Will County Board Public Health & Public Safety Committee met April 11

By Philip Gonzales

Jun 15, 2023

Will County Board Public Health & Public Safety Committee met April 11.

Here are the minutes provided by the committee:

I. CALL TO ORDER

II. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE TO THE FLAG

Ms. Deane-Schlottman led the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag

III. ROLL CALL

Chair Mica Freeman called the meeting to order at 9:05 AM

Attendee Name

Title

Status

Arrived

Mica Freeman

Chair

Present

Raquel M. Mitchell

Vice-Chair

Present

Elnalyn Costa

Member

Present

Katie Deane-Schlottman

Member

Present

Destinee Ortiz

Member

Present

IV. APPROVAL OF MINUTES

1. WC Public Health & Public Safety Committee - Regular Meeting - Feb 14, 2023 9:00 AM

RESULT: APPROVED [UNANIMOUS]

MOVER: Katie Deane-Schlottman, Member

SECONDER: Destinee Ortiz, Member

AYES: Freeman, Mitchell, Costa, Deane-Schlottman, Ortiz

V. INFORMATIONAL REPORTS

1. Sunny Hill Nursing Home - February 2023

(Sunny Hill Nursing Home - February 2023)

Ms. Freeman stated there are some great quotes in the Gazette this month, I would encourage you all to read them.

VI. OLD BUSINESS

1. Monthly Update from Sunny Hill Nursing Home

(Maggie McDowell)

Ms. McDowell stated last week the Illinois Department of Public Health came to our building for our annual survey, and we also had our Life Safety Survey. Our Life Safety Survey has to do with the physical plans and safety, also they look at our Emergency Preparedness Plan. That plan has to do with how we are going to respond if something major were to occur within the facility. On an annual basis we do look at our emergency plan. Our emergency coordinator is my Assistant Administrator Jackie Hosey, she is going to give you a preview of our Emergency Preparedness Plan.

Ms. Hosey reviewed the PowerPoint presentation that is included in the agenda packet.

Ms. Freeman stated I have a question about the How’s Moms App, and Call-Em All, all together with the PCC (Point Click Care) is there a cost savings?

Ms. Mc Dowell said it is a wash, when we looked at the cost factor for Call-Em-All and the How’s Mom app, if we transition to PCC which is already a platform that we are using, it made more since to keep everything under the canopy of the PCC since it is for our electronic records system anyway. We must be very transparent, we must make information available to our families. Since we are already using PCC, it was more for convenience than having three different platforms that we combine them, instead of just having one.

2. Monthly Update from Will County Health Department

(Elizabeth Bilotta)

Ms. Bilotta stated I will be bringing your annual report at the next meeting. Just a couple of quick things, before I turn it over to Sean Conners. On May 1st we did have Congresswoman Underwood coming to visit our facility, she is not only going to visit the Health Department, but also the Community Health Center. We are opening our Behavioral Health Suite, we are using that also as the Grand Opening date for that. If anyone is interested in that we will send out an invite. Another thing is the new Assistant Executive Director will be starting on Monday the 17th of April, we are excited about that. As you heard from Sunny Hill, next month I was planning to have my Director of Admen Services and potentially our Safety and Risk Reduction Officer come and do a presentation of all the improvements we have done not only in our main campus but in our branches, and with our Safety Manual. I will now turn it over to Mr. Conners because we are reporting on environmental health in commemoration of the fact that it is Earth Day this month.

Mr. Connors reviewed the PowerPoint presentation that is included in the agenda.

Mr. Balich said I spoke to Ms. Bilotta about PFAS, which is in the water, someone called and asked if there is a fee to evaluate there well for that.

Ms. Bilotta stated our lab does not do as much analysis as other private labs.

Mr. Connors stated give me a call on that, we have some labs that do tests for that, we would refer them to one of those. There is a fee to do the test. If you are on a private well, we recommend that you have it evaluated yearly.

Ms. Ortiz said I had called about a week ago about sampling water, it is a major problem in Romeoville, even when I put it through multiple filters, it tastes bad.

Mr. Connors replied that would be a quality issue, when it comes out orange, which is due to the iron content. It does not always taste great when it is ground water, but it is safe.

Ms. Bilotta said I would recommend that you contact the Village of Romeoville and get their last drinking water notification. If you are a resident, they are required to send it out once a year to every resident.

Ms. Ortiz asked if having water evaluated is affordable.

Ms. Bilotta stated it is typically under $25.00.

3. Monthly Update from Will County Sheriff's Department

(Mike Earnest)

Sargent Dirk Obermeyer reviewed the PowerPoint presentation provided in the agenda regarding the Will County Sheriff’s Office Detective School Resource Officers.

Ms. Freeman said classrooms across the country now have boxes with supplies in them if you are in a locked down situation. Are our schools also preparing in that manner?

Sgt. Obermeyer said yes, we do. We recommend that schools have bottles of water, if you have kids with low blood sugar, you might have food snacks as well. We are teaching them all to have preparedness bags.

Ms. Mitchell asked in how many cases does a joke become a serious thing?

Sgt. Obermeyer said we get a lot of them, we talk to them and explain to them they need to be careful what they say. But it is the furtherance, when somebody says something that is off, and they then ask for a school map, or they tell a couple of friends, we like to check with the parents and find out if there are guns in the home. We want to make sure we are checking things out that might become a threat.

Ms. Deane-Schlottman asked do you reach out to private schools as well. Also, do you have any bus training? My husband and I have told my children how to react if something happens on a bus. Do you also talk about what to do if a fire alarm is pulled at school?

Sgt. Obermeyer said I totally agree, it has been something that has been brought up many times. We do that when the schools reach out to us, and we love doing it. We are also working with the Fire Departments to educate them about what to do in that case. We tell the teachers when you make your calls to think about why you are smelling smoke, are you seeing fire and is anyone else talking about it before we just evacuate. We ask them to make sure they know what is going on, and keep an open mind that it may be something else as well. We work on that on every active shooter, lockdown, and fire alarm drill.

4. Monthly Substance Use Initiatives Update

(Dr. Kathleen Burke)

VII. OTHER OLD BUSINESS

VIII. NEW BUSINESS

IX. PUBLIC COMMENT

X. ANNOUNCEMENTS/REPORTS BY CHAIR

XI. EXECUTIVE SESSION

XII. ADJOURNMENT

1. Motion to Adjourn @10:01 AM

RESULT: APPROVED [UNANIMOUS]

MOVER: Raquel M. Mitchell, Vice-Chair

SECONDER: Katie Deane-Schlottman, Member