Lack of Ambulance Staff Is An Ongoing Discussion…New rules and regulations for swimming pool

By Josh Hall, Staff Reporter
The March 10, 2015 Plainview City Council meeting was called to order at 7pm followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. Before moving into the business of the council meeting, Mayor Geode welcomed two Boy Scouts, Ethan Mueske and Connor Adams, who attended to watch the meeting to earn their merit badges. He then moved into the approvals of the agenda, Adding one item to the agenda, the council moved to approve the amended agenda. They also approved the consent agenda.
They then moved into the presentation of community petitions/guests, which brought several people to the podium to speak. First, Tracy Hutchinson thanked the council for putting the reflectors on the island outside Peoples State Bank. Next, she petitioned the need for more ambulance personnel. Following up with her comments on the shortage of EMT’s on the Plainview Ambulance Service, she feels that they really need to look for people who live in the community that can really help out. She also states that the city is not putting anything in to them getting a license because they already have a license. At 3:00am that night, she stated that there were no EMT’s on. If there were any emergencies, there would be first responders who can drive the ambulance to the scene but could not transport, and would be relying on mutual aid from Elgin in order to transport those patients. She feels that drastic measures need to be taken and to hire who they can hire. “If you’re the director and you think there is a personnel issue that is going to occur, that is what your director is there for, to manage those things. They all go through a probationary period.” The other item she wanted to discuss the funeral of a colleague, and the fact that they did not have an honor guard. Just like for veterans, the same thing happens with ambulance, fire and police. It has happened for many people in the area. The last time it happened was for an EMT who lived outside of Kellogg, where they went up, provided an honor guard and had backup on ambulance so the community was not left without. They also took an ambulance to show their respect because they “work hand-in-hand with these people…without them, you wouldn’t have CPR started within 2-3 minutes. It would be the 20 minutes for someone else to get to that person, and by that time ‘brain death’ has occurred.” She believes that there needs to be a policy in put in place that it is not just for police or fire, but for ambulance as well. “These people save lives, day in day out.” In response, Mr. Goede said that council had to approve any vehicles leaving town, which was “said a couple of years ago. A person can’t come in on Monday morning and ask for it.” He also asked why they needed a vehicle there, to what Tracy commented that “it shows your respect.”
The next citizen to take the platform was Val Grener-Wolf. Val is a resident of Plainview and in her 17th year on the Plainview Ambulance. She publicly thanked the “council for their continued support for the Plainview Ambulance Service and those of us who volunteer as EMT’s and EMR’s.” She states that there are several in-town and out-of-town volunteers and that the difference between them is the in-town members must put in a minimum of 60 hours on call and out-of-town members must put in a minimum of 30 hours. Right now, many of the in-town members are taking 100+ hours of call time. She also states that the local crew are more available for back-up when the first rig is out, available for additional emergency help in a multi-patient incident and also able to take a couple of hours here and there when on of the EMT’s or EMR’s have an issue or commitment that comes up. Val is petitioning for Andreah Schouweiler, who has applied twice and interviewed once. She has taken the last class for EMT’s hoping to get on with the Plainview Ambulance Service. She was told that they decided to hire someone with more medical experience so she gained the experience and is now working with the Elgin Ambulance Service. Val has presented copies of Letters of Recommendation for the council to look at.
Next, Andreah Schouweiler spoke to the council on behalf of herself, requesting that she be considered as an EMT, having sought out the necessary experience, as well as being a member of the Elgin Ambulance, making herself qualified. She is a resident of Plainview and attending school at the UofM Rochester, she “would like to give back to her community.” She continues to say that Plainview has “made me the person I am today, and I am thankful for that.” She has worked a lot at MotorCross races, giving her great experience with trauma related injuries.
Marty Hassig with the Plainview Lyons Club wanted to inform the council that they would like to make a fun addition to Corn on the Cob weekend by having a Soapbox Derby on Saturday, August 15. For this, he is requesting to have 2nd Avenue by the legion and the creamery partially blocked off. The council let him know that he needs to write his request up with the list of streets and times they are intending on this and bring it to the council.
Kristina Welke has addressed her and Anton’s request for the basketball hoop last summer. They put in a permanent basketball hoop last summer that was told was part of an easement. They spoke to a city council member and were advised to take it out until further notice. At the next meeting on July 24th, the council voted saying that an agreement be drafted. The council had stated at that time, that the city attorney would draft up a proposal and a licensing agreement with the land owner, a permit could be granted. This was not followed through and discussions were had with the land owner without the knowledge of Kristina Welke. She stated that the council said that any resident of Plainview could come in and apply for a permit to put up a basketball hoop, on a case-by-case basis. The complication is that the basketball hoop is on someone elses property.
Mayor Goede announced a donation by KBS for $1,000 for the City of Plainview, which the council unanimously approved.
They then moved on to old business, beginning with pay for ambulance runs, which was brought up during the February meeting. The council did some research and found that most of the surrounding communities are paying by the hour, but some are paying by the run. None of the communities have paid by the separate patient treated. The council is going to speak with the director on the best route to go with pay for ambulance service members and will revisit the business at the April meeting.
Moving on to new business, the first item is to approve the 3.2 liquor licenses for Fresh Wok, Gopher Lanes and Lyon’s BP, which were all approved.
Next, they motioned to approve Park Grans Resolution 2015-05, regarding the Epstein Athletic Field Grant to provide upgrades to the fields. The cost is $257,000, which half would be paid by Plainview and the rest matched by the grant. This was approved by the council.
They then moved on to discuss the Pool Group update. Michael stated that the group will be meeting on the 1st Thursday of the month, and they have decided that the pool will open on June 1st. Mass registration will be held at the Public Works building on May 4th with an open house hopefully in conjunction with that. The pool hours will remain the same, with the exception that Saturday’s the pool will be open from 12pm-6pm only. The daily rates will also remain the same. They also changed the stipulation that adult swim is only open to persons 18 years old and older as well as open swim. They will have Family Nights on June 14, July 12 and August 9, with volleyball, relay races as well as other events. They ave also changed swimming lessons to 45 minutes for 1 week instead of 30 minutes for 2 weeks. This will make room for more classes and also increase revenue. There will also be evening lessons level 1, 2, 3 and Tiny Tots Water Exploration. The weather policy that will be enforced is if it is 65 degrees outside, the pool will be open. 64 and lower, it will be closed, and will be reevaluated at 6:00pm. If there are storm/tornado warnings, the pool will be closed immediately. In a case of thunder and/or lightning, the pool will be closed until a half-hour after the thunder/lightning has passed. Also, from 9-10 they will have “midnight swim” for adults 18+. Regarding attendance, at 1pm the pool will open, but if there are not more than 10 people there by 2pm the pool will close for the afternoon, as well as if there are not 10 people there by 7:20pm, the pool will close. Lifeguard training class will be from June 9-14, and there will be a reimbursement for the lifeguard training in exchange for a 2-3 year commitment.
They then discussed summer seasonal hires, Mike & Michelle Olig as pool /recreation managers and Adam Olig as assistant manager; Kenny Jacobs, Jr. and Tony Kurdell (sp) for public works. All were approved by the council.
Next they moved on to discuss/approve the cemetery mowing contracts. There had been several complaints regarding the grass not being cut in some places, grass being blown onto the gravestones when it is wet, as well as tombstones being knocked by the mower and not put back. The issues will be addressed with the company hired. They had a few quotes come in, and they decided to go with Plainview Lawn & Snow by Dave Walkes.
Next the EDA discussed the Annual Report. In 2014 they had assets of $252,000 with no liabilities. Their goals since 2012 is to get the business center up and running. Their other goals are to increase housing, increase business and increase positive outlook and what Plainview has to offer. In housing, the next steps will be decided after the release of the housing study. The next goal is to support the business community and continue to work with the business alliance and chamber, focus on farming. One of the big goals that they are sure they will achieve in 2015 is to work on a generic marketing plan for all of Plainview. Promoting the positive attributes of Plainview would come under supporting the business community and getting the word out about housing availability in Plainview. The EDA has a set of 4 recommendations for the council, including: 1) Comprehensive plan for council be updated, 2) Fund market initiative, 3) Develop public project partnerships for housing, 4) Possibility of offering a finders fee for anyone bringing in industry to Plainview.
Next they approved the adjustment of the savings target for 2009 bond.
Lastly, they appointed Mayor Goede to replace former Mayor Todd Graves on the Personnel Committee. This was unanimously approved.
Having no council comments, the meeting was then adjourned at 8:30pm.