The Minonk City Council continued its debate over how to fund the ambulance squad at its
normal Monday night meeting. Initially, the ambulance issue was supposed to be resolved at
the meeting. However, in his opening comments, Mayor Spencer told the council that the
decision will be delayed. Letters had been sent by the city to St. James Hospital and the
Illinois Department of Public Health and other organizations concerning the amublance squad.
Their replies to the city made Mayor Spencer delay the ambulance squad decision until their
replies can be digested.
City Alderman Bill Koos voiced his concern that some of the options to funding the ambulance
squad will result in some of the volunteers working enough hours that would require the city
to pay them benefits. City Administrator Trent Smith replied that the city would make sure
that this wouldn't happen by pre-arranging work schedules.
Koos replied that there are too many vague answers to the questions that linger over the ambulance
funding options. He said he wants rock-hard answers to these questions before the city enters into
an agreement with the ambulance squad.
Smith replied that the higher the options, the more rock-hard the solution. Smith said that option 5
which employed 3 fulltime Intermediates and 1 fulltime Basic appeared the best affordable option at
$75,000 per year. Mayor Spencer said that the city will get a letter from the city attorney explaining
exactly what the city's exposure would be to paying benefits.
Ambulance squad chief Rob Fredericks said that there will always be unanswered questions. Alderman
Russell Ruestman told the mayor that he thought that we have enough information now to make a decision
on funding the ambulance squad. Ruestman wanted to know if the letter from the Department of Public Health
was holding up the decision.
Alderman Koos said he will not vote for any option until he knows who is accountable for the system.
He said that he encourages the public to read the letters received from the Department
of Health. Mayor Spencer said that the city council is accountable for the system just like it is accoutable for
the police department.
Members of the ambulance squad voiced their displeasure over the council's continual delaying of a decision
on funding the ambulance squad. Ambulance chief Fredericks wanted to know why going with El Paso's
ambulance squad is even a consideration if it costs more than staying in Minonk. Fredericks said
it takes 10 minutes to respond from El Paso while it takes only 2 minutes from Minonk. He said that
Minonk's volunteers do not want to work under the El Paso system because it is different from Minonk's
and would limit their capabilities.
An ambulance squad member said that there are many people who want to volunteer for the ambulance squad
but will not commit until the city makes a decision on which direction it is going to take.
Fredericks asked if the council was afraid of the accountability for the ambulance squad because of the
letters received by the city. He said those letters should be made available to the squad for their comments.
In reference to delayed response times which seemed to be the issue in the letters, Fredericks said that
if the ambulance squad had a fulltime staff, there wouldn't be a delay in response times. He said that
a full time staff could also provide for better management of the squad.
Mayor Spencer said that response times have always been the biggest issue. Fredericks said a fulltime
staff will take care of that. Alderman Steve Mattox told Mayor Spencer that if response times is the
critical issue, then El Paso should not even be an option. Alderman Ron Redenius agreed. He added that
he wanted to make sure that the squad can work in harmony if someone from outside the current squad is
brought in to head up the ambulance squad when fulltime positions are established. Ambulance chief Fredericks
said that would not be a problem. He said the Minonk ambulance volunteers are a dedicated staff and will
work with anyone.
Mayor Spencer encouraged further discussion of the issue until the next meeting.
Other business
City Administrator Trent Smith said that the city has spent the last of the $34,000 set aside for
the Westside Park pavilion construction. All future expenses will be paid out of the Committee Action
Fund that was set up by the committee to accumulate funds from private donations.
