Legislation in the Illinois House was defeated Tuesday that would have allowed communities to issue smoking licenses for a few select businesses.
According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, legislators voted 82-30 defeating the legislation to offer smoking licenses to bars, casinos, adult entertainment venues and establishments hosting a tobacco products convention.
The indoor smoking ban has been in effect since 2008.
The Adams County Ambulance Department released its annual report Tuesday, which goes over all aspects of the department.
Some highlights include:
• The department had revenue of $2.951 million and $3.209 million in spending.
• Twenty-eight percent of patients using ambulance services provided payment through insurance or other private payments. That is a decrease from 41 percent in fiscal 2010. Among patients, 49 percent were covered by Medicare, a decrease from 53 percent a year earlier, and 13 percent were covered by Medicaid, more than doubling from 6 percent in 2010. The department received $67 for each Medicaid patient handled, much less than the cost of service.
• The introduction of a procedure called continuous positive airway pressure in March. The procedure is a method of respiratory ventilation that can be used for critically ill patients suffering from severe respiratory distress. It can eliminate the need for tracheal intubation and reduce the length of stays in critical care hospital units.
• A 25 percent increase in stroke responses, which could be attributed to a nationwide increase in stroke awareness.
• Adams County Paramedics and EMTs responded to 7,330 calls for service in 2011 with only 106 instances when it took more than 15 minutes for an ambulance to arrive.
For those who were unable to see Quincy Mayor John Spring’s address last week, here it is in full.
Quincy Aldermen Kyle Moore, R-3, Jim Musolino, R-6, and Dan Brink, R-6, were in attendance at the Quincy Exchange Club’s meeting where the address was given.
Brink said he thought it was good that Spring talked about the various positives in the community.
“I think its very important to talk about the positives in the ‘State of the City’ address that happened in the last year,” he said.
While he said it was a good speech, Moore said the city needs to focus on job creation.
“If we would have spent time we spent on hydro instead of going after head of household jobs, perhaps we would be in a better spot economically,” he said.
Moore said he wasn’t sold on the Bayview Bridge lighting project.
“I definitely want to see a proposal, especially when we’re going to be spending tax dollars,” he said. “Just because it’s funded by the federal government doesn’t mean we’re not spending tax dollars.”
Brink said he was surprised though that Spring proposed lighting up the Bayview Bridge.
“While I think the lighting of the bridge is important to the community, we need to focus on our street repairs and repayment of the hydropower debt,” he said. “I would not support additional spending for capital items until we satisfy the outstanding hydro debt coming do in 2015.”
I examined the Bayview Bridge lighting project in my Sunday column.
Partial tax refunds for 472 properties have been sent out to most of a group of property owners from Ellington and Melrose townships who live within the city of Quincy and recently sued after they claimed they were double taxed. Adams County Treasurer Terry Asher said that about $170,000 was being refunded to a the group of property owners. He said the county has 77 checks remaining, with some going to property owners who sold their land.
The county received the tax money back from the two townships and the city of Quincy, which received money from the road districts, on Dec. 22. Asher said his office had to work with the developer of the tax software it uses to prepare the checks, which were sent on Jan. 18-19.
The lawsuit was filed Nov. 5, 2010, by 112 property owners organized by Quincy resident Michael Black against Melrose Township, Ellington Township, Melrose Road District, Ellington Road District and Adams County Treasurer Jean Reddington who Asher replaced in a subsequent election. It claimed that the properties should have been annexed into Quincy Township when they were annexed into the city of Quincy. Because Quincy Township doesn’t have a road district, the properties involved in the lawsuit were assessed at a higher rate.
The two sides settled the case in April 2011 with the 112 property owners receiving $34,178 in paid property taxes. Asher said the check from the settlement was sent to Scott Larson, the attorney for the residents, to be distributed.
Both sides of the case agreed with a 2002 appellate court case in Champaign County that allows townships to change boundaries and grow with cities as a city annexes property.
Riverside Township voters agreed in 1999 to preserve the boundaries of that township, halting the expansion of Quincy Township, which to that point had the same boundaries as the city. Township officials may request such a referendum if more than 1 percent of the assessed valuation is annexed within a 12-month period. Riverside Township officials were concerned about the loss of tax revenue from the annexations.
The properties in question have been transferred to Quincy Township.
The Quincy Finance Committee rejected a request Monday night to store mortars used in fireworks in the old hangar building at the wastewater treatment plant.
Rob Ebbing, a representative with S&N Fireworks Inc., said the company has lost space where it was storing the mortars and is moving them to a temporary facility.
“It’s not an explosive item that we are looking to store,” he said.
Utilities Director David Kent said he had not heard the plan yet and was concerned about storing materials that weren’t owned by the city.
“I was not approached whatsoever,” he said. “I don’t think our insurance carrier would allow storing anything but our own property.”
The committee originally asked Human Resources Director Doug Olson to check with the city’s insurance provider before it would issue a decision, but the consensus was that there was no interest in leasing out space for storage.
“I don’t know if we need to get into the commercial storage business frankly,” said Chairman Steve Duesterhaus, D-2. “This is a commercial business. This is a private business. It opens the door. If we have spare space that we start storing things, I don’t know if that is our charge.”
Alderman Tony Sassed, R-4, said since the consensus with the committee was that it was not interested in storing the materials, there was no need to check with the city’s insurance provider.
“If the committee here is already against it, then there is no sense in wasting Doug’s (Olson) time,” he said.
Fireworks are already stored on city land. In June 2010, the City Council approved a lease agreement with S&N Fireworks Inc. on vacant land south of the wastewater treatment plant to store fireworks. The Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms does not allow non-firework mortars to be stored with the explosive fireworks.
The Illinois Municipal League released its legislative agenda last week giving a peek at what it will be pushing during session this year.
One of the top goals is to protect revenues that are shared with communities. Last year, a $300 million cut from the Local Government Distributive Fund that was floated would have meant a $1 million reduction of $3.3 million in revenue for the city of Quincy and a $500,000 cut for Adams County out of the $1.7 million it was scheduled to receive.
Other major point include restricting unions from negotiating staffing levels and sizes of police and fire departments, limiting arbitration awards to existing revenues, additional changes to public safety pensions, and to lower health insurance costs for police officers and firefighters who receive a disability pension.
The Washington Theater Commission gave its first presentation to a community group Wednesday afternoon.
Members of YP Quincy listened to commission President Jim Lawrence on the status of the vaudeville theater.
YP members were allowed to tour the facility following their meeting.
At last week’s commission meeting, Lawrence said it is easier to move the project forward if there is community support.
Additional presentations are expected to be given to other community organizations to held gain some support for the former vaudeville theater. Some open houses and fundraisers are also expected for the Washington Theater Commission this year. 
Lawrence said it’s easier to keep the project moving forward if the community is behind it. The commission had a market analysis and feasibility study conducted in 2006 by a Toronto consulting firm indicating that the Washington Theater has potential for development as an entertainment complex and community center.
Janis A. Barlow and Associates said evidence suggested that Quincy has the population base and enough cultural demand to warrant a rehabilitated theater.
Redevelopment and operations of the theater would likely be run by community organizations, not the city.
A recent grant letter that was prepared to apply for a grant from a private trust said that it would take $9 million to restore the theater.
