POCAHONTAS, Ill. — A Bond County, Illinois, community is facing an uncertain future with regard to its emergency services.
All volunteer EMTs at the Pocahontas-Old Ripley Fire District will be let go on Saturday, Sept. 30.
For the past 38 years when people in Pocahontas called 911 a Pocahontas-Old Ripley ambulance would show up.
Jeremy Brown says that’s no longer the case since the EMS Director resigned in early August.
“No one was formally informed the ambulance service was shut down,” said Jeremy Brown. “We currently don’t even know what we have if we do 911.”
“We’ve run out of volunteers and we don’t have enough money to hire full-time paramedics or EMTs to man the service 24 hours,” said Don Hawley.
Don Hawley, president of the Pocahontas-Old Ripley Fire District, told 5 On Your Side there are two options to continue providing emergency services through a private company.
“Our problem is we’re about $245,000 short of being able to do it ourselves,” said Hawley.
One option would provide advanced life support services to Pocahontas, but the station would only be staffed 12 hours a day.
“They would leave at 7 p.m. in the evening and return to Greenville which is approximately 10-15 minute drivetime from just the edge of our district,” said Brown. “It could be several minutes before an ambulance arrives.”
“They can get from Greenville to Pocahontas in about the same time our guys can get out of bed, get dressed, go to the firehouse, get in the ambulance and respond,” said Hawley.
The other option would be to post paramedics at the station 24 hours a day. Still, they would only be able to perform basic life support services, similar to what Pocahontas-Old Ripley offers now.
“I don’t feel that a 12-hour service that pulls out of town in the evening time works,” said Brown. “Why is a life less valuable at 7 p.m. in the evening than it is at 5 a.m. in the morning?”
The future of emergency services in Pocahontas will be decided on Tuesday, Sept. 12, at the Pocahontas-Old Ripley Fire Department at 7 p.m.
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