overall shortage of EMTs, part ….

overall shortage of EMTs, part of a nationwide issue. According to Kirkley, in Gilman 48% of the shifts were covered by staffing with 8% on-call and 36% filled with extra shift incentives. He said just 12 out of 120 shifts (10%) for the month were unstaffed.

In Medford, six out of 120 shifts were unstaffed, or about 5%. In Rib Lake there were 13 out of 120 shifts that were uncovered.

“There are blocks here and there that are not covered, but it is getting better,” Kirkley said. He reported that they have two prospective EMTs who have applied and who are in the pipeline to come on board.

He explained that as they hire people to fill positions, they post for another position to be filled.

He said they are currently utilizing three different programs to ensure crews are staffing the area. At the March meeting, committee members authorized Kirkley to use critical care coverage pay to fill spots. This greatly increases the amount of personnel costs.

Committee member Lori Floyd said she thought that was being done until coverage agreements could be put in place with surrounding areas. Kirkley said the coverage agreements with Rusk County and Cornell are completed and done and are waiting to have a meeting with additional agencies in the next few weeks. Even without the shared coverage agreements, mutual aid can be used to call out adjoining agencies in need.

“But it is still different,” she said. “You are talking a lot of money here,” Floyd said, suggesting Kirkley, and Aspirus, move faster to get agreements in place.

She said she wanted to make sure everyone was on the same page suggesting Aspirus has the goal of having full time staff coverage 24 hours a day, seven days a week in each station.

“I don’t think we should have full time people in Gilman,” Kirkley said, noting that with six calls in the month, that station should be handled by on-call ambulance crews.

Floyd said that in her view if they got the agreements in place, they would technically have coverage. “If Aspirus can’t handle it, then we should get someone else on board,” she said.

Kirkley said they cannot rely totally on other agencies. “The other agencies are just as strapped for staffing,” he said, noting that when they would respond to a call in Taylor County it would pull those crews out of their own coverage areas.

“It is a huge domino effect,” he said. “It is a universal problem,” said committee chairman Lester Lewis. He said he did not think the agreements would be used to routinely cover shifts, but only when shifts are unable to be filled.

“How many paid on-calls do we have in Gilman right now?” Floyd asked. Kirkley said the ambulance service has three who live specifically in the Gilman area.

Committee members voted to table a formal contract change which would have included the previously approved critical care coverage authorization. Lewis said he wanted the county’s attorney to review it.

In related business, Lewis brought up a request from a first responder group for a letter of support.

“I have some problems with this,” Lewis said. He said he would like to see the person looking to organize this to come to the next law enforcement meeting.

One of his concerns was with what kind of connection it would have to the county and if they would work with Aspirus who runs the Taylor County Ambulance Service.

It was noted there is an emergency medical first responder group in the Stetsonville area, but they are not able to help out in places like Rib Lake if their skills are needed. Expanding county-wide would allow that to happen.

While first responders have training and can assist at an incident, they are not licensed to be part of an ambulance crew or to transport patients. Their role is to provide immediate first aid and assistance while the ambulance or other responders are on their way.

“I think it is a good idea,” Lewis said, but noted that he wanted more information before voting to support it.

In other business, committee members:

  Discussed designating a room next to the emergency government office as an emergency operations center with the potential to expand to other meeting rooms in the courthouse if it was necessary. Emergency management coordinator Daniel Gellert said the committee met on it and felt this would be the cheapest route rather than going into another building. “This puts all the emergency management stuff right next to the director,” he said. The location is currently part of the health department and was used as the testing lab space for the water testing program. That has been outsourced to the city of Medford wastewater treatment plant. It will be up to the buildings and grounds director to approve using the space.

  Received a report that the jail passed its audit from the Wisconsin Department of Justice, “We passed, everything is as it should be and we didn’t get dinged on any violations,” said sheriff Larry Woebbeking. The jail currently has 38 inmates with 14 from Marathon County and 10 female inmates from Ashland. The county has 14 local inmates.

  Discussed the impact of the state law allowing protective status for retirement benefits for jail staff. The protective status was stripped from jailers following Act 10. The law change will allow jailers to opt into the protective status and pay an additional 6% into the state retirement system with the ability to retire earlier. The discussion centered on if the county should increase jailer wages by another 3% to offset the additional employee money going into the retirement. Woebbeking said he supported doing this as a way to improve recruitment and retention. He noted that the county is spending thousands of dollars to recruit and train people for positions only to have them leave after a short while. “We have a generation where their private life is more important than their work life,” Woebbeking said.

  Discussed the medical examiner position after questions from Floyd about medical examiner Scott Perrin being “hard to get ahold of, and difficult to work with.” Woebbeking clarified that he has always thought Perrin was a good person to work with and was cooperative, he said the challenge they have had is with delays in time for on-call staff from his office coming to death scenes. “We can wait a long time,” Woebbeking said, noting that this can be difficult on family members.