By Bob Strohm
bstrohm@wbcowqel.com
While someone requesting public records from the Central Joint Ambulance District (CJAD) in the past have had relatively no issues in getting their request filled, the group never had a policy on the matter. That changed Wednesday evening as the CJAD approved a Records Retention Policy.
The Records Retention Policy for the CJAD was first brought up by Secretary/Treasurer Milton Underwood during the April meeting after a request for public records for the minutes from the meetings for the past 36 months, along with financial records, and a copy of the CJAD’s Records Retention Policy had been made.
While overlooking the legislation, which had been written up by Crawford County Law Director Matthew Crall, discussion arose about the possibility of Bucyrus dropping out of the CJAD.
“The last 10 years Bucyrus has said they couldn’t afford a subsidy,” Underwood said. “We (the CJAD) have saved those in the CJAD $2 million – $2.5 million by having low to no subsidies in the contracts.”
Bucyrus representative to the CJAD Steve Pifer explained that he couldn’t speak for the city’s administration on where the city would find resources to pay for their own EMS service.
“I can’t speak for the administration,” Pifer said. “I really don’t know if they would be using the safety forces levy or not,” Pifer said.
Pifer added that he thinks that the city is looking into the idea as a way to generate income for the city.
Underwood responded, saying the goal of running an EMS squad shouldn’t be about profit.
“I think the goal shouldn’t be to make money, it should be to break even,” Underwood retorted. “If there is money left over it should be donated to charity.”
Once members of the CJAD finished overlooking the proposed Records Retention Policy, the group passed the legislation with no dissenting votes.
In LifeSupport’s monthly report to the CJAD, LifeSupport COO Jesse Sipes reported that the ambulance company had made 210 runs for the month of April.