Ambulance progress? Depends on who’s asked

How quickly a merger of ambulance services might occur apparently depends on who is asked.
Allen County commissioners mulled the question Tuesday morning with conversations including Iola Administrator Carl Slaugh, Mike Burnett, county ambulance director, and Terry Call, who does ambulance billing for the county.
A conclusion of Slaugh’s was that if agreement were to be reached, it would come from a joint meeting of county and city governing bodies, not a subcommittee, and that “who will be in charge” is a significant sticking point.
Maybe the approach should be to come up with a staffing strategy, said Burnett, “without names or who is in charge.” Which led Call to interject with a plan that he thought could result in one ambulance service.
His plan would involve Iola fire department and county ambulance staffs operating four ambulances, one each in Humboldt and Moran and two in Iola. All involved would be trained to do some fire duties, he proposed, with rotation of crews among the three stations. Some part-time employees might be involved, to facilitate keeping the fire station staffed with firefighters and ambulance crews filled 24 hours a day.
While discussions about a merger continue, no meetings of the subcommittee or the two governing bodies are scheduled, but could be rather quickly.
In the meantime, employees of the two emergency medical services are continuing talks among themselves and will meet again Friday.
“There are lots of details to be worked out,” said Burnett, although there is “somewhat of agreement on a structure.”
Disagreement is found in reconciling duties and relationships of EMS supervisors and deputy fire chiefs, he said, as well as where a public safety board would fall, to what degree its members  would have control of a service and to whom they would answer.
“I think something like the hospital trustees would be good,” Burnett said.
If trying to restore one ambulance service to the county weren’t enough of a challenge, Slaugh wondered aloud if countywide fire protection, as well as ambulance service, might be a topic to evolve from discussions.
Several years ago a study focused on countywide fire protection.

BILL KING, director of Public Works, said Embridge, which intends to lay a large oil pipeline across the county, had agreed to a $25,000 bond that would pay for any damage done to roads.
That surfaced when Commissioner Works mentioned that Wilson County had talked with the company about setting aside money to ensure repairs of each road the line went under in that county.
King said the bond should be more than sufficient.
Commissioners approved purchase of a 2012 Bomag pneumatic-tire roller for $60,312 from Berry Tractor, Wichita. It was one of six bids. Trade in of the county’s roller was dismissed after Berry offered just $1,500 for the well-used machine. King said he thought the county could realize more by auctioning the roller itself. The new Bomag is a year old, but has only 200 hours use, a Berry representative said, noting it had been used as a demonstrator.
Ken’s Painting, Iola, had the lowest of three bids to paint the bandstand at a cost of $960.