by Wesley Esther-Cudney
Kelly Gatzemeyer, Valley Falls, of the District 11 fire board, met with the Jefferson County Board of County Commissioners Dec. 27 to discuss the district’s Emergency Management Services shutting down, but no action was taken on the matter. The board asked Gatzemeyer to return Jan. 3, after the Jan. 1 deadline for EMS 11 ceasing operations.
In anticipation of such an event during a work session Dec. 19, Jefferson County Emergency Services Director James Tweed told commissioners that Jefferson County responds to every 911 call in the county and will continue to do so. Tweed also said during that meeting response times will not fall to the level of before EMS 11 began operating, because ambulances can now come from the Meriden EMS station instead of just the Oskaloosa station.
At the beginning of the meeting Jefferson County Commissioner Richard Malm told Gatzemeyer the day was not a good time to discuss the issue since the visit was unexpected and many of the department heads necessary for the transition discussion were on vacation.
“Unfortunately, everybody who should be talking to you is on vacation this week and we are short one commissioner,” he said. “We apologize. We didn’t know this was happening until you got here.”
In response, Gatzemeyer said he had received an email from Jefferson County Clerk Linda Buttron asking for him to join the meeting that day.
Malm apologized again, stating he did not want to discuss the issue without Commissioner David Christy, who was unable to attend the meeting because of a medical issue.
A conversation began anyway when Jefferson County Ambulance Deputy Director Jim Schoepf arrived at the meeting.
“We’ve had a lot of numbers to go over,” Schoepf said. “We respond to every call and there are times that we’re busy, but that happens. We have had to call Lawrence, AMR, and Atchison a couple times because the amount of calls overwhelmed what we have. But I can say it was probably just 30 of the over 1,600 calls received over this last year where we had to have Valley Falls come up and answer some of our calls.”
Schoepf asked Gatzemeyer if he had any questions, and Gatzemeyer responded that he was asked to answer questions and did not bring any.
“I sent the original email back in August asking if you had any interest in engaging in conversations with District 11 about funding going forward, and I never heard anything back,” Gatzemeyer said. “I’m not going to beat a dead horse. Nobody has any money. Municipalities don’t have any money.”
Gatzemeyer said the District 11 EMS and the county have had a great relationship with mutual aid. “My concerns as a patron are the 250 calls that EMS 11 runs; not being able to transport somebody in a life-threatening situation, and the added burden that’s going to put on EMS 2 and EMS 1.”
“We already respond to those calls,” Schoepf said. “So, it’s not really an added burden. It’s just we now are going to be transporting more.”
Gatzemeyer disputed Schoepf’s statement and said it will take the county ambulances out of service that much more.
“Not every single call in Valley Falls is going to be made at a time where we can’t respond,” Schoepf said. “It will just depend on what happens, and that’s the life of emergency services, we just never know.”
Malm then told Gatzemeyer that he should have visited with the board earlier. “When it comes to that kind of stuff, we like to see people here in person, so we can have a discussion back and forth and not do it by email. There was no attempt for you guys to come in and see us.”
“I requested a meeting in that email, which I read you verbatim over the phone. The request was made to engage in conversations with you guys if you had an interest in helping fund us,” Gatzemeyer said. “There was no response from this commission. None. You told me that you were heading into a workshop right before I called you and you were going to bring it up and call me back. You never called me back.”
In response, Malm said there was discussion and that the commission wanted to meet in person with the fire board.
“You never called me back and you never contacted us,” Gatzemeyer responded. “Mr. Malm, we live in your township. That’s your district. I would be concerned if I was you. I would return a guy’s phone call.”
“You only contacted once,” Malm said. “I should have contacted you back. But we decided, the three of us, that if you guys really needed something, you’d be in here talking to us.”
No further discussion was had or decision made regarding the issue.
The Jefferson County jail renovation project had been dealing with delays and more leaks spouting from the old pipes, Jefferson County Sheriff Jeff Herrig said during a presentation to commissioners.
“I’ve gotten a little frustrated with them because nothing was being done at my speed, but I’m having more and more people arrested and I need the beds,” Herrig said.
Herrig pointed out a voucher that the county recently received from McElroy on fixing cells the sheriff urgently needed. “Those are all working now, but I have a shower infestation because we have a pipe up in the ceiling that’s leaking all over. ”
Commissioner Lynn Luck asked if the county’s auxiliary services could help.
“They’ve tried,” Herrig said, “I’m afraid you may have to take out the ceiling to get it fixed because it is in the jail area, so it’s concrete.”
“What a mess,” Luck said. “That was a very good plan, to embed it in concrete.”
Herrig said one upside is that when the jail was built, they did not use security caulking, so it will not be terrible to remove.
Malm asked if the pipe will remain in concrete after the renovation.
“No,” Herrig said. “If you come out sometime, I’ll take you in there and show you.”
There was also an error in a pipe measurement that caused a delay, Herrig said. McElroy had to order some new pipes and wait for them to be delivered.
“It’s been a headache,” Herrig said. “Once I get the women’s side done, I’ll move on to work release because that’s where we have another leak on the floor side. It goes into the public restroom and the lobby, causing tile to come up.”
Herrig said he is thinking of pulling up the tile and leaving the concrete bare. He then joked that he would put a big picture of himself on it.
“So people can walk on you?” Luck laughed.
“It would be worn off in no time with people stomping on it,” Herrig said.
Commissioners unanimously accepted an amended ambulance fund budget for 2022.
“The ambulance fund is the only fund that qualified to be republished for the 2022 budget and that’s because their transport fees were higher than what we expected them to be,” Buttron said. “The plan would be to use that money to finance the purchase of replacement ambulances.”
Dana Gettel, Ozawkie, was unanimously appointed to the Jefferson County 4-H Fair Board District 3 seat after a discussion by commissioners on filling a vacancy with an out-of-district member.
Buttron informed the board that Gettel lives outside of the district seat she was nominated by the fair board for. However, the fair board could not find someone who lives in the district and their bylaws allow them to nominate out-of-district in such a case.
Gettel’s nomination form lists over 20 years as a 4-H leader and seven years as the swine superintendent as qualifications for serving on the fair board.
In explaining Gettel as a candidate, Buttron said she is the ramrod of the Ozawkie PRIDE organization.
In the future, the commission would like to have information provided on the application as to which district the out-of-district nominee lives in, Malm said.