The rate for ambulance standby calls in the county will be going up starting in January 2022.

During its regular meeting on October 13, the Nodaway County Ambulance Board of Directors approved to raise the rate for standbys to $1.45 a minute or $87 per hour after a discussion was held on what the calls generate versus what the district pays employees.

The board also approved the following items: minutes from the last meeting; bills to be paid; Medicaid/Medicare adjustments of $8,688.63; invoices in the amount of $15,435.05 to be sent to collections.

In other business, new paramedic Josh Van Holzen was introduced to the board.

The revenue and expenses report was presented. Treasurer Carrie Sparks stated there was a large amount of money in the money market account and recommended $300,000 be placed into a new CD account. After discussion, the board decided to go with Farmers State Bank for one year.

In the absence of Bill Florea, Assistant Director Jared McQueen gave the director of operations report including the following: the sales tax payment for the month was $119,528.94 which is an increase of 6.315 percent from the previous year; the call volume is staying steady at 6.15 percent above the previous year; the paging issues are still on hold as many who were not getting the pages are not receiving them via their phones; the multi-zone split unit was taken off the wall to reduce the vibrations; there was one bid for the new windows which was tabled; unit 134 had a raccoon hit the undercarriage and dislodge the water/fuel separator, which killed the fuel to the engine, so Andrew County finished the call and the ambulance was towed to Kizer’s; discussion with workers’ compensation is ongoing; 100 percent of full-time employees have had at least one shot and 91 percent are fully vaccinated, while 47 percent of the part-time employees are vaccinated with no mandate that currently applies to the district; the IndeeLift system to help lift a patient off the floor with no strain to the crew’s back is being shipped for a 30–60-day trial to the district.

The business manager’s report included: the accounts receivable report has been corrected by ESO and the balance is now $159.24; the tier four stimulus payment report has been filed which is more stimulus money specifically for rural areas; the audit should be completed soon.

The training manager’s report included: the EVOC class on September 24 had six students and the driving course on the 25th had 12 students; the second block for the paramedic refresher is completed and all information has been submitted to the NREMT; seven have signed up for the EMT/EMR refresher class; the EMR refresher held on October 9 had five attendees; the quarterly CPR class will be December 9; Jill Nielson is teaching the Narcan class with the CPR class for Maryville Public Safety and has two classes scheduled; the squads are being contacted for new member leads to hopefully have an EMR class in January.

Squad Reports

Burlington Jct. Rescue Squad: maintenance was completed on the LUCAS machine.

Tri-C Rescue Squad: quotes were received for a Milwaukee search light kit and a Rocket kit from Maryville Lumber, Maryville Tool, Fastenal and Border States. Maryville Lumber was the lowest bid on both products and the board approved to purchase the lights for the Tri-C squad and for the Pickering/Hopkins squad as well as one extra battery.

Maryville Rescue Squad: an extrication class was held in conjunction with the paramedic refresher class.

The board approved to enter a closed session. The board approved to re-enter open session and approved a performance incentive of $612.50 and a longevity of $300 for Doug Greer, who will be retiring at the end of the year.

The next regular meeting will be held November 10.

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