ANNUAL REPORT
Mark Pickering, managing editor, 309-829-9000, ext. 252, email: newsroom@pantagraph.com
SATURDAY, March 23, 2013
Duane Farrington
State Farm adapts or State Farm, change has been a constant over our 90 years as a company. Technology continues to change our world and the marketplace. As consumers, we find that technology is changing our behaviors and our expectations of the companies we do business with. State Farm is impacted by these same changes and yet our core values remain the same as we help our customers manage risks, recover from the unexpected and realize their dreams. In 2012, we continued to grow while building new platforms that will allow us to better adapt to customers’ ever-changing needs and expectations. This positive momentum was created by the collective energy and focus of State Farm associates. We recently shared information with our employees about our plans to expand in Atlanta, Dallas and Phoenix. In addition to these locations, we will continue operating in a number of communities where we have an established presence. These types of changes are not new for State Farm. We continuously review our operations and facilities to make sure employees are in the right places to provide the best possible service to our customers. We know these types of decisions have an impact not only on our associates, but also to the communities we live and work in. As far as our presence in Bloomington, while there have been reports to the contrary, our headquarters will remain here. State Farm strives to be a good neighbor, helping to build stronger, safer, better-educated communities. Recently, I had the opportunity to visit Heartland Community College to present a gift from the State Farm Foundation. The $1.5 million grant will be used in part to support students from low-income backgrounds who are interested in pursuing a degree in information technology. In today’s society, a foundational understanding of technology is an essential skill for anyone entering the workforce, regardless of the industry. As the leader in the insurance industry, technology plays a big role in our success. To continue that success, we look for associates with technical skills in the areas of advance programming, network management and systems application architecture, just to name a few. We believe supporting educational programs like Heartland’s information technology degrees is a win-win for all involved. State Farm and State Farm Companies Foundation partner with other higher education institutions throughout Central Illinois. We continue to work with the University of Illinois Research Facility in Champaign and are also providing scholarship money for UI students interested in the IT field. In
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Katy Nichols of Clinton, left, and her husband, Sam, move their newborn son,Jackson, from the former birthing unit to the hospital's new nursery on June 25 as patients from intensive care and obstetrics occupy the new addition.
Health care’s new look Area hospitals add new services, care centers By Paul Swiech pswiech@pantagraph.com
BLOOMINGTON — New places for medical care and rehabilitation and new weapons in the battles against stroke and youth sudden cardiac death are among patient advances at Advocate BroMenn Medical Center and OSF St. Joseph Medical Center. Advocate BroMenn’s mother-baby, intensive care and progressive care units have been busy since moving last summer from BroMenn’s 1967 building to a new, larger building constructed on the west side of the existing hospital, 1304 Franklin Ave., Normal. That 136,000square-foot addition — which cost $53.5 million — is a four-story, triangleThe Pantagraph/LORI ANN COOK-NEISLER shaped building that Dan OSF Healthcare RN Michael Lehner monitors patients in July from the OSF ConstantCare in Peoria. Cooper, planning and design manager, noted was built on schedule and on budget. tum (including for mothers women’s and children’s nursery for newborns whose Sixty larger, private rooms who have had a Caesarean services, and Doug Brown, mothers need a break, a sevinclude 20 for labor, delivery, section); 18 are for progresdirector of surgical, neuroen-bed special care nursery recovery and postpartum sive care (for patients who science and acute rehabilita- for higher-risk or ill newcare, which allows most need a higher level of care tion nursing. borns, two suites for multiple mothers to stay in the same but not intensive care); and The addition also includes births, a room for tub births room throughout their hos12 for intensive care, said Lee two rooms for Caesarean and three isolation suites for SEE HEALTH / PAGE 2 pital stay; 10 are for postpar- Ann Wallace, director of sections, a 12-bed respite
Bloomington moves to get on solid financial footing By Rachel Wells rwells@pantagraph.com
BLOOMINGTON — In coming years, the city of Bloomington must address about $114 million in pension debt, a $60 million backlog in street repairs and possibly even more expensive needs in sewers and other infrastructure. In order to meet those needs, the city requires study and stability, said finance director PattiLynn Silva. “These aren’t things you can really kind of wing it,” she said. Silva became the city’s permanent finance director on May 1, after a series of temporary hires over the prior fiscal year. She took the helm of the department after its staffing was cut almost in half between 2006 and 2011, as attrition and an early retirement package wiped out most of its institutional knowledge. The city in that time began rolling out city-wide financial software and delved into study after study of the city’s financial needs. As a sign of the department’s instability, the city’s re-
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Workers for Stark Excavating lay a 30-inch sewer line into a trench as the Locust-Colton sewer separation project crossed Towanda Avenue at East Locust Street in 2012. The $9 million project is designed to remove sewerage from storm water across a large portion of Bloomington's near eastside. quired annual financial report was two months late in 2012 and Silva said they were “lucky to have it done then.” By early 2013, though, Silva said the city was further along toward a stable, more technically competent finance team with 11 full-
time employees (there were 17 in 2006 and a low of nine in 2010 and 2011) and the number of certified public accountants up from one in 2011 to four. A proposed budget for the next fiscal year would bring department staffing up to 13.
The city also continued to see progress toward more stable finances. The general fund had a negative balance in 2008 but has continued to rebound, with $14.4 million in reserves at the close of fiscal year 2012, which ended April 30. The city expects $17 million in reserves for the end of fiscal year 2013. At the same time, the city faces major long-term liabilities, including a requirement to improve pension funding, and continues to see some funds, including storm sewer, operate in the red. Though the city has built up its water fund to more than $17 million, Silva said the need for infrastructure will far exceed the savings. Some of that infrastructure will come in the form of facilities to expand the city’s water supply, which — as residents were reminded during 2012 — is vulnerable to drought. Lake Bloomington and Evergreen Lake were full by early 2013, but residents earlier saw water use restrictions set in a new ordinance, one of several steps taken SEE FINANCIAL / PAGE 2