Village of South Jacksonville Fire Chief Rich Evans Jr. has put in significant time over the last year to bring back the village’s ambulance service.

The village voted on July 2, 2020 to cease operations of the service because it was not a self-sustaining service for the village’s budget. Evans told the Village Board of Trustees last night that he had formed an ambulance committee among the village’s fire department and come up with a phased-in plan to bring the ambulance service back.

Evans believes he has a good plan to make it work financially this time: “The fire department has set down and had a really good committee on the service. We’ve put a lot of plans together to make this an operation that we could sustain for years to come. We are focusing on South Jacksonville our main focus of service, and obviously helping outside agencies, as well. We’ll need their help at the same time. I think we’ve got a really good plan to work off of and hopefully we can pull it off.”

Evans says the phased-in approach will allow the ambulance service to accumulate revenue and eventually go larger to meet the demand of the community and decrease response times: “Basically, with the first phase, we are looking at to pay the EMTs and paramedic that is on call for that shift a stipend, and then if and when they were to get called in for a call, they would get paid per hour for that call. That, in kind, allows somebody that is staying home to be on call to get a little incentive for being readily available. Then, looking at Phase 2, would be to looking to implement a part-time pay at the Fire station. The final phase, which is the most ideal but the most expensive, would be to staff two people at the fire station 24-7, but it also decreases our response time to a call and provides faster patient care.”

Currently, the village is paying out approximately $40,000 on EMT services for medical calls with the fire department on an annual basis with no ability to recoup costs because the village doesn’t have a transport service with an ambulance. Evans told the board that he believes that the village could possibly receive $240,000 annually in revenue from the service. Evans said that estimate was conservative due to the area’s shortage on ambulance services. During his presentation to the Village Board on Thursday, Evans noted at least 16 instances over the last month where village residents were waiting on an ambulance to transport them for care.

Evans says he currently has his eye on a used ambulance in Mt. Vernon, Illinois that has an estimated cost of around $60,000. Evans is also upgrading the village fire and emergency response software that would come at a cost of approximately $7,700. He says it would put the village in compliance with electronic records requirements with area hospitals and make them compatible with neighboring fire department networks.

The consensus of the board was that Evans continue to gather information and move forward with trying to re-install the service. The Village Board would have to amend their current budget and vote to fund the ambulance. Evans says he is looking at all possible avenues, including grant funding and state and federal money to help get the service back going again.

Waverly Police arrested one man Saturday night. 31 year old William J. Sanders of Alexander was arrested in a traffic stop at 7:27 Saturday night in a traffic stop. Sanders was cited for driving with a revoked license and possession of methamphetamine. Sanders posted $750 bond and was released yesterday.

It marks Sanders’ second arrest in less than a week, Sanders was arrested by Morgan County Sheriff’s Deputies on Tuesday of last week for his involvement in a 3-vehicle crash on Illinois Route 104 east of Waverly that sent two women to Springfield hospitals.

According to court records, Sanders was released on $250 bond on Wednesday following his arrest on charges of following too closely and driving while license is revoked from the crash.

Court records indicate Sanders has been charged with 5 other traffic-related offenses since December: driving while license is suspended on December 23rd; driving while license is revoked on January 11th, January 28th, and March 11th; as well as operating an uninsured motor vehicle on January 28th. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Sanders is next due in Morgan County Court on September 9th on the charges from the Waverly crash. He is due in court on September 13th for his most recent arrest.

Jacksonville School District 117 is seeing the effects of the Delta variant transmission of COVID-19 in the community firsthand.

On Wednesday, Superintendent Steve Ptacek told the Board of Education that the highest number of students under quarantine in one day was surpassed on the second day of school this year. The highest number of in-school quarantines last year at the height of the early days of the pandemic was 50 on November 23^rd. On Tuesday, the district had 51 with expectations that number was projected to grow.

Ptacek says the virus is definitely making its impact felt here at the outset of the school year: “The COVID numbers are [high]. This is impacting our students much more than it did last year. Our staff numbers are great. I think if you read reports from across the country, this is becoming much more of an impact on our young people than it was from 2020 into 2021. We had 51 students that were quarantined due to being in close contact with a student at school. That was Tuesday’s number. Our high last year was 50 in one day, so we beat the number of students that were quarantined at the beginning of our second week of school compared to at the height of last year. That’s concerning. We have to start looking at ways that we are minimizing the impact of what one student who brings the virus to school, because all of this is outside of school transmission.”

Ptacek says he’s going to be tracking COVID-19 at least every other day and posting it to social media and the district’s website for the public. Ptacek says discussions have begun on structural changes that may be taking place to limit the number of people students come into contact with from day-to-day: “I want to give it at least another week of analyzing the data to see if we need to go to a change. We might need to talk about another form of block scheduling to limit the number of classes each student goes to each day; and therefore, that would limit the number of students they are in contact with each day. In other words, last year, when a student came to school if they were positive, they went to 3 classes, no lunch, they went home. Their potential impact on other students was just that – the 3 classes. Now, the structure is 7 classes with lunch, and I think that’s one reason why we are seeing the number of close contacts increase. We might have to start thinking outside the box on some different ways to provide that structure, and we’re not talking about going back to just the 5 hours a day right now. We are talking about within that regular, daily hour schedule some ways to altering that structure to minimize the number of contacts each student is close to.”

Ptacek says despite the push back from part of the community on the statewide in-school mask mandate; data has shown, at least locally, that masks work based upon data from last year: “I do know this. Last year, the entire year, when we have masks on for our students and our staff, we have one potential transfer [in school] to a student the entire year. I say potential because we do know that the students might have been together with each other hanging out outside of school also, but we couldn’t guarantee that, so we put it as a potential transfer at school. Early in the year, before everybody understood the impact that this would have, we did have a lunch where 5 staff members took their masks off and ate in a room together and all of them became positive. That data right there, while it’s not scientific, it’s not done by a research company through the CDC or anything else, tells us that our success last year was because people had masks on. Other than the ISBE saying it’s mandated we have them and holding schools accountable if they don’t mandate them, that number says if we want to keep our schools open and keep as many kids in school possible, that we need to maintain wearing masks.”

As of the data released on Tuesday, the district has 25 positive cases with 128 students in quarantine.

A heavy wind and rainstorm caused power outages and some downed trees along with damage in the southern portions of the listening area yesterday.

The Village of Murrayville reported an hour and a half-long power outage last night, starting at approximately 7PM.

The City of White Hall had downed trees covering some streets on the city’s east side along with some brief power outage.

As of this morning, power had been restored and clean up of some remaining damage was underway.

Carrollton and Greenfield along with western Macoupin County also received heavy down pours and strong winds, but no power outages or damage has been reported from those areas at this time.

The Village of Chapin is looking to replace two members of its administration and still has lingering questions surrounding ATV usage in the village.

Village President Ken Drake announced his resignation to board members on August 13^th. According to the Cass County Star Gazette, Drake said in his resignation letter that he had a differences in goals for the direction the village should take with particular trustees.

Also, on August 13^th, Village Public Works Superintendent Dalton Surratt announced his resignation effective on August 20^th after he had taken employment elsewhere.

The Village of Chapin also saw their long-time treasurer Wendy Bridgewater resign early this year.

According to sources, Drake’s resignation appears to revolve somewhat around the questions still surrounding ATV usage on the village’s streets. According to the Star Gazette, the village trustees are split on the issue of banning them all together or allowing them additional safety and enforcement measures. The August 18^th meeting was the second meeting on the issue in less than a month dealing with the issue. Trustees have voted to table the issue until their September business meeting.

There has been no indication who the village will select as their President pro temp in lieu of Drake’s resignation.

Jacksonville School District 117 appears to be on pace with their budget for the upcoming year compared to previous years. Education fund spending is projected rise due to state mandated minimum wage increases to teachers, substitutes, and paraprofessionals.

District Treasurer Richard Cunningham outlined some of the major highlights of the upcoming budget last night for the District 117 School Board saying that revenues are remaining fairly flat across the district.

Cunningham says operations and maintenance expenditures are going up this year: “There is an increase in expenditures due to the Bowl roof, the Early Years parking lot [renovation], and possibly the purchase of two new maintenance trucks, so I included that into the expenditures for that [fund]. Also, salaries with a 5% increase, and the benefits part of it, I kept flat because of where the numbers were coming in on the different packages for employees.”

The board would later go on to approve a new health insurance provider for the district’s benefits. The district is switching from Blue Cross Blue Shield to United due to the recent removal of Springfield Clinic from in-network designation with BCBS.

Cunningham says he’s budgeted revenues from the district’s sales tax proceeds to receive approximately $189,000 monthly despite the revenues trending upwards in recent months, which now include online sales tax collection.

He says that health, life, and safety funds and capital project funds are slated for some upcoming projects: “Expenditures, too, in this fund will allow for hopefully possible projects such as seal-coating parking lots at JHS, JMS, Eisenhower, Lincoln, and the bus lots. Expenditures also allow for the North [Elementary] entrance possibly to be repaired and the parking lots to be redone. Those are just some of the possible ways that moneys could be used in the [Capital Projects] fund.”

The projects for health, life, safety include the possibility of renovation of the high school roof and lockers, laying of new carpet at Eisenhower Elementary, various asbestos abatement projects, and chiller replacements, among others.

Overall, the FY22 budget shows an approximated $2.9 million deficit, which is $200,000 more than last year’s deficit of $2.7 million. As Superintendent Steve Ptacek noted during the meeting, the district always budgets higher on expenditures and less on expected revenues. He says that process has allowed for the district to actually come out ahead, rather than a deficit from year to year.

The budget will now be posted for 30 days for inspection by the public, with a public hearing and special session to be held at 5:30PM on September 28^th.

The Village President of South Jacksonville has resigned amid several issues with ethics and problems with the Board of Trustees.

Village Attorney Rob Cross informed the board before heading into closed session last night that Tyson Manker had tendered his resignation yesterday afternoon: “About 1:30 this afternoon, I spoke with Mr. Manker. We had a nice conversation, and he informed me that he planned on resigning as Village President. He asked me to send him a written resignation. I emailed it to him. Around 2:30, he emailed it back to Tiffanee Peters and me and the Village Clerk, so he resigned as Village President today at around 2:30. We have an agenda tonight for a committee meeting, and that will be followed by a regular [business] meeting next week. The board may call a meeting earlier than that. It is up to them to appoint an interim or a village president to take Mr. Manker’s place, but they can figure out when they want to do that when they get to old or new business tonight.”

Manker was not present for the meeting, however, his presence was still felt. Village Clerk Amy Scoggins spoke up during public comment saying that Manker’s path as the leader of the village was hindered from the start due to collusion and corruption.

Scoggins called out Trustee Paula Belobradjic-Stewart directly during her comments, asking for Belobradjic-Stewart’s resignation: “I am asking for Paula’s resignation, and I’m inviting those taxpayers to stand with me to demand her immediate resignation. I also request that our government business cease and desist until everyone gets proper training.”

Scoggins cited what she characterized as official misconduct on Belobradjic-Stewart’s part for collecting signatures for Manker’s electoral opponent Dick Samples during the 2020 Election and then sitting on the village’s electoral board to have Manker removed from the ballot as a legitimate candidate. Scoggins produced an anonymous letter sent to Manker that showed petition signatures with both Samples and Belobradjic-Stewart’s names signed for each other’s petitions of candidacy. Scoggins also alleged other examples of Belobradjic-Stewart hindering Manker and village business: “Almost every single one of the village workers have been bullied by her and she continues to micromanage their work. If any of you had any idea of the lies that was told about…in closed discussion then you would…in closed discussion, you wouldn’t believe that the employees would possibly not even come back. If it continues, we will lose most of our workforce. Communication and integrity was lost on the day that Paula started her plot and created a team that could run all the votes her way – that day was the first day that Mayor Manker was in office. Why don’t you ask Paula how much is wasted in taxpayer dollars calling our attorney on an issue that could have been resolved if she would have collaborated as a team? This has been going on since 2016.”

WLDS News asked Belobradjic-Stewart for comment following the meeting. Her reply was that she respects everyone’s right to voice their opinion during the Village’s public comment section for meetings. She did not wish to answer any of the accusations or comment further.

Trustee Mike Broaddus ended the meeting by asking the board and current sitting administration to attempt to heal wounds caused by the recent rift: “I know Paula, okay. I’ve worked concerts with her a lot. When she first came on, she did not want to be a trustee. It was a hard time for her and a hard time for the village back then during that time, but she took the position on herself. I know she has the best interest of the village in her heart. I think the world of her, and I think that, you know, we can get along. That’s all I want to say is that we can get along. The reason I think that is there are a lot of things in the past…let it go. Let’s go on to the future. We all have differences. We all have differences of opinion, but we can get through all of this. We can make this village better.”

Village Police Chief Eric Hansell has confirmed that a threat assessment investigation into Manker’s most recent behavior and comments has been turned over to the Illinois State Police public integrity unit for further investigation. Hansell also confirmed that the village has received an ethics complaint against Manker filed by former trustee Todd Warrick.

The board of trustees did not set a special meeting date to select Manker’s replacement as president pro temp during the meeting.