Ambulance board adjusts employee wages

Nodaway County Ambulance Director Bill Florea asked the board of directors to consider adjusting employee wages during the March 9 meeting.

The board approved to adjust starting pay with a one percent increase and to adjust current employee pay with a two percent increase, by a vote of 5-1, with member Phil Rickabaugh voting against.

Florea also sought input about incentives for employees to move to the third crew or all-call crew. Discussion was held about the incentive, arranging a call tree and changing the sick time schedule to a PTO schedule. They decided to have a crew member meeting to gather information and ideas to be presented at the next board meeting.

In other business, the board also approved the following: to change from ACH payments to MEM’s EFT transfer which will reimburse the current security deposit of $7,700.30; the Medicaid/Medicare adjustments of $11,451.86 and invoices to be sent to collections for $16,718.70; to spend no more than $5 on items for rescue squad members to celebrate EMS Week; the minutes as presented; the bills to be paid.

The treasurer’s report was presented including discussion regarding a CD due March 31. With bills for the rescue truck and ambulance remount, it was decided to move it to the money market for availability.

The revenue and expenses reported was also presented to the board.

Reports

Director of operations: the sales tax payment for the month was $122,683.58 which is an increase of 3.11 percent from 2021; the call volume for the month of January was 6.75 calls a day; the payment to LAGERS decreased the interest rate from 14.6 to 12.10 percent.

Business manager: a retirement celebration will be planned for Jubal Smith; the revalidation for Medicaid has been re-submitted and is out of the rejection file.

Training manager: the EMR class has finished with six new members on the Maryville squad and one RN for the Barnard squad; the NWMSU EMR refresher class will be held from March 15 to April 28 and the district will send instructors as needed; there will be an EMR class for RNs only on April 9.

Maryville Rescue Squad: there will be a benefit auction on April 16 for rescue squad member Bryan Arnold.

Under employee concerns, Morgan Wheeler discussed the need for LUCAS devices on all the rescue squads in the district. She presented a rough estimate of $80,000 for five units with the cost of maintenance at $2,00 per unit per year. She will look for grants and other funding sources.

The next regular meeting will be April 13.