Tagged: Hancock County

The Hancock County Board will put a referendum before voters in November to raise the ambulance service property tax rate.

Voters will decide whether to leave the rate at 10 cents per $100 assessed valuation or to increase it to 25 cents.

Board Chairman David Walker says the county needs more than the current $655,000 it pays to support the district

He says, “The way costs of providing the personnel and the machinery to provide a worthwhile ambulance service (are going) we're going to need more funding, because the funding we have is close to inadequate.”

The Hancock County Board is still weighing its options to improve ambulance service. The county is under a ”plan of corrections” to address lapses by ambulance crew members.

One option is to hire an outside firm to run the service.

Ambulance crews in Hancock County are still suffering too many mistakes  despite operating under a “Plan of Corrections” for months to address them.

The Blessing Hospital EMS Director says that must stop.

Dr. Kelly Cox oversees ambulance services in Hancock, Adams, Brown and Pike counties. He has considerable latitude under state law to remedy the situation. He can suspend the licenses of EMTs who are not doing the job well. He could even suspend the county-wide service. He could also suggest the Illinois Department of Public Health issue fines.

The Hancock County Board is looking at options including hiring a consultant to solve problems with ambulance service.

The county is under a “Plan of Correction” to fix a number of deficiencies. The county could be fined by the Illinois Department of Public Health if they are not corrected soon.

One of the biggest problems is that some crews are not doing a “rig check” to make sure their ambulances have all the supplies and gear they might need on a call.

Hancock County is applying for a $125,000 grant to write a comprehensive plan. The federal government set the money aside for 41 counties in Illinois that were declared disaster areas after the flood of 2008.

The state Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity is administering the $6 million grant pool.

The Western Illinois Regional Council is writing the grant application at no cost. Executive Director Suzan Nash said the plan would dovetail with recent efforts to spur the county's economy.

The Hancock County Economic Development Committee has formed three task forces composed of 25 volunteers each.

They are looking for ways to encourage future economic development in the county.

An initial meeting of selected three priorities; job creation, vocational training and entrepreneurship and encouraging residents to shop at local businesses. Each task force will hold an initial meeting in the next few weeks. They will then meet on a quarterly basis.