PG trustee balks at agreement with Capron Rescue Squad

 

Nov. 1, 2013

By Bob Balgemann

POPLAR GROVE - The village's administration committee has become the first governmental body in northern Boone County to consider an intergovernmental agreement with the Capron Rescue Squad.

It basically states that the village will utilize ambulance service from Capron Rescue before calling someone else.

The agreement as written brought immediate opposition from committee member Don Bawden.

While it's a village-wide agreement it would not apply to subdivisions south of Orth Road, because they are not within the squad's 144-square-mile district. Still, Bawden said there were too many questions to be answered at this point for some of those subdivisions, such as Bel-Air, Prairie Green and the Knolls, to make that kind of a decision.

Ambulance service for that area is provided by Lifeline in Belvidere.

Beyond that, Boone County's 911 dispatch center decides which ambulance is assigned to a call for help. Proximity of the ambulance to the location of the emergency is part of the decision-making process, as is availability.

There is a back-up plan in place for use when the primary ambulance is busy. For Capron Rescue, mutual aid comes from the Harvard Rescue Squad for the northeastern side of the district and from Harlem-Roscoe for the northwest side, with Lifeline filling in the rest of that area.

Village President John Neitzel pointed out Capron Rescue, which is being renamed North Boone EMS to more accurately reflect its service area, has been covering north Boone since 1957.

Doing 'very good job'

"I personally think they do a very good job providing that service," he said. He added that North Boone Fire District 3 was considering the operation of an ambulance service. As a resident and taxpayer, he said he saw that as a duplication of service and additional expense for taxpayers.

Bawden said he disagreed with that "big time."

He said the agreement didn't specify it was for the area north of Orth Road and that he would never call an ambulance that's one-third further away.

Village Attorney Roxanne Sosnowski said she briefly reviewed the agreement, which came from rescue district attorney Jim Hursh, from a legal standpoint. "I sent a number of revisions to Mr. Hursh and have not received a response," she said.

She confirmed that the 911 dispatch center would send the closest ambulance to the call for assistance. She said she did know if the agreement was "a legal edict" as to which ambulance is called first.

"I can't vote for something that's not true, resolution or no resolution," Bawden said.

Neitzel suggested further discussion on the matter and obtaining suggestions from counsel. "Mr. Bawden has some good points," he said.

In the meantime, suggested revisions to the agreement will be sent to Hursh, Neitzel and village administrator Mark Lynch.

Poplar Grove Village Trustee Owen Costanza also is president of the Capron Rescue Squad District Board of Trustees. He was not at the committee meeting but said Oct. 29 that residents north of Orth Road already approved use of the Capron Rescue Squad when they voted in favor of paying a tax to help finance the service. The proposed intergovernmental agreement merely is an extension of that, he said.

The agreement also will be presented at some point to the Capron, Caledonia and Timberlane village boards, Boone County government and the unincorporated Candlewick Lake community.

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