The Pulaski County Commissioners have decided to check and see if the county is eligible for fuel tax reimbursements. Last week, the commissioners conditionally agreed to hire consulting firm Malcon to help with the process.
For the second month in a row, the Pulaski County Council has deferred action on updates to the county’s salary matrix. This time, it was apparently due to an error in the meeting agenda.
The Pulaski County Council decided Monday not to appropriate additional funds to pay part-time staff. Last month, Maintenance Supervisor Jeff Johnston asked council members for permission to spend another $30,000 for part-time help. At the time, he reminded them that money had been cut from the 2018 budget so the state would approve it, with the understanding that he could come back later to request enough for the rest of the year.
The Pulaski County Council will be taking steps tonight to make sure money is available to pay part-time employees. A shortage of full-time EMS employees at the beginning of the year took a huge toll on the department’s part-time budget, according to EMS Director Bryan Corn. “Staffing was kind of rough there for a while,” he told the county commissioners last week. “We had quite a few full-time openings that we had to utilize part-time staff to fill that, to essentially keep the 911 trucks going, keep the 911 trucks in service.”
Pulaski County’s ambulances have become something of a magnet for deer. EMS Director Bryan Corn told the county commissioners Monday that an ambulance hit a deer the night before. That’s the second time that’s happened in the span of a few weeks.
The number of ambulance transfers provided by Pulaski County Emergency Medical Services increased significantly during the month of June. For the past several months, a shortage of paramedics had been causing the department to deny more transfer requests than it accepted. But EMS Director Bryan Corn says the numbers finally appear to be trending in the right direction, following the addition of two new paramedics.
Confusion remains over Pulaski County’s salary matrix, in spite of a new set of written guidelines. Last month, the county council adopted a written set of “Matrix Rules” to help department heads interpret the pay structure that’s already in place. But during last week’s meeting, Auditor Laura Wheeler said the matrix itself would have to be updated to comply with the guidelines, and presented a proposed update to the salary ordinance.
Two of Pulaski County’s ambulances are back in service, following recent repairs. EMS Director Bryan Corn told the county commissioners Monday that the truck that was damaged in an accident on Christmas Eve seems to be working fine now. “We’re using it. So far, we haven’t had any issues,” he said. Continue reading
Pulaski County Emergency Medical Services will soon get about $28,000 for equipment purchases. The department was one of a few agencies named as a beneficiary to the Henry Mooi and Alice Mooi revocable trust.
Pulaski County continues to deal with ambulance issues. Last week, the county commissioners voted to let the EMS department spend nearly $2,800 to replace the fuel tank in its oldest truck.
Pulaski County EMS continues to deny most ambulance transfer requests from Pulaski Memorial Hospital, but EMS Director Bryan Corn expects that to change, as new paramedics are added to the department. He told the county commissioners Monday that his department denied all but one of the hospital’s 10 transfer requests during the month of April. Pulaski County EMS has decided not to take transfers when there’s only one paramedic on duty.
After months of discussions, one of Pulaski County’s ambulances will be repaired, but now another one is out of service. That’s what EMS Director Bryan Corn told the county commissioners last week. He said the ambulance that was heavily damaged in an accident on Christmas Eve was in Iowa being repaired by its original builder. “The insurance company finally gave that the go-ahead for them to fix that,” Corn said. “That truck hopefully, according to Iowa, will be back to us sometime next week.”
The fate of one of Pulaski County’s ambulances remains up in the air. The ambulance was significantly damaged in an accident on Christmas Eve.
Pulaski County EMS still doesn’t have enough paramedics to handle all the ambulance transfer requests from Pulaski Memorial Hospital. EMS Director Bryan Corn told the county commissioners Monday that his department took five transfers during the month of February, but ended up denying 11. He said most of those denials were due to staffing issues.
Pulaski County EMS continues to deny ambulance transfer requests, due to a shortage of paramedics. EMS Director Bryan Corn reviewed his department’s January statistics with the county commissioners last week. “Essentially, for the month of January, we took nine transfers, but we also denied 10,” he said. Continue reading
Pulaski County Emergency Medical Services continues to see success with an outside billing company, according to EMS Director Bryan Corn. “Last month, they deposited $31,509.50, and that’s still them kind of working on some of our older reports,” he told the county commissioners last week. They haven’t even kind of hit a lot of our new stuff yet.”
Pulaski County Emergency Medical Services is once again asking for more room for its ambulances. EMS Director Bryan Corn told the county council and commissioners last week that the department’s trucks are outgrowing the Winamac EMS garage. “Our oldest truck, she’s really, really long,” Corn explained, “and in order to get the garage door to close, you about have to put it into the wall a little bit.”
Pulaski County Emergency Medical Services may soon learn the fate of one of its ambulances. It was significantly damaged back in December, but the insurance provider was reluctant to send it back to Iowa, so the original builder could assess the damage.
Pulaski County Emergency Medical Services had a busy year in 2017. Interim EMS Director Kyle McTiegue presented his year-end statistics to the county commissioners last week. “We ended up with 1,549 calls this year,” he said. “1,343 of them were ALS calls. 181 were BLS calls. We did 301 transfers. 233 of them were out of Pulaski Memorial, and roughly 70 were from other hospitals with our third crew.”
