The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.



County Becomes Gun Sanctuary

GUN SANCTUARY RESOLUTION

The Henderson County Board voted unanimously at its April 9 meeting to make the county a "Gun Sanctuary County". This is mostly symbolic but sends a message to Springfield that the county values it's 2nd amendment rights and will fight to protect them. The resolution states the county board and the citizens of Henderson County support 2nd amendment rights and oppose unconstitutional legislation by The State of Illinois that would infringe on those 2nd amendment rights.

HOG CONFINEMENTS

Henderson County State's Attorney Colby Hathaway mentioned board member Lee Reason had asked him to look at possible zoning laws that could be used to limit the number of hog confinements around the county. Hathaway noted that there have been numerous litigations in various counties throughout the state about this subject. He said it basically comes down to acreage. If a confinement is being built on five or more acres the county has no local zoning authority. He went on to mention that he knew of a planned confinement that has applied for a variance in order to be put on a three-acre plot. The variance will be heard by an appeals board and a recommendation will be made to the county board. The county board will vote on it at the next meeting.

AUTOMATED EXTERNAL DEFIBRILATORS (AED)

Donations have been made by several township boards for the purchase of five portable defibrillators. Three of these will be placed in Sheriff's deputy cruisers and two will be placed at the courthouse. About half of the $5000 needed has been raised so far.

COUNTY AMBULANCE SERVICE

Board member Roger Cook asked for support to hold town hall type meetings to see if the community would support the idea of raising the county ambulance tax to 10x the current amount in order to fund a paid full-time ambulance service. He noted his current "ambulance tax" is about $7.50. Under his plan it would raise to $75. The service would have a crew ready to go 24 hours a day/ 7 days a week. He said currently the tax brings in about $45,000/year. He thought around $450,000 would be needed to hire an outside ambulance service. There was a lot of discussion from other board members on the subject. Board member Kim Goldberg said the county had lost 1200 residents and he felt the loss was due to the already high tax burden. It was decided that Cook would get more concrete details about costs before they would bring the idea to the public.

MEETING ADJOURNED

Jeff Tee

River Rat News