The McLean County Board, in Illinois has announced that they have adopted an intergovernmental agreement allowing rural fire protection districts to submit applications for up to $50,000 in Opioid Allocation Funds.
This decision has been made do that the rural fire departments in McLean County are suiting up to be better to handle the opioid crisis.
The county is set to receive $400,000 from the nationwide attempt to hold companies responsible for their roles in the opioid crisis. In the most recent data available, Chestnut Health Systems reports a 25% increase in overdose deaths in McLean County from 2022 to 2023.
In January, the county board approved allocating $250,000 of the settlement funds to fire protection districts. The agreement requires using the funds to buy medical equipment and supplies for opioid treatment, education, and prevention.
Several fire protection districts plan to buy Stryker’s, a medical technology company, newest version of the LIFEPAK Monitor and Defibrillator.
Lexington Fire EMS Supervisor Bobby Kelly: “On any patient from chest pain to an overdose patient, it will show us all their levels, and it will allow us to treat them based on what we see on the monitor.”
Lexington Fire Department, Downs Community Fire Protection, Mt. Hope-Funks Grove Fire Protection District, and Dale Township Fire Department are among the agencies that applied for this money.
Fire Chief Eric Fulk said he purchased the new cardiac monitor and received full reimbursement from the McLean County Board through the Opioid Allocation Funds.
Fulk then approached county administrators and recommended they offer the settlement money to other rural departments. Those fire departments can now apply using the format from the Mt. Hope-Funks Grove request.
Without the funds, Kelly estimates it would’ve taken his department more than five years to raise the $55,000 to purchase the LIFEPAK 35 out of pocket.
Kelly added: “We only receive money from taxes and being a small community with a lot of farmland, there’s not a lot of housing, so property taxes are hard to come by.”
Downs Community Fire Protection’s current cardiac monitor is 16 years old. EMS Administrator Macaela Thayer said the technology company made major improvements to the LIFEPAK in those 16 years.
Thayer shared: “Grants help a small department make a bigger pre-hospital impact with the latest and greatest diagnostic and emergency medical technology available in the field, which improves patient care and crew efficiency.”
An intergovernmental agreement allowing rural fire protection districts to submit applications for up to $50,000 in Opioid Allocation Funds has been adopted by McLean County Board.
