Windham – The WVFD met for their regularly scheduled meeting via Zoom with one board member absent. The chairman of the board, Cindy Cale called the meeting to order and recited the Pledge of Allegiance. The board approved the minutes and expenditures for the month of January before moving on to the chief’s report.
Chief Rich Gano reported that there had been 32 responses for the month of January with 21 transports. They transported 18 to UH Portage, two to St. Joes, and one to Trumbull. They also helped out Community Ambulance once and Braceville twice, giving them a total response time of four minutes and nine seconds for the month of January. The staffing is, three medics, two intermediate EMTs, 20 basic EMTs, and two with just fire fighter certifications. After looking into what Medicare and Medicaid pay for ambulance runs, the following breakdown was determined. A basic run (BLS) is $600 with Medicare covering $279.16 and Medicaid paying $120. An advanced run (ALS-1) is $700, yet Medicare only pays $331.49 and Medicaid pays $172. The ALS-2 runs are $850 while Medicare pays $479.80 and Medicaid pays $172. The ALS-1 and ALS-2 billing is determined by many factors, with two of them being drugs and equipment used to stabilize the patient.
Board member Jake Bowden reached out to Chief Kolmandt of Parkman Fire Department, who is very good at grant writing and has been extremely successful. Kolmandt has written a grant for Marks radios and wants to add Windham to the grant. The grant is a 10% matching grant and Gano needed to know from the board if it was financially feasible to join this grant and he needed an answer asap. The board agreed they could do that and approved the measure. Kolmandt also sent over a contract to write grants for the district. It would be $500/ grant written. After some discussion, the board accepted his offer and will enter into a contract with Kolmandt.
A discussion on whether the district can afford to help pay for schooling for two members. They, both have been good employees and are only asking for $2500 each and the cost of schooling is over $5000. After some discussion, the board agreed to send them both. Everyone who receives tuition assistance must fulfill a contract with the district for service for a specific amount of time. If they fail to meet the obligation, or fail the class and drop out, they will be required to reimburse the district. The district will take legal action if they fail to live up to the contract.
Gano is still thinking the district needs to consider another power cot for the second ambulance. He has a few ideas on the funding for it too. No decision was made at the time. The district also considered setting monies aside for educational purposes. Fiscal Officer Jennifer Derthick said, there is a line item for it in the books, but there is currently no money in it. The board voted to move $5000 to the educational fund to help pay for the schooling for the two they approved.
Ambulance update: they are expecting it back very soon and then will need to have it painted, decals added and the communication system installed. There is still no date of completion, as it’s being held up by a recall.
In old business, the board approved Carter Adams as a basic EMT for the district, with those in attendance all voting yes. The chief was questioned about availability of continuing education classes to keep licenses current. Gano said, there are many opportunities online thru UH Hospital systems, they can take to keep licenses current. The state monitors who is current.
A discussion was held on the difference between village revenue and township revenue the district gets through taxes. They will present the difference to the village and see if they can help out. The statistics show that the village consistently has more calls but the residents in the township carry the load with their higher property values. The fire district is running on a shoestring budget and is looking for ways to increase revenue in a way that makes the village and township’s support of the district equal. They are doing everything they can to avoid going to the voters for more money.
There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned.
