Ambulance Board meeting turns friendly

After a relatively short and definitely productive and friendly meeting of the Cedar County Ambulance Board on Monday, Sept. 19, in the El Dorado Springs ambulance barn, one of the people who participated in the meeting commented outside the building that the meeting was fun, “people were laughing and joking.”

Board members present for the meeting were Kenny Turner, Byron Hamilton, Keith Kosko and John Wilson – presiding. Katie White was absent.

The well-earned reputation of former boards for knock-down, drag out meetings may be the reason that there were no applicants for the advertised open board seat in District 1 – which is bordered on the west by Vernon County, on the north by St. Clair County, on the south by Hwy. U and on the east by Main Street in El Dorado Springs on a line extended north to St. Clair County and south to Hwy. U. If the board cannot find a replacement for Sue Rice (who resigned 30 days ago) within 60 more days, the job will fall to the Cedar County Commission.

Anyone interested in the El Dorado Springs area can contact Byron Hamilton.

Bookkeeper Tammi Ringler reported a beginning balance of $215,102.54 in Simmons checking. Deposits were $7,054 from the FRA discount, $71,728.40 sales tax and $27.56 interest income. Bills totaled $10,900.02. The ending balance on 9/10 was $283,012.48.

The balance in the Simmons Money Market account was $47,733.11, Heritage CD – $156,910.42, Community Bank CD1 – $123,532.12, Community Bank CD2 – $110,123.71. Total cash bank – $721,311.84.

In his manager’s report, Tom Ryan reported that the update to the sheriff’s tower is still not complete. His boss, Neal Taylor, director of ambulances for Citizens Memorial Hospital, said they are waiting on Rayfield Communications.

Tom presented a letter from John Rayfield Sr. saying they “will finish this install Thursday or Wednesday.”

A discussion then ensued about the reasons for the delays.

The contract was signed 11/16/15 with a 60 day completion clause. Then the district learned it could not use the Corps of Engineers tower on the Stockton dam because the chain link gate would not be unlocked 24/7. The district then made an agreement with the Cedar County Commission to use the sheriff’s radio tower.

John Rayfield’s Sept. 19 letter gave a detailed overview and said the “computer for email to text messaging is built and software installed. We are waiting on a conference call with CMH to install this. We regret this has taken so long. There have been several delays that we did not anticipate. When complete it will provide a superior system than first planned.”

Hamilton said, “I think this is nonsense.”

Neal Taylor told the board, “You might have Frank Foster (the board’s attorney) fire off a letter to him.” He said there is no need for a conference call.

The board approved the purchase of a Garmin GPS unit for up to $180 to replace one that went bad in one of the ambulances.

Ryan said the district needs to buy two recliners, one for each barn. The board wants to buy heavy duty units so they will last. Wilson wants to wait until the end of the year to make the purchases on the new budget.

Ryan said there had been a leak in the wall of the Stockton barn between the garage and the living room for two years. He said mold is growing there and makes at least one of the paramedics sick when she is in the building. The board decided to have Service Pro and Service Master look at the problem and give estimates .

Hamilton said they can only clean up what they can see and will not tear out walls and studs to expose the problem. He suggested the board go ahead with remodeling and expanding the Stockton barn and let the crew live in the new part while the old part is torn out and the mold removed.

The board had one bid for a CPA bookkeeper from Kaleena Bruce for $400 per month which they accepted.

The had one bid for a clerk from Tami Ringler, the current clerk, for $300 per month which they accepted.