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Saturday, February 1, 2014
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Mercury drops; expenses soar PES looks at problems caused by winter’s fury By Donna Barker dbarker@bcrnews.com
PRINCETON — Princeton Elementary School District is feeling the impact of this year’s unusually cold winter temperatures with cancelled school days and increased heating costs.
At Wednesday’s meeting of the PES Board, Superintendent Tim Smith said the district has already had five snow/ cold day cancellations so far, and the winter isn’t finished yet. The district has made up one of those days with a previously scheduled Teacher Insti-
tute day. The state could possibly grant a waiver for the required number of attendance days, if needed, he said. The bottom line is PES will have days to make up this year. Any adjustments to the school calendar will be brought to the board for final approval.
The cold weather is also killing the district with its increased costs for snow removal and for heating, Smith said. The building fund has experienced greater expenses because boilers can’t be turned down at night, as usual, in fear of pipes freezing, which would create another whole problem. In past fiscal years, the district has gotten a
reprieve when it came to the weather, but that’s not happening this year, Smith said. In other financial concerns, Smith said the state of Illinois still owes the district a total of $344,429 in late payments for this fiscal year. Of that amount, $240,309 is due to the education fund, which includes $96,838 owed
for the Early Childhood Block Grant. The state also owes $104,120 in the transportation fund. In comparison, the state is ahead slightly in its payments from one year ago at this time. However, it’s important to realize the payments are diminished in the amount of money PES
See PES Page 3
Perry Home Medical Supply to close Medicare reimbursement a major factor By Terri Simon tsimon@bcrnews.com
PRINCETON — Perry Memorial Hospital has announced it will be closing its Perry Home Medical Supply store, located on the first floor of Perry’s medical office building at the hospital on Park Avenue East. “Perry Memorial Hospital, as an organization, is committed to continue to focus on quality patient care and customer service, and we also must assure our hospital can remain financially viable in a constantly changing and very turbulent environment,” said Perry’s CEO/President Rex Conger. Slowly between now and June 1 — the date anticipated for closing the service, Conger said Perry Home Medical Supply store will be eliminating its inventory and services. Conger said the biggest reason behind closing the service is Medicare and the way it reimburses the hospital. “Medicare has reduced what they are willing to pay for, and secondly, if you bill for something and they don’t think you did it right, then you have to send (the money) back to them,” Conger said.
See Closing Page 2
BCR photo/Lyle Ganther
Skating into Catholic Schools Week Danny Mead, Ryan Jagers and Bianka Nickelsen, kindergarten students at St. Louis School in Princeton, try to get up on their skates for the first time Thursday during their physical education class. Students participated in many special activities like roller skating during Catholic Schools Week.
Tasers coming to Spring Valley Police implementing policies on the use of tasers By Goldie Currie gcurrie@bcrnews.com
SPRING VALLEY — Spring Valley Police officers will soon be armed with tasers. The police department was awarded a $3,900 grant, which will purchase four new taser guns. Police chief Kevin Sangston has been researching the weapons for about a year and has been looking at ways on how it will benefit officers and the community.
“They’ll gives us a less lethal tool to use for when an officer makes an arrest and will be less likelihood of an injury to the officer, community members and suspects,” he said. Sangston admits there have been cases of workers compensation injuries during arrests, that might have been avoided if the officer had used a taser. Looking back on a specific moment, he can think of an incident when police officers were dealing with a suspect on bath salts, who used a piece of glass as a weapon and harmed an on-duty officer. “That’s a situation we looked at that if we had tasers, we would have used them,” he
said. “Looking at studies, it does decrease the amount of injuries to the officers, and you have to use it with a good deal of discretion based upon your training.” Each officer will have to take a day-long course with a local training unit and go through additional training provided by manufacturers of the tasers. “We won’t start carrying them until we’ve finalized our policies, had them reviewed by the city attorney and completed the training,” Sangston said. And while some departments require police officers to be tased before being
See Tasers Page 3
For breaking news, sports and current weather conditions, go to bcrnews.com Year 158 No. 14 One Section - 16 Pages
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