Jasper County Board Minutes
COUNTY OF JASPER NEWTON, ILLINOIS
County Office Building 204 W Washington St, Newton, IL 62448
September 15th, 2022
The County Board met in regular session on Thursday, September 15th, 2022. The meeting was called to order at 7:00 pm by proclamation according to law by Sheriff Francis. Sheriff Francis led a moment in silence and the Pledge of Allegiance. Members present were Bollman, Fehrenbacher, Geier, Hall, Heltsley, Hickox, Kerner, Leffler, Pickens, Warfel, and Weddell. Swick was absent, he has come down with shingles.
Public comments: None
Geier made a motion to approve the agenda. Hall seconded the motion. Motion carried on a voice vote.
Committee Reports: Standing Committees
Ambulance Department: Old Business: Billing company is billing accounts now. Will see a difference in a few months. New Business: Zoll Service agreement. Ambraw PM service agreement for generator. E-Schedule (approved by J. Warfel) – payroll (was asked by clerk’s office to re-vamp it), clocking in/out, vehicle maintenance logs, truck check offs, drug check offs, other forms and equipment tracking, personnel certification tracking, training tracking, multiple forms can be made. 2 rigs are now downgraded to BLS – basic level crew can now fully operate an ambulance. 4 new radios are in process of being purchased to replace others that are not reliable. Speaker wiring is going to be looked at to make sure tone can be heard throughout the bldg. if possible. Leasing refurbed copier in the office – repair man said the one we have is dead. Going to be switching from Verizon to FirstNet cell phones that has better capability with hotspot and cell service so that crews can complete their PCR in Live mode. Crews have been working on PR events. So far, speaking with senior citizens and Villas of Hollybrook, participating in upcoming parades. Would like to be able to speak with high school students. I sent letters to 8 area hospitals asking for transfers and to also ask us if one of our residents needs ambulance transport for any reason. I will branch out to other hospitals if we do not see enough business from the ones I did contact. We have been going through the station and cleaning out OLD records and equipment that needs to be destroyed or thrown out. We need a community Shred Day. Carpet was removed in the bedrooms, crew are working on removing the debris that was left behind, one crew member volunteered to paint the floors when done. We need the maintenance man to come back and fix 2 other items in the station. New mattresses will need to be purchased. I have been working tediously on all open accounts that were either not billed or billed incorrectly and I have been sending invoices to people that owe the service money. I have been seeing payments coming in the mail and people have been calling with either correct insurance information or to make payments over the phone. I have a large stack of people that will be going to collections. We have been working on replacing old, non-working equipment or purchasing equipment that is needed for the ambulances. Can the county maintenance repair person keep up on spraying the weeds and other outdoor upkeep? Our crews should be using weed killer then going to answer calls. HIRED 1 FT medic (was PT then came FT), 1 FT EMT – waiting on IL reciprocity, 1 FT advanced – waiting on system requirements to be fulfilled, 2 PT EMT’s, 1 PT advanced.
Buildings: The Building Committee of Jasper County met on Monday, September 12th, 2022 at 7:00 pm. Old Business: The committee discussed ideas for the pavilion on the courthouse lawn. Pickens has talked to Caren Brumleue and Erin Heuerman from Inside Look Design about refinishing trim in the courthouse lobby. Sheriff Francis discovered a leak in the roof of the courthouse. Kerner plans to work on the parking blocks for the county building parking lot within the next month. Pickens shared information about surge protectors for the county building and courthouse. New Business: The committee approved a design for Christmas Story Book Display for the courthouse lawn. Next meeting October 11th at 7:00 pm
Finance: The Jasper County Finance Committee met on Monday, September 12th, 2022. Public Comments: Mindy Hartke, Embarras River Tourism Council Director, has prepared a financial report for the committee. Jacob, Kevin, Brent, and Alex by Zoom from Snedeker Risk Management spoke on the Health Insurance Renewal. The plans were reviewed and given an update on next year’s deductible $1,500/$3,000, currently $1,400/$2,800. 17% increase in overall premiums from last year. Employees with health insurance are going to preferred providers helping costs but higher costing drugs. Discussed how preferred and standard providers costs. Clinics in the town are not preferred but are standard. Corey McDonald gave a technology consultant report. The finance committee will be the technology board. New services would be out of contract and be billed. Treasurer’s Report: Bigard reported the income of $196,054.28 and the expenses of $183,376.41. Fiscal year to date totals are State/General Fund Income $2,250,138.58, Personal property income is $571,531.78, total income $2,821,670.36. Expenses to date $2,297,270.62 with a net profit of $524,399.74. The 1st distribution has been completed. Ambulance paid back part of the amount owed but left some money to operate the department. New Business: Ambulance credit card expired but Daniel canceled the card. Bank is trying to get card without an individual name on the card. The card has a $5,000 credit limit. Bollman made a motion to approve the ambulance credit card with a $5,000 limit. Fehrenbacher seconded the motion. Motion passed on a voice vote. The public defender salary has been reimbursed for the last 2 months. Lindsay Wantuck is the new public defender and has started. Judge Miller has created a contract for her. The highway electronic recycling has a $600 charge because we did not reach the required weight. Bollman made a motion to pay for the charge of $600 out of general fund contingencies for the electronic recycling. Fehrenbacher seconded the motion. Motion passed on a voice vote. Francis has added a Court Security Fund line item in his budget. Judge Koester implemented court security 5 days a week from 3 days. The revenue has been a smaller amount and will possibly less with no cash bail starting January 1st to support the salaries. Court Security should not go below $25,000 in case of other expenses. Francis has not given a raise for court security employees, but a raise will have to be given at some point. Old Business: FY2023 Budget work was presented. A decision on how the cost of health insurance increase in premium will be covered. This decision needs to be made to complete the budget along with a few other items. The budget will need to be on display for the public and then passed by the board. Warfel does not want to use ARPA Funds for health insurance costs. Next meeting Friday, October 7th, 2022, at 8:30 am at the County Building.
Highway Department: The Jasper County Road & Bridge Committee met on Monday, September 12, 2022, 7:00 a.m. at the Highway Office. New Business: There was discussion on the Solid Waste Program Budget and the need to cut cost or vote on a Tax Levy increase on the Consolidated Election in April. The Highway Department will come up with cost cutting options and discuss again next month. The Committee was updated on the completion of the Hunt City Road Soil Cement Project and the planned start of the HSIP Grant Guardrail Project in the upcoming 1-2 weeks. The Committee was informed on the less than average turnout for the Electronic Recycling Event on August 27th and the $600 charge due to not bringing in enough weight for the truck. The committee agreed that even with the shortage, another event should be held in March as has been done in the past and if we continue to be short on weight, then it will be discussed to have 1 recycling event per year in March. The next regular Road & Bridge Committee Meeting will be held on Tuesday, October 11, 2022.
Operations: The Operations Committee of Jasper County met on Monday, August 15, 2022, at 7:00 pm.
New Business: The committee discussed the current county offices’ pay scales. Geier made a motion to develop a standardized policy regarding non-union pay raises. Weddell seconded the motion. The motion carried on a voice vote. The committee discussed the current personnel policy, and how it would change if the county adopted the Four-Day Work Week plan. The committee discussed the Four-Day Work Week plan and agree to not support the plan because the offices, who serve the county, should be open five days a week and to maintain consistency among all the county offices. Plans were discussed for the County Employee Appreciation Luncheon. Next meeting September 19th, 2022, at 7:00 pm.
Public Safety: The Public Safety Committee of Jasper County met on Monday, August 15th, 2022, at 6:30 pm. Monthly Reports: The new jail building is nearing completion. Sheriff Francis has spoken to Ray Diel about insurance for the jail building. Sheriff Francis is still waiting on the generator for the new jail. A dispatcher is currently being trained. The Law Enforcement Appreciation Day is August 27th on the courthouse lawn. A new squad car has been ordered. EMA assisted the sheriff and fire departments with water rescues during the poor weather. EMA is currently working on an EMPG grant. Old Business: Steve Lyddon visited the Health Department, Courthouse, and County Building and will be making reports for security upgrades to correct possible liabilities. New Business: The committee discussed the current animal control budget and whether they should make changes to the budget for next year. Next meeting September 19th at 6:30 pm.
Informative
Law Enforcement Center Pay/Progress: Shannon Woodard gave report things are finishing up. Generator will be delivered next month. Punch list has been done for the outside, the rest of the building will be having a punch list created. There will be testing and training on the items in the building. Open house will be before the inmates are housed. Woodard said we were underbudget.
Board of Health- Interviews have been completed for Health Department Director position.
Chamber of Commerce and Economic Development – Fall Festival was Saturday the turnout of people was good, rained later in the day moved evening entertainment to West End Event Center. Scare on the Square will be held October 22.
Heltsley made a motion to approve the consent agenda containing the following items: Approve of County Board August 11, 2022, Minutes; Approve of August and September Standing Committee Minutes; Allocate $600 from General Fund Contingencies for Electronic Recycling Expense; Authorize Jasper County Ambulance Service to Activate and Use Credit Card for Department Expenses; Issue National Rail Safety Week Proclamation; Appointment of James Nix as Commissioner of Ste. Marie Drainage & Levee District [Sept. 2025]; Appointment of Donald F. Clark as Commissioner of Mint Creek Drainage District [Sept. 2025]; Accept Fourth Judicial Circuit Appointment of Lindsay A. Wantuck as Public Defender of Jasper County; Approve of Conduit Agreement Between Jasper County and Metro Communications for E-911 Fiber; File County Reports; and Allow Claims. Geier seconded the motion. Motion carried on a voice vote.
Old business: None
New Business:
At the Finance Committee on Monday, September 12 a group from Snedeker Risk Management was on hand to review the 2023 Health Insurance Rates for Jasper County. If you recall last year the Hope Trust worked with Jasper County to create two new plans the Hope 10K Option and the Hope 9000 QHDHP Plan. Creating these plans last year resulted in savings for the employees and the County. As with everything else the cost has gone up, we are using more than we are putting in and as a result, the increase for 2023 will be nearly 17%.
| 2023 Health Insurance Plan Increase per Employee | |
| Hope 10K Plan | Hope 9000 QHDHP |
| $1,632 Per Employee Yearly Increase | $1,332 Per Employee Yearly Increase |
| $136 Per Employee Monthly Increase | $111 Per Employee Monthly Increase |
| $0.97 Per Employee Hourly Increase | $0.79 Per Employee Hourly Increase |
There was no recommendation coming out of the Finance Committee. It was decided to allow the full board to discuss. Following board discussion, any additional discussions can take place at the Operations Committee (September 19) and Finance Committee (October 7). Keep in mind the County pays the entire increase on Sheriff’s Union Employees that have the individual plan and on those employees that are on a Health Reimbursement Plan (HRP), that increase for the HRP is $60 per employee per month. Health Insurance Possible Options: Option A – Employees Bear Increase, Option B – County Bears Increase, Option C – County/Employees Split Increase, Option D – County covers a smaller portion of the increase, Option E – County covers part/all of the increase using ARPA Funds, These are just a few possible options and should not be taken as the only options. Hickox made the comment the ARPA Funds need to go the county, he has had to pay for his own increase, along with other board members. Leffler said give insurance and then not a raise. Operations will continue discussion at Monday’s meeting and they will come back to the October board meeting.
Item B – Approval to Keep Closed Session Minutes Confidential – Action After Closed Session We are required semi-annually to meet to review the minutes of all closed session meetings and determine if confidentially still exists or if the minutes or portions are no longer required to remain confidential. We must declare these findings in an open session.
Item C – Approval to Destroy Verbatim Recording of Closed Sessions Prior to March 2021 – Action After Closed Session After 18 months assuming a written copy is kept, we can destroy the verbatim record of the closed session meetings. We did this last in February 2022 and thus all verbatim records have been destroyed before August 2020. Another action this month would allow all records to be destroyed before March 2021. This motion must be done in an open session.
Board Comments: None
Chairman’s Comments: HopeTrust and Snedeker Risk Management Fall Conference will be September 27-29 in East Peoria. Anyone interested in attending is asked to RSVP to Snedeker’s. Lowell Kepley who served 18 years (8 of those as Chairman) on the Jasper County Board between 1975-1992 recently passed away. Our condolences to his family. County Board History Project Update, Warfel has researched the county board history and gave information. He gave a history of the name of the county and name. Please attend October Finance Meeting to address questions on FY2023 Budget.
Weddell made a motion to go into closed session for Discussion of Personnel 5ILCS 120/2(c)(1) and Discussion of Minutes of Meetings Lawfully Closed 5 ILCS 120/2(c)(21). Geier seconded the motion. Motion passed on a roll call vote with Bollman, Fehrenbacher, Geier, Hall, Heltsley, Hickox, Kerner, Leffler, Pickens, Swick, Warfel, and Weddell. 7:45 pm
Came out of closed session at 8:27pm.
We are required semi-annually to meet to review the minutes of all closed session meetings and determine if confidentially still exists or if the minutes or portions are no longer required to remain confidential. Fehrenbacher made a motion to Keep Closed Session Minutes Confidential. Geier seconded the motion. Motion carried on a voice vote.
After 18 months assuming a written copy is kept, we can destroy the verbatim record of the closed session meetings. We did this last in February 2022 and thus all verbatim records have been destroyed before August 2020. Another action this month would allow all records to be destroyed before March 2021. Fehrenbacher made a motion to Destroy Verbatim Recording of Closed Sessions Prior to March 2021. Geier seconded the motion. Motion carried on a voice vote.
Leffler moved to adjourn at 8:28 pm. Geier seconded the motion. Motion carried on a voice vote.
The next regular Jasper County Board meeting will be held on Thursday, October 13th at 7:00 p.m.
Amy Tarr, Jasper County Clerk
