Ambulance board approves payment into retirement obligations

The Nodaway County Ambulance District Board voted to pay on the unfunded obligations to LAGERS, the Missouri Local Government Employees Retirement System, during its February 9 meeting.

Director of Operations Bill Florea told board members the unfunded obligations was due to the increase to the employee’s accounts that was voted on last year.

Board members discussed how much to put into the account and how fast to pay it down. The board approved to pay half this month in the amount of $500,000 from its reserves and then pay off the balance before the end of the year using CDs that will come due before then.

In other business, the board approved the minutes as presented, bills to be paid, the Medicaid/Medicare adjustments of $7,495.39 and invoices to be sent to collections in the amount of $17,348.38.

Reports

Director of operations: the sales tax payment for the month was $90,238.26 which is an increase of 12.59 percent from 2021; the call volume for the month of January was 6.77 calls a day and COVID cases accounted for 10.38 percent of the month’s calls; the Senior Board granted $10,000 for the PAT and Knights van. Also during the report, a discussion was held regarding wages for similar ambulances in the area from Highway 36 to the Iowa border including Clarinda, but no action was taken.

Business manager: the Medicaid Revalidation has been completed and the Medicare Revalidation letter should be sent to the district in the next few months with a due date of July 31; discussion was held on what to do for the squads and employees for EMS Week in May but was tabled until next month.

Training manager: the EMT refresher class will be moved to April 4 and 6 due to the recertification cycle; the quarterly CPR class will be March 10 and the EMR refresher is March 12; Paramedics Morgan Wheeler and Kimberly Campbell are taking a class to become instructors for the EVOC class which will give the district four teachers; there are several RNs who wish to join the squads but were not able to take the EMR classes so a six-hour class is being looked at for them.

The Ravenwood Rescue Squad reported the hose for the hydraulic unit is being replaced and is at the firehouse. The Tri-C Rescue Squad noted Jared McQueen wants to hold an ice rescue class and will contact the other squads for a date and time. All other squads reported everything is fine.

Under old business, the building addition was discussed with various options brought up but no decision was made. It will be discussed again at an upcoming meeting.

The board approved to enter closed session for the purpose of personnel. They re-entered open session and approved to grant LaRee Lager a performance incentive of $650 and longevity of $560.

The next regular meeting will be held March 9.