Winter arrives

After a mild December, Rensselaer is starting January with some cold winter weather.

I missed three meetings in late December because I was visiting family. The Rensselaer Republican has a report on the City Council meeting. Both the County Council and late-December Commissioners meetings had light agendas, but that does not mean that there were not interesting things discussed. I will have to wait until the minutes are published to find out.

I was back in Rensselaer in time to attend the working meeting to discuss EMS on December 30. At present the County has four EMS providers: Southern, Wheatfield, Keener, and Phoenix. The first three are township based and the last is a private company. They all receive County subsidies. A problem with this arrangement is that the County sets a budget for EMS subsidies, then opens bids for the central region, which determines how much that region gets, currently served by Phoenix. The three township services then divide up what is left. So they can have big swings from year to year in their budgets.

At the meeting each of the services were invited to explain their situation. Southern (Remington)  offers a basic ambulance service without a paramedic. It relies on volunteers, though they are paid for their time. They offer one ambulance and cooperate with the Wolcott service. They have problems staffing, noting that people start with them to get experience and then move on.

Wheatfield Township EMS pays $15 per hour for EMTs and $20 for medics. They had 838 calls in 2021, up 5% from 2020. They have two older ambulances with repair issues. They have purchased one new one and need to order a second. They got a lot of equipment from the County with covid funds.

Keener Township had 1360 calls this past year. The head compared the County funding for EMS with that in Newton County, which spends much more per capita. (Newton has a county system, with one ambulance in the north and another in the south. Employees are county employees.) 

Phoenix had 1791 calls this past year. They do a lot of mutual aid for Remington, which does not provide Advanced Life Support (ALS) service. The Phoenix spokesman noted that staffing is a problem because more people are leaving the field than entering it. Phoenix used to staff two ambulances but due to difficulty in hiring people, it only has one now. Training for EMTs is fairly short, but training for paramedics takes several months and costs several thousand dollars. At present rates of pay, it may not make financial sense for people to become paramedics.

The Sheriff and fire personal added comments because they are often called to assist the ambulances, especially with lifts. Sometimes they arrive before the ambulance and then must decide if they should intervene or not. The Sheriff said that SJC would be offering classes for EMTs and paramedics in the spring. The paramedic program needs certification and SJC cannot offer that but it will be offered using a partner college with accreditation. 

The discussion continued until the meeting had lasted two hours. There were questions of whether the four services could work together better, perhaps by standardizing pay. A suggestion was made that perhaps the County could subsidize training. There were multiple suggestions that the County needed to increase the amount it provides for EMS. The County officials would like to find a way to have a dedicated source of revenue, perhaps via a tax rate similar to what the libraries have, but apparently the State does not allow for that. The meeting established a task force composed of the four services to continue exploring how EMS can be improved. 

On a very cold and icy Monday morning the Commissioners met for their Monday meeting. The meeting began with a moment of silence for a consultant to the County Highway Department who died unexpectedly in the past few days and others who have died of Covid or are sick with it. First on the agenda was a request for a stop sign on CR 500W just south of Remington. The intersection has a two-way stop but the requestor would like it to be 4-way. She lives on the corner and is concerned for the safety of her small child. There will be a public hearing on the matter at the February meeting.

The Commissioners approved the rezone request for a RV park east of the Love's Truck Stop at the I-65/SR 10 intersection. Approval was recommended by the Plan Commission at its December meeting. The Commissioners also approved a name change for the proposed ambulance service that they are trying to get established for Rensselaer and surrounding area. It will be the Central EMS service rather than the Marion Township EMS service. 

The County Prosecutor was given permission to fill an upcoming vacancy in the child support office. He also had concerns for building security. His office had submitted a grant proposal for some changes, but the grant had been denied. He would like door security similar to that in schools. He also would like a laminate for the windows to make it more difficult to break the windows and gain access to the building. Finally, he would like some bollards between the parking lot and the building to prevent vehicles driving into the building. He had old quotes on the prices and will get new quotes and present them in February. 

At a public hearing for a speed limit on CR 1000N between CR 700W and US 231, no members of the public gave input. The Commissioners then approved a new speed limit.

Bids were opened for the Assessor's Office. There was only one bid to help with reassessment, for $522,000 for four years. It was approved. A bit later in the meeting bids were opened for the Highway Department, for bituminous materials and for various supplies. As is the practice, all bids were accepted and turned over to the County Attorney of inspection. Between bids for the Highway Department, the Commissioners heard an update on the water leakage issue at the Court House. They agreed to hire an industrial hygenist to do tests and make recommendations. His cost will not exceed $13,600. 

The Commissioners approved County holidays for Martin Luther King Day and Presidents' Day but delayed deciding on the rest of the holiday schedule until February. The issue that is undecided is what to do with election days. The County Nurse gave a Covid update. 44.3% of the County is vaccinated and that number seems to have plateaued. There have been 105 Covid deaths reported. The only mask mandate is for buses. The Health Department is fully staffed.

The meeting was continued, if needed, to January 20 at 8:30.

The Sparling Annex has new signage.