The Mary Davis Home will receive up to $500,000 in temporary funding from Knox County to remain operational while waiting for state reimbursement payments.
The county board on Wednesday approved a resolution authorizing the county treasurer to transfer funds in the amount necessary to keep the juvenile detention home solvent.
“This is just to get us by until the state does our reimbursements, which is in arrears by a couple of months,” said Board Chair Jared Hawkinson, R-District 4.
The juvenile detention home is under the jurisdiction of the 9th Judicial Circuit and receives funds from the Administrative Office of Illinois Courts and the State Board of Education. But it is affiliated with Knox County, which pays salaries and is reimbursed by the state.
Hawkinson said the state is “usually in arrears” on the reimbursements, and the county board approved a similar resolution last fall.
But Hawkinson said the cost of services rises when fewer out-of-circuit juveniles are detained at the facility, so the county recently has been seeking higher reimbursement as a result.
Board Member Cheryl Nache, D-District 1, asked what happens if the state doesn’t pay.
“The taxpayer eats this, right?” Nache said.
Hawkinson said the state is obligated under statute to provide reimbursement.
“I would imagine, if that were to happen, that our legal counsel would start to intervene,” Hawkinson said.
The delay in reimbursement is not related to an ongoing federal lawsuit against the juvenile detention home.
Last fall, a federal judge ordered Mary Davis Home administrators to make immediate reforms and end the use of solitary confinement.
This week, the Mary Davis Home submitted a new mental health plan for juveniles detained in the facility after the initial one was rejected by a federal judge.
The county board also approved two performance-contract payments for county facilities, including one tied to work at the Mary Davis Home. The board authorized a $274,186 payment for that project, bringing total spending so far to about $1.55 million of a project expected to exceed $3 million. Two board members — Nache and Pam Davidson, D-District 3 — voted no.
The board then approved a separate performance-contract request for the county nursing home totaling $469,211, pushing that project’s completed costs to more than $4.2 million to date. That vote passed unanimously.
Also at Wednesday’s meeting, the board voted to remove two members of the Knox County Housing Authority Board, though Davidson voted no on both.
Hawkinson told TSPR the board members were removed for not attending meetings, per the housing authority’s bylaws.
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