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Piatt County Nursing Home Adminstrator Scott Porter, left, Regan Deering, GOP candidate for the 13th District Congressional seat, and U.S. Representative Rodney Davis, stand near the site where a new generator will be installed for the nursing home.

Piatt County Nursing Home Adminstrator Scott Porter, left, Regan Deering, GOP candidate for the 13th District Congressional seat, and U.S. Representative Rodney Davis, stand near the site where a new generator will be installed for the nursing home.

MONTICELLO – After Scott Porter submitted a grant proposal to U.S. Representative Rodney Davis office to help pay for an emergency power generator, he took a look at the list of projects also under consideration.

“When I first saw them, I thought ‘There is no way we will get this,” said the administrator of the Piatt County Nursing Home in Monticello.

But Tyler Cravens, an aide to Davis, and a Monticello native, assured Porter not to get discouraged.

“He told me that we had as good a shot as anybody,” he said.

Weeks later, Davis announced $215,000 in federal funding through a Community Project Funding grant would be secured to help pay for the generator.

“It has truly inspired me to go out and find other things that are possible for the nursing home,” Porter said last Wednesday, while Davis visited the facility.

It was one of four stops for Davis on the day. He also visited the University of Illinois’ Williard Airport in Savoy, where $1 million was earmarked for security screening checkpoint improvements; Millikin University in Decatur, which received $2 million to improve the School of Nursing facility; and downtown Gillespie, a recipient of $3 million for the Gillespie Downtown Streetscape project.

“I’m really proud that the county board came together and looked at this project at the nursing home as their number one priority,” Davis said.

He also credited Cravens for working hard to secure the grant.

“Like I am for Christian County, Tyler is a homer,” Davis said. “He is always working hard to do whatever benefits Piatt County.”

Without the upgrade, a power failure that would last more than several hours, would force the nursing home to evacuate the residents to another site.

“The impact this will have on day-to-day operations is probably minimal,” Porter said. “But what it will provide in the way of security in terms of natural disasters and man-made disasters is immense.”

During power outages now, the current generator will run the boilers, the freezers, the coolers for the food in the kitchen, the lights in the hall and about one outlet per room.

Employees have to run extension cords and there are not enough outlets for oxygen concentrators.

“It’s a huge ordeal when the power goes out,” he said. “It is nerve-racking to see a storm warning of any kind because the consequences of trying to move our residents is extremely dangerous.”

“During a time when we are seeing rolling brownouts in part of our country, there are people in certain positions of leadership in Illinois that make bad decisions when it comes to energy production and energy usage,” Davis said. “What that is going to lead to is a lot of access to affordable energy usage. What I don’t want to see are facilities like this that are providing great care thanks to people like Mr. Porter, I don’t want to see them lose power. I want to see them continue to be able to serve the residents of the area.”

Piatt County Board Chairman Ray Spencer praised Davis for his efforts in securing the funding.

“This Piatt County Nursing Home is a great facility and we want it to be around for a long time,” Spencer said. “It has been entrusted to us by previous generations. Now it is ours and will continue to be here for future generations.”

Davis said the federal funding was an example of how tax dollars should work.

“This emergency generator is going to be a great investment for the community, a great investment for the residents and it was a top priority of the county board,” Davis added.

Earlier this summer, the county board approved $200,000 in funds from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) to upgrade the facility from a single-phase power supply to a three-phase power supply, which is standard in most commercial or industrial facilities and a requirement for a new generator.

“These are your tax dollars that you sent to Washington D.C.,” Davis said of the CPF funds. “This is money that was going to be spent as part of any federal budget, but you allowed me to make the decision on where they go, versus an unnamed faceless buerocrat in Washington D.C. based in the Department of Housing and Urban Development. This is a tax cut for you. This is your tax dollars coming back for you to ensure that this facility will remain open regardless of disasters.”

Porter said the installation of a generator is all about avoiding disasters. In June 2017, a garbage truck hit a power line on Route 10 power went down at the facility for 3.5 hours. The high that day was almost 90 degrees and the nursing home’s generators were unable to connect to the air conditioning unit. State law requires evacuation if the temperature in the facility rises above 80 degrees for more than an hour.

“The proposition to evacuate 77 individuals who are not able to move on their own, to any other location is daunting,” he said. “When you compile that with where we have chosen to take on the extra responsibility of having a dedicated Alzheimer’s Unit, it can be disastrous.”

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