Will County Committee Advances $179,000 Coroner Cot Purchase

Will County Board Finance Committee Meeting | June 2, 2026

Article Summary: The Will County Board Finance Committee on Tuesday, June 2, 2026, voted to advance a request authorizing $179,000 in contingency funds for the County Coroner’s Office to outfit its five vehicles with powered hydraulic cots and loading systems, a purchase officials framed as a workplace-safety investment.

Coroner Cot Purchase Key Points:

• The committee endorsed using $179,000 in County Board contingency funds for hydraulic cots and powered loading systems in all five coroner vehicles.
• Coroner Laurie Summers told members the office has paid out roughly $241,000 in workers’ compensation tied to lifting injuries, and currently has two staff members unable to work full duty.
• The equipment — Stryker Power-PRO 2 cots paired with Power-LOAD fastener systems — carries a 700-pound capacity, is crash-test rated, and includes two years of preventive maintenance.
• The motion passed on a voice vote with no opposition; as a committee action, it now moves to the full County Board for final adoption.

WILL COUNTY — The Will County Board Finance Committee on Tuesday, June 2, 2026, voted to advance a request authorizing $179,000 in contingency funds so the County Coroner’s Office can install powered hydraulic cots and loading systems in its five vehicles, a measure presented chiefly as a way to curb costly lifting injuries among staff.

Under the resolution, the funds would move from the County Board contingency line into a machinery account to cover the equipment for all five coroner vehicles. County Coroner Laurie Summers and a representative from medical equipment manufacturer Stryker appeared before the committee to explain the request and field questions about cost, durability and maintenance.

A Safety Case Built on Workers’ Comp Costs

Summers told the committee the purchase was driven by the toll that manual lifting has taken on her staff. “I don’t want my staff getting hurt,” she said, adding that injuries also strain scheduling and benefit time when deputies are sidelined. She said the office currently has two employees affected — one unable to work and another limited to partial duty — both tied to lifting or to the older manual cots.

Summers said the cost of the new equipment is less than what the county has already spent on injury claims. “We are way over the cost of that for what we’ve paid out thus far for workman’s comp, which is $241,000 and some change,” she said. She described first encountering the powered system during a demonstration: “It took me, seriously, working in healthcare about 15 minutes to go, ‘Oh my God, this is a game changer.'”

The coroner said her office already uses hover mats as a lifting safeguard — a measure she credited to a deputy who previously worked as a part-time firefighter-paramedic — and that the powered cots would build on that approach.

Finance Committee member Jacqueline Traynere voiced strong support. “Workers compensation is not only bad for the county in terms of cost, but nobody wants to be hurt,” she said, telling Summers, “I’m 100% behind purchasing the five pieces of equipment.” Traynere noted that the county’s insurer also backs the purchase.

Equipment Details and Maintenance

The Stryker account manager handling the sale told the committee the package combines two pieces of equipment: a power-loading system mounted in each vehicle and a powered cot. He said the system removes the weight from the operator during what he called the most dangerous part of the manual workflow — loading — and that it also secures the cot inside the vehicle and is crash-test rated. The cot carries a 700-pound capacity at full extension, he said.

The representative said 12 coroner’s offices in Illinois already use the equipment and that he expects that number to reach 20 by year’s end. He described a seven-year service life set by federal guidelines, with practical use often extending to 10 years or more, and said the county’s largest local Stryker customer, the Joliet Fire Department, routinely transfers the equipment into new ambulances as it cycles through vehicles. Summers confirmed the coroner’s equipment could likewise be moved into replacement vehicles as the fleet — currently a mix of vans and one F-150 — ages.

On maintenance, the representative said two years of Stryker’s ProCare preventive service are included, after which annual price increases of about 5% typically apply. He cited two-year preventive maintenance figures of $1,600 total across the five cots and $5,250 total across the five loading systems, and said all service is performed by Stryker technicians rather than third parties.

Cost and Financing

The resolution authorizes $179,000 from contingency, transferring the funds into a machinery line item. Supporting documents in the packet show a Stryker reference quote of $189,437 for the equipment, along with separate multi-year lease-financing proposals. Summers told the committee the final cost would be reduced by a trade-in on an existing Stryker unit and by a grant for which she said she had submitted paperwork to offset part of the expense.

After extended discussion, the motion carried on a voice vote with no recorded opposition. Because the Finance Committee’s action is a recommendation, the appropriation now advances to the full Will County Board for final consideration.