Committee approves extra help for emergency government office

A proposal to add a short-term grant-funded position to the emergency management office drew pushback at the January 9 county’s law enforcement and emergency services committee.

The requested limited term employee position would work .6 full time equivalent (FTE) and work expanding the Medical Reserve Corps. The Medical Reserve Corps is a network of volunteers who work in community-based units to improve local emergency response capabilities both before and assisting during and after emergency situations. The county had received a $123,000 grant through the health department for the program.

Emergency management director Dan Gellert told committee members that the start up and operation of the program has “taken quite a lot out of myself and the health department.” He requested the county add the part-time position to help expand the program.

Melissa Moore of the Health Department explained that the grant is housed in the health department and that Taylor County was one of only a handful of counties to receive funds. She said with limited dedicated staff hours to put toward the project they are missing contact people and a lot of opportunities for the program. Adding the position will increase the capacity to do one-on-one contact and outreach.

The current grant funding for the program runs through the end of June and unless additional funding was secured the positions would end at that time also.

Committee member Chuck Zenner said he had a problem with approving the position. He said this is the type of situation as to why it is important for the oversight committee to know about grants before staff members apply for them.

Gellert replied that he told the committee in December that he was looking at additional grant funds. Moore noted this particular grant was through the health department.

“I just feel like it was thrown at us,” Zenner said, noting that the health department should have let its oversight committee know too. Moore noted the request was also on the board of health agenda.

“What happens after June?” asked Administrative Coordinator Nicole Hagar.

Moore said they are still looking into that but that if the grant funds go away, the staff support from the health department will go down unless they get additional funding. It would then fall to Gellert to oversee the program.

Public heath director Michelle Cahoon explained that it is part of the public health preparedness and that they have been working to recruit new people. Past volunteers for the county are all currently in the 70s and 80s and she said they needed to recruit new people to work with emergency responses.

In reviewing the proposed job description, it was noted that it would need to be someone who was comfortable going out in the community with good writing and verbal skills.

Committee member Lorie Floyd questioned how many hours of Gellert’s time is being spent on the Medical Reserve Corp. “We raised [Gellert’s] hours because he didn’t have time to do his own work,” Floyd said.

“It still appears to me he is doing health department work,” Floyd said.

Moore said it made more sense to bring it in under the emergency management office as a supervisor for the position because it is a shared program.

Committee chair Lynn Rosemeyer said she supported adding the position. “I think this is a great program. I can’t see whey we wouldn’t move forward with this.”

“I agree wholly, I can see nothing but positives,” said committee member Darrell Thompson.

In the end, Zenner voted against adding the position. The request will go to the county’s personnel committee where it was scheduled for action on January 16.

In other emergency management business committee members approved some, but not all, the requested upgrades to the emergency management department’s radios.

According to Gellert, he has about $26,000 in his budget for radio upgrades and was coming to the committee to seek approval to spend that money and if the committee preferred he upgraded the current radios or purchase new ones.

In addition to the hand-held radio he carries, he also has a cache of radios used for volunteers assisting with emergency communications. The radios work with the sheriff’s department and EMS systems to allow for communication between the agencies.

While committee members were supportive of getting new radios for these needs, there was little support for getting an additional radio base unit to be located in the emergency director’s vehicle. Gellert said this unit would include a repeater which would boost the radio signal at a response scene.

“I would prefer it is a sheriff’s vehicle rather than yours,” Floyd said.

Committee members voted unanimously to approve the radio upgrades with the exception of one for the emergency management director’s vehicle.

Ambulance

During the public comment portion of the meeting, county board member Karen Cummings who represented the northwest corner of the county asked what Aspirus was doing to recruit more ambulance and first responder crews.

“I want to know what Aspirus is doing to recruit more people to man ambulances,” she said.

EMS director Robert Kirkley outlined the outreach that is being done including through the technical colleges, high schools, and social media. He noted they offer hiring bonuses, pay incentives and will even pay for training and advanced training for the personnel. He noted he is teaching a technical college course in the U.P.

Taylor County Team Lead Corey Resch said they are also working with existing ambulance crew members through word of mouth and referrals.

As of the meeting, the ambulance service had six open FTE positions. Kirkley reported one person has accepted a position and another is going to the process of being put on a crew leaving them with four open holes right now. He noted that they are still staffing to what the contract states even after losing four staff in the prior six weeks.

There were multiple reasons for the people leaving from career advancement to others wanting to leave medicine entirely.

Cummings also asked about how ambulance calls are dispatched, questioning if Sheldon is called out right away for her area or if they came from elsewhere. Kirkley explained that the call would go to a Taylor County ambulance first with Sheldon called out on mutual aid or assistance if needed. Typically, the ambulance in Gilman would be called out with the EMT there responding to the scene and the ambulance from Medford dispatched to be en route to provide transport. As far as time, Kirkley noted that Medford always has staff there to respond immediately when a call comes out, versus having the time of waiting for crews to arrive at the ambulance garage before being able to head to an emergency scene.

Kirkley also presented committee members with a packet of maps showing where calls for transports are coming from. The maps show the largest density of calls from the Medford and Stetsonville area followed by Rib Lake area with another cluster of calls in the immediate Gilman area.

In other business, committee members:

• Were introduced to new Chief Deputy Chad Kowalczyk. Kowalczyk has been with the department for 17 years and in 2020 became a detective with the department. He and his wife, Rachel, live in Lublin. They have four children.

• Received a demonstration from the county’s K-9 officer and an overview of the work the dog has been called to do in the county since coming on board last fall. Since November 11, the K-9 has been deployed 15 times which has led to four drug-related arrests.