After a couple left almost $30,000 to the Pulaski County EMS Department in their will, county officials are now taking steps to allow that money to be used. EMS Director Bryan Corn asked the county council this month to formally incorporate that money into his budget. “Just a little over a month ago, I believe, we received a check,” he explained. “It was a donation from the estate of a Henry and Alice Mooi. That total comes out to $29,901.71. That is strictly to be used for the EMS Department only, and that is strictly to be used for equipment for the EMS Department.”
To make sure that money was handled properly, Auditor Laura Wheeler suggested that the council should officially give its permission to spend it. After discussing the matter with Wheeler and County Attorney Kevin Tankersley, council members agreed that the best option was to create a separate line item, so the donation wouldn’t get mixed up with other money in the county budget. The county council is expected to formally appropriate that money next month.
As for how it will be used, Corn said a couple of ideas have been discussed. Those include upgrading the stair chairs that are used to help people out of the upper floors of buildings like the county courthouse or buying one or two automated CPR devices. “So if we get a cardiac arrest, we just slap this machine on and push a button, and it’ll do CPR for two hours,” Corn said. “It’ll help us increase our cardiac arrest – getting them back because this will be able to do it downstairs where we can’t do CPR, in tiny hallways where we can’t do CPR. That we’ll be able to.”
The county council’s action came on the same night that the Winamac Town Council approved a similar measure, for the share of the Moois’ money going to the town’s police department.
