Two public hearings were held at Wednesday’s Accomack County Board of Supervisors meeting regarding requests by the Department of Public Safety to expand EMS coverage for Greenbackville by adding 7 new positions and add 5 new positions to the EMS staff to supplement county-wide delivery of emergency services.
Greenbackville’s numbers show that 17% of their EMS calls fall outside the 2o minute maximum standard set by the county.
Several speakers supported the request in support of Greenbackville’s request. One speaker told the Board that in the past, volunteer responders tended to live and work in the communities they served making them more available to answer calls. Now, volunteers no longer work in the towns they serve and are not available to answer calls durning the day. Also discussed was the aging out of the current group of volunteer Fire and EMS providers.
Supervisor Robert Crockett stated that he fully supported the request. Several other members made similar comments. A motion was made to amend the FY21/22 budget to provide $450,000 to hire 7 new EMS providers to staff Greenbackville 24/7.
The request of Public Safety Director C Ray Pruitt to expand his staff by 5 additional full time employees including a full time trainer was extensively discussed by the Board.
Pruitt answered questions by the Board as to why he felt he needed to do this now instead of waiting to do it during the regular budget process which gets underway in December. Pruitt cited issues involving having to pull EMS responders off of their regular duties in order to conduct training sessions leaving stations like Greenbackville, Saxis, and Melfa short on many days. Pruitt continued that training is not the only problem. Vacations, retirements and sickness also leave the EMS staff short and often require staff members to be pulled from the day stations to cover in those with a higher call volume.
Arbrey Justice, Saxis Fire Chief told the Board that Saxis has on individual who is retired and can be counted on to answer calls during the day but that he, along with many members of the fire company are in their 50s and 60s. Justice said that Saxis has one volunteer who is 19 but most of the other members are much older.
Supervisor Robert Crockett made the motion to postpone the decision to provide the 5 new positions to the regular budget session beginning in December. The motion was defeated.
Another motion to approve the request passed by a vote of 7-2.
"board" - Google News
August 19, 2021 at 05:47PM
https://ift.tt/3mfBtZs
Accomack Board Votes to Expand EMS Coverage - Shore Daily News
"board" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2KWL1EQ
https://ift.tt/2YrjQdq
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Accomack Board Votes to Expand EMS Coverage - Shore Daily News"
Post a Comment