By Cliff Ralstin
Humboldt Union – November 14, 2013
Submitted by Newz Group Clipping Service – November 18, 2013
The Allen County Commissioners were asked again Tuesday, November 12 what their plans were for the soon to be old ambulance building on State Street in Iola. Iola Fire Department Lieutenant Ryan Sell, who will be the new director of the EMS program, asked the commissioners if they had made a decision yet about the location after he had requested use of a portion of the building several weeks ago.
“We have a true need for space,” said Sell during the meeting. Flood plain regulations are preventing the current location used to house the Iola Fire Department and EMS from adding square footage to the current floor plan Sell told commissioners.
With issues such as sleeping quarters for female staff, lack of training facilities and lack of space for apparatus, the newly expanded department is in dire need of more room.
Sell said the department would like to use the State Street location for an office for the chief of the department, set up a training center and develop sleeping quarters for out-of-county on call staff.
Sell reported he and IFD staff had met with county EMS personnel and Allen County Rural Fire Chief Darrell Baughn about the space. Baughn had previously requested the use of the space to house equipment for his fire district.
During the meeting Baughn said sharing the space would not leave adequate space for his needs and declined sharing the building.
“We need to look at all options for that building,” said commissioner Dick Works as he, Sell and commissioner Tom Williams muddled options on an adjoining building on the property that is used for storage and the ambulance building. Since commissioner Jim Talkington was absent for personal reasons, the matter was tabled for further discussion.
In other ambulance issues, Works quizzed Sell on rotation of staff once the merger of the two departments takes place. Sell asked what the commission defined rotation as. Works responded by saying he wanted to see all employees rotate between the three buildings to give all staff a chance to work in the higher call volume areas, thus keeping skills sharp across the board and to keep an “us versus them” atmosphere from developing.
Sell agreed that was a good proposal saying, “you lose some of that if you’re just doing critical care up and down the highway”, referring to patient transfers.
Sell reported that a review of protocols between the two departments were underway with less than a dozen differences.
Current county EMS interim director Michael Burnett requested and received approval to purchase two more Toughbook computers to equip Humboldt and Moran locations with the durable units for logging run reports.
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