In a deal categorized as a “milestone” and a “celebration,” the City of Peoria and Advanced Medical Transport finalized a pact that extends the city’s ambulance services for at least five years beyond the current contract.
Peoria Fire Chief Shawn Sollberger said the new agreement developed over the course of two years engaged in “fruitful conversations” with AMT’s CEO Andrew Rand, Peoria Emergency Communications Center Director Brandon Blayney, and leadership of Peoria Firefighters Local 50.
“I was tasked by the city manager to sit down with CEO Rand and review the current agreement that we were under, and to see if a renewed franchise agreement was possible,” Sollberger told the city council Tuesday. “Through all that work, we have the ability to craft the agreement that sits before you today.”
During a particularly busy regular meeting Tuesday, the council unanimously approved the extended franchise agreement with a five-year term, along with the possibility of future five-year renewals.
“This resolution, to me, is a celebration of our 34-year partnership with this history that began in 1991,” said Rand. “Secondly, the resolution clearly establishes and dedicates a new partnership for what I would describe as the next level of emergency care.”
The nearly three-hour meeting also included acceptance of a $2.9 million grant to fund the police department’s co-response program for another year, as well as a lengthy presentation from and discussion with representatives of Ameren Illinois about the surging energy costs. Details of that discussion will follow in a separate future report.
Rand said over the course of AMT’s partnership with Peoria, the service has grown from starting with a staff of 24 and handling 7,500 patients in a year to now having “nearly 350 caregivers and a fleet of 48 advanced life support vehicles transporting over 60,000 patients a year.”
Sollberger said one noteworthy part of the new agreement that wasn’t part of the previous agreement will see AMT have the ability to keep a basic life support ambulance available at all times.
“Essentially, the difference between an advanced life support ambulance, which carries a paramedic, and a basic life support ambulance, which would carry an EMT basic, the ALS unit would go to your higher acuity calls, your chest pains, difficulty breathing, cardiac arrest, for example, and then your lower acuity calls would send the basic life support ambulance,” he said.
Rand said part of the agreement includes a pledge of $50,000 annually for AMT to underwrite the cost of the fire department’s apprenticeship program for the next three years, “placing their employees and students in AMTS earn while you learn program, which is a full time job with fully paid educational benefits that provides these apprentices with not just wages and benefits, but at the end, a certificate as an emergency medical technician.”
Reaching an extension with AMT impressed several council members as they echoed sentiments of strong support for what was viewed as the product of detailed conversations between entities that hadn’t always gotten along well in the past.
“I think it's a strong agreement that includes more efficiency,” said Mayor Rita Ali. “It includes more quality, more training, more tools, and overall more value.”
Ali noted that the current 20-year agreement between the fire department and AMT runs until Dec. 1, 2026.
“We are a year and a half ahead of that expiration, which is a good thing in many ways,” she said. “I agree that eight years ago, six years ago, this would not have happened, not in this fashion. So we've come a long way; I think that we've come a long way with regard to finding agreement on the issues, and then relationships have been improved over time.”
Police co-response unit
The council voted unanimously to accept the grant from the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority [ICJGA] and a related general fund budget revision for continue the co-response program that began in 2023, now called the Social Services Unit.
A third piece of the agenda item authorized a $1.1 million one-year extension of a memorandum of understanding between the city and Carle Health Services.
“Our now social services unit focused solely on helping victims of crime with housing relocation and mental health support,” said Police Chief Eric Echevarria.
“At the end of the day, this grant is about making sure victims and families in Peoria get the support they need to heal.”
Christina Gerlach-Mooney, the director of behavioral health crisis and mental health residential services at Trillium Place, said the initiative was to develop a Peoria-specific program that expands on other crisis response services.
“Our team responds to community calls with the Peoria police department and referred by the Peoria Police Department,” she said. “We are designed as a secondary response and arrive on the scene separately, once the scene has been secured by Peoria police.
“Our team can support and facilitate de-escalation, emotional support, mental health support and services provide resources for short term emergency shelter for impacted victims, individuals and families, relocation systems, case management and follow up.”
Gerlach-Mooney said the unit currently has two full-time licensed clinical social workers, and they have job openings to hire more. She said while the grant is only for a one-year renewal, she believes the program will continue to receive funding in the future.
“We do have to apply every year, [but] we are anticipating that this isn't going to go away for at least five years,” she said.
Other business
A required public hearing has been scheduled for Sept. 23 on a proposal to establish a Glen Hollow business development district. City manager Patrick Urich explained the creation of the business district would add a 1% sales tax within the district that would be put toward development purposes.
“The intent of the business development district would be to redevelop existing properties in the shopping center to meet the needs of the commercial retail tenants and to acquire certain vacant spaces within the shopping center,” said Urich, noting the city already has two such districts in place: one for downtown hotels and one at Keller Station.
While Tuesday’s council action was merely to schedule the public hearing, some members preemptively began to stake their positions on approving the district, with Alex Carmona and John Kelly opposed and Zach Oyler in favor. Both Carmona and Kelly voted against scheduling the public hearing.
In other regular business, the council also approved a low-bid agreement of $897,000 with Illinois Civil Contractors for green infrastructure maintenance for the first two years of the combined sewer overflow project.
The council also approved a no-bid procurement of $50,000 for a Ford Explorer Interceptor as a replacement for a totaled police patrol vehicle, along with $35,000 to have the vehicle equipped for police use.
In an item pulled from the consent agenda by Denis Cyr, the council approved a three-year extension of the police department’s contract with Galls for uniforms, clothing, and ballistic body armor in an amount not to exceed $375,000.
Items approved on consent include:
- authorizing the city manager to execute a lease agreement between the city, Peoria County and Ameresco Solar Land Holdings for on landfill property deemed not developable for expansion;
- a $100,000 settlement agreement to cover medical expenses for a woman who was injured after tripping over a defect on a city sidewalk;
- reappointments to the Planning and Zoning Commission and the Committee on Police-Community Relations;
- and, receiving and filing a documentation review from the Illinois Department of Transportation.
Strategic communications manager Stacy Peterson announced that a time capsule from 1897 recently unearthed from the granite cornerstone of the city hall building will be opened for the public on Nov. 2. Peterson said a new time capsule will be filled by residents and placed in the cornerstone next year.
