Thursday October 20, 2016 Vol. 4, No. 33
The Weekly Post
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Ambulance service faces crunch By BILL KNIGHT
PRINCEVILLE – Butch Gardner is the face of the AkronPrinceville Ambulance Inc., and its 20 volunteers are familiar faces to patients needing transport. But that could change unless more people volunteer to help. “I’d say 90 percent of the patients know us,” Gardner says. “That can be comforting for people.” What’s uncomfortable is the staffing crisis the ambulance service faces, he says. Volunteers and donations are dropping as costs and responsibilities are rising here and other emergency services. For The Weekly Post
“I’m on a mission: keep this funded and in service,” says Gardner, a 74-year-old CILCO retiree who’s president of the private corporation that gets some funding through the AkronPrinceville Fire District. “I’m getting old and I’m going to have to quit one of these days,” he adds. This Sunday (Oct. 23) from 9 a.m.-1 p.m., Akron-Princeville Ambulance is holding a pancake and sausage breakfast at the firehouse across the street, but raising money is only part of the goal. “We’re running out of volunteers,” Gardner says. “We’ve done everything we can do, tak-
ing applications wherever we can, running appeals in the Princeville Civic Association newsletter every week. But people just aren’t turning them in. In the last year or so, we had three new, younger volunteers, but one is moving and two went back to college.” It’s not a matter of scheduling convenience, he explains. “We can respond [to emergencies], but it’s required to have two EMTs (Emergency Medical Technicians) to transport people,” says Gardner, who adds that A-P Ambulance goes to about 200 calls a year. Akron-Princeville Ambulance Inc. president Butch Gardner said his organization is in need of volunteers and donations if the To continue, the PrincevilleContinued on Page 2
service is going to keep operating. Photo by Bill Knight.
Schock promotes second Elmwood Habitat project
PLENTY ’O PUMPKINS
By JEFF LAMPE
ELMWOOD – Aaron Schock was in Elmwood? In front of a television camera? Yes, the former U.S. Rep. from Peoria visited Elmwood’s City Hall on Monday to help promote a new Habitat for Humanity “Habitat for Heroes” construction project in town. “It’s exciting to be a part of another build and to be in Elmwood, which is a community I love,” Schock said. While work will likely Former U.S. Rep start next spring at 402 Aaron Schock visited W. Mound, where demo- Elmwood on Monday. lition of an existing Photo by Jeff Lampe. home is first order of business, the more pressing need facing Habitat Weekly Post Staff Writer
Pumpkins seem plentiful in this patch on Laura Road west of Princeville. Photo by Bill Knight.
An abundance of pumpkins in 2016 By LAUREN QUINN
URBANA – This time last year, the threat of a major pumpkin shortfall was in the news. Sources were predicting that the 50 percent yield losses – due to early rains, coolerthan-normal weather, and fastspreading disease – would mean U of I Extension News
fewer pumpkin pies at Thanksgiving. But thanks to manufacturer decisions not to reserve stock for after the holiday, the doom and gloom scenario was largely not borne out. Still, the lead-up to Thanksgiving was a tense time for the pumpkin industry. This year, according to University
of Illinois plant pathologist Mohammad Babadoost, the pumpkin outlook is much improved. “The season started out very well,” Babadoost says. “There was enough rain to germinate seeds, but not too much. Then there was a period of relatively warm and dry conContinued on Page 9
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