County OKs sale of surplus ambulance for $5,000

BY BRIAN WILSON

NEWS EDITOR

Taylor County will sell a surplus 2005 ambulance for $5,000.

The Taylor County law enforcement and emergency services committee on Friday approved the sale to a private buyer out of the Green Bay area.

According to committee chairman Lester Lewis, the price is comparable to what the county received for the last surplus ambulance it sold. “Ambulances as far as resale drop in value quicker than a pickup truck, it is a type of vehicle that only a handful of people are looking for,” he said.

In other ambulance business, administrator Jeff Nuernberger updated committee members on the addition of two full-time positions to help cover the Rib Lake and Gilman areas. Chryllyn Dums was hired as a full-time EMT stationed in Rib Lake and Scott Copenhaver was hired full-time for Gilman. “This should help with some of our staffing issues,” Nuernberger explained. The full-time EMTs will work set shifts of 36 hours per week supplemented by the on-call drivers that currently operate the system. They will be working three 12-hour days each week and a rotating weekend shift.

In addition to being on hand for emergency calls, they will also serve as educational point people for the Gilman and Rib Lake ambulance crews helping improve continuing education and training for those areas. Nuernberger said this would help them take the training to another level.

In the law enforcement update, sheriff Larry Woebbeking reported that the jail population is currently at 67 with 38 of them from Marathon County.

He also reported that the 9-1-1 equipment is in the process of being installed and that the county received $11,607 in funding for its snowmobile/ATV patrol efforts.