A new ambulance service is coming to Harrisburg after February 1st.
SALINE COUNTY, Ill. (WSIL) --- A new ambulance service is coming to Harrisburg after February 1st.
It's after their current provider deaconess EMS said they would no longer provide emergency services for all of Saline County.
“I felt like the county wasn't really excited about what we decided to do, but it's not their decision,� Harrisburg’s Mayor John McPeek said.
He says they made a five-year agreement with Abbott EMS.
“So we have an ambulance always in Harrisburg, McPeek says. “There'll be two rigs for the city of Harrisburg and the county. And then there will be a rig for transfers.�
He says they have an mutual aid agreement for Saline County.
“So mutual aid would be like if somebody was having a heart problem or something in El Dorado, then that rig from Harrisburg would leave Harrisburg to go to El Dorado,� McPeek said.
But county board member Wes Sherrod says mutual aid still leaves Saline County without a designated ambulance service.
“To me, that means we have somebody that may be able to help us but not contracted to help us,� Sherrod says. “The residents need to be aware that the county has never had to pay for an ambulance service. We're being forced into service in the last month of the year, and we don't have funding for that.�
He says the county board will meet tonight to see if they want to put more bids in for a service, but their 2024 budget has already been completed.
“So we would estimate that potentially the cost to the county for its ambulance service hit somewhere around $400,000, maybe some whereas up to $600,000 just for that ambulance service for the county,� Sherrod said
Sherrod's concern is for the elderly people in the county.
“What worries me is that if you have an ambulance service that is contracted through the City of Harrisburg and they're based in the city of Harrisburg, if you have any kind of problem in an outlying city,� Sherrod said.
Sherrod says that people in the surrounding cities of the county can share their opinions on an ambulance service. And that Harrisburg is the only city in Saline County with EMTs on staff in its fire department.
