Quincy Reporter

Adams County Board Public Health & Safety Committee met July 15.

Here are the minutes provided by the committee:

Overseeing; Sheriff, Emergency Management, Ambulance, Coroner, and the Veterans Advisory Commission.

Present: Mark Sorensen, Steve McQueen, Kieth Calloway, Barb Fletcherand Brent Fischer. Also attending; Tony Grootens, John Simon, Scott Graham and Emily Watkins who was representing VAC.

Absent: Paul Havermale

The meeting was called to order at 5:40pm

There were no speakers

Minutes of June, Thank you Mark! meeting was approved. Motion by M. Sorensen, seconded by Barb Fletcher. Passed unanimously.

Bills were reviewed and appeared to be in order.

Department Reports:

• Corner Scott Graham: Scott provided a written report for review and had to leave for a call.

• Ambulance/EMS Coordinator John Simon: Provided some general information related to preparing for upcoming Adams County Fair.

• Sheriff Grootens gave a verbal repot of activity in the Sheriff’s Office. Mainly wanted to make the comm aware that he has added personnel to the county schools. They are called School Resource Officers (SRO’s). He will be coming back to the county board later this year during budget to ask for two more officers. This will be a part of putting SRO’s in every county school. With the continuing threats of active threats, the Sheriff wants to have a better presence in our schools.

• VAC: Emily Watkins attended our meeting to fill in for Paul Havermale. She filled the comm in on new personnel who have been hired and certified have been a big help in processing claims. She also shared some numbers of how numbers. much they have processed since Jan of this year as well as some overall

New Business:

• Comm. Chair brought up information about the recycle program. There have been phone calls to Jerrod Welsh with the Health Dept. and calls to Dan Brink with the City of Quincy.

In discussions, was to come up with a number the county could offer the city to show a partnership and contribute to the city recycle program since there is no more program in the county. To be measurable and start with a budgetary number we could offer 5% of an overall budget of $500,000. This would be $25,000 the county could propose to budget in the FY25-26 budget. This would also allow the Health Dept the ability to use their $20,000 to help and assist the county villages with village wide clean ups.

It was discussed and then motion was made to propose in the full board meeting the county would offer to budget in the FY25-26 budget 5% or a cap of $25,000 be offered from the county to city recycle program.

Motion was made, second and passed unanimously.

• Veterans Assistance Commission Regional Mutual Aid

There was discussion related to legislation from the Illinois General Assembly about regionalizing Veterans Assistance Commissions in Illinois. Emily Watkins shared information about the numerous phone calls they take from neighboring counties that do not have a VAC established in their county. There have been talks on setting up mutual aid contracts, but do not believe anything has formalized to this point. This is something to track in that Adams County would likely be a focal point, since it is the largest county in the regional area. Will be waiting for more information if it comes closer to being established.

Old Business: None

Adjourned: 6:27pm. Motion made by Barb Fletcher and seconded by Steve McQueen. Meeting adjourned.

Next meeting: August 12th, 2025, at 5:30pm in the ROE Conf. Room.

https://www.adamscountyil.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/11373