The Nodaway County Ambulance Board reviewed the recent training of rescue squads, equipment needs and one legal settlement.

A patient’s attorney sent a settlement offer for the board to consider forgiving the patient of 70 percent of their ambulance charge. The board elected to discuss the matter further in closed session citing legal restrictions of the discussion. After a closed session, board member Herb Snodderley motioned to accept the settlement. Then a motion passed with a vote of 4-1 with Vice Chairman Julia Crady being the dissenting voice.

During the rescue squad reports, Burlington Jct. reported it was going to have landing zone training, but the helicopter could not make it resulting in rescheduling of the training. The Hopkins squad stated it held its meeting September 15. The other squads had nothing to report.

During the director of operations report, Bill Florea presented the board employee evaluations for Mike Mercer, paramedic, Jubal Smith, EMT, and Alex Huntsman, EMT, during the board’s closed session. The board voted to grant Smith a performance incentive of $337.50 and a longevity incentive of $360. Mercer was awarded a performance incentive of $262.50 and a merit raise of 14¢ per hour. Huntsman was given a performance incentive of $362.50 and a merit raise of 14¢ per hour.

The August sales tax deposits were $123,933.37. Compared to the same time period in 2017, this number is down 4.91 percent.

Florea also informed the board that Dr. William J. Kinderknecht will be hired on as the district’s consulting medical director. His position will work alongside the current medical director Dr. John T. Symonds. Florea said the move is to fill a missing qualification for Symonds to continue.

He continued his report telling the department provided EMS support to the air show in St. Joseph on August 25-26. During the hot summer weather, 27 people needed medical attention with Nodaway County ambulances transporting five of the 27. He finished his report by alerting the board that the docudrama for area sophomores will be Thursday, October 11 and Missouri Hope will take place 6 to 10 pm, Friday, October 5 and 8 am to 10 pm, Saturday, October 6. This will be the first year Missouri HOPE will take place over two days and will feature more participating groups.

During the training manager report, there was a discussion over upcoming quarterly CPR training. The need to replace the training laptop was also discussed. The laptop is outdated and bids were already present to replace the device. The board voted to accept a bid from Midwest Computer to replace the laptop.

It was also brought to the board’s attention that the American Heart Association is now requiring feedback devices to be placed on CPR manikins effective January 1, 2019. The district is already in possession of a number of these manikins and voted in favor of purchasing more to bring the district to the number it needs for all training purposes. The board also voted to donate one of its old manikins to the Maryville Aquatic Center.

The board also adjusted the Medicare and Medicaid accounts by $1,971.03. It also sent $10,132.30 to collections.

During a light new business portion of the meeting, the board discussed whether or not the district needs to invest in CPR machines that do the compressions for you. Employees and board members present did not feel there was enough of a pressing need for the machines to justify a cost ranging from $20,000 to $30,000. There was also a discussion about how the district should handle non-life threatening out-of-county transfers. There was no result stemming from the discussion, but Florea said there may be more discussion regarding this topic at future meetings.