The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.
Joy Swearingen-Quill correspondent
The Hancock County Board continues to hear concerns about ambulance calls to areas that are not part of the county ambulance service district.
When the county-wide ambulance service was being established, voters in Dallas City, La Harpe and Nauvoo chose to fund their own ambulance services, rather than having their portion of the ambulance levy go to the county. Nauvoo and La Harpe ambulance services are able to keep their services staffed a majority of the time. Since the Dallas City Rural Fire District does not have its own ambulance, the Lomax Ambulance Service has been contracted to cover the Dallas City Rural Fire District.
DCRFD encompasses areas of Colusa, Niota, Dallas City, and Pontoosuc. DCRFD sends their levied taxes for ambulance service to Lomax Ambulance, however Lomax has been out of service a majority of the time, according to Jennifer Meeks, Hancock County EMS director.
At the Hancock County Board meeting Aug. 18, Kim Weaver of Pontoosuc asked the board about ambulance coverage for his town when Lomax is not in service.
"If they take the tax, where is the coverage?" asked Weaver.
When the Lomax Ambulance is out of service, a Hancock County Ambulance is being sent, taking county ambulances out of the service area of citizens paying ambulance taxes to Hancock County.
"If DCRFD were to send their tax dollars back to the county to subsidize the cost of receiving coverage, the citizens of DCRFD would then become eligible for the lower fee schedule for using the county service," Meeks said, after the meeting.
"Currently, by not being county ambulance tax payers, they pay a higher "non-tax payer' fee schedule for use of county ambulance service."
Any change must come from residents in the parts of the county that formed their own ambulance districts.
"I think it is going to take tax payers and residents (in these areas) to stand up and say, we want a change," said Jan Fleming, chairman of the board Health and Miscellaneous Committee.
"We need to start communication somehow with Dallas City, quit blaming people and sit down to try and figure what the solution is or if there is a solution," said Mark Menn. "I think there is an issue between the way we dispatch, and the way we handle a call. We are not serving our people correctly in the taxing district. We need sit down and see if something can be worked out."
"We had this conversation two months ago," said Weaver. "They are stonewalling you. We are paying the taxes, we need the coverage. If I need to make phone calls, let me know."
"I have had some very pleasant conversations with Dallas City and Lomax ambulance members," said Meeks. "I think everyone is willing to talk about it. There is a lot of miss communication, a lot of misinformation. If we can all get on the same page, there is probably some sort of compromise we can make."
Meeks said she would continue to talk with members of the separate ambulance districts in the county.
Bryan Stevens proposed a list of guidelines for people wanting to make public comments at the county board meetings.
Members considered the list and asked for more time to review the rules and to look into any board policy procedures for amending the rules.
Typically the board adopts its policies when they reorganize at the start of the fiscal year, Dec. 1.
At the Hancock County Board meeting, Patsy Davis, Harry Douglas and Bryan Stevens were appointed to a committee to study ways the county board room can be rearranged so members can face one another during discussion, and what kinds of speaker telephone systems are available to better accommodate those who need to attend the meetings remotely.
Tom Rodgers noted that Down State Small Business grant applications made by county businesses are being reviewed in the order they were received at the state office. It could be mid to late September before a check is received.
The board approved issuing deeds as trustee for 15 county properties. Deeds go to the successful bidders for these properties that have not had taxes paid for three years, and that no one bought at tax sales. The minimum bid was $810. Purchase prices range from $810 to $4,500.
Ambulance service write-off contractual adjustments of $49,853 were approved for July for services paid by Medicare, Medicaid and insurance. Write-off of unpaid ambulance charges believed to be uncollectable in the amount of $17,652 were approved.
Karen Andrews, Karen Beeler, Ed Owen and Melissa Pence were re-apppointed to three-year terms on the county Board of Health. Dr. Doug Heighton was appointed to a one-year term to fill a vacancy.