anyone's feelings, because I am also an EMR and I assist Gladstone Ambulance or any other service when possible. My family has been on the receiving end of requesting an ambulance, those two minutes really do matter.

To move forward, we need to have a voice and let our county board members know that this is a priority. They are here to help us and represent us which is why they were voted to serve our county.

County board members currently serving are: Brad Flatt, (Chairman), Dick Clifton, Sally Day, Bob Peterson, Bill Knupp, Patty Daniels, Richard Stewart, Kim Gullberg, Gary Gibb, Alex Torrance and Lee Reason.

Please contact them and let them know your concerns.

To become an EMT, EMR or Fireman, please contact the Directors/Fire Chiefs for each village/township.

You can call the Henderson County Sheriff's Office at (309) 867-4291 to find out more information. Bless you!

Biggsville Ambulance: Dick Johnson

Biggsville Fire: Bill Ewing

Gladstone Ambulance: Petie Parsons

Gladstone Fire: Dave Stewart

Oquawka Ambulance: Tammy Bundy

Oquawka Fire: Troy Jern

Raritan Fire: Bill Waller

Stronghurst Ambulance: Ralph Tatge

Stronghurst Fire: Scott Ford

Lomax Ambulance: Tom Pflasterer

Lomax Fire: Brian Grisham

(Lomax Fire is one of 4 departments, Colusa, Dallas City, Niota, that is part of the Dallas Fire Protection District).

Respectfully submitted,

Diana Seitz

Gladstone