Fire protection districts will soon receive new equipment from McLean County Opioid settlement funds

McLean County (25News Now) – The rural fire brigade in McLean County fits the opioid crisis better equipped.

The McLean County Board has passed an intergovernmental agreement that enables rural fire protection districts to submit applications for up to $ 50,000 to opioid allocation funds.

The district is expected to receive 400,000 US dollars from the nationwide attempt to blame companies for their role in the opioid crisis. In the latest available data, Chestnut Health Systems reports on an increase in the deaths of overdoses in McLean County from 2022 to 2023.

In January, the district authority approved the assignment of 250,000 US dollars of the comparative means for fire protection districts.

The agreement requires the use of the funds to buy medical devices and supplies for the treatment, education and prevention of opioid.

Several fire protection districts are planning, Stryk's, a medical technology company, to buy the latest version of the Lifepak Monitor and Defibrillator.

“For every patient from chest pain to an overdose patient, it all shows us their levels and enables us to treat them on the basis of what we see on the monitor,” said Bobby Kelly, Supervisor of the Lexington Fire Department.

The fire brigade from Lexington, 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.

Mt. Hope Funk Grove found the precedent for other rural departments.

The fire brigade chief Eric Fulk said that he had bought the new cardiac monitor and received the complete reimbursement of the McLean County Board through the opioid allocation fund.

Fulk then turned to the district administrators and recommended that they offer other rural departments the comparison money. These fire brigades can now apply with the format of Mt. Hope-Funk's Grove request.

Without the funds, Kelly estimates that his department would have needed more than five years to collect the 55,000 US dollar for the purchase of the Lifepak 35 on its own pocket.

“We only get money from taxes and are a small community with a lot of arable land, there are not many apartments, so the basic taxes are difficult to get,” said Kelly.

The current heart monitor of the Downs Community Fire Protection is 16 years old. The EMS administrator Macaela Thayer said that the technology company improved significantly in these 16 years.

“Grants help a small department that prepare the latest and best diagnostic and lifulous medical technology in front of the hospital in front of the hospital, which improves patient care and the efficiency of the crew,” said Thayer.

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