GREENWOOD TWP- Town board members, on Tuesday, reluctantly agreed to accept the McGrath Ambulance Study report, but still voiced several complaints about what they view as missing or misleading information.
Ambulance committee chair John Bassing and member Lee Peterson both complained that the possibilities of contracting with a private provider or greater regionalization of services were not investigated thoroughly enough.
“Consolidation was accepted for schools,” Peterson said. “It needs to be applied to ambulance services. The study didn’t look at ambulance station locations and service area changes. A broader area using Virginia as a regional nucleus needed to be considered.”
Peterson said the township should research the process, outlined in the study, involved in making changes to ambulance’s primary service areas.
Peterson also said he strongly disagreed with the reasoning in the McGrath report that said a hospital-based ambulance service was not an option. The report said that this option would require Greenwood to get into the ambulance business and would mean the township would have to apply for a change in the primary service area. The McGrath report stated that according to the EMS director for Essentia Health, getting a PSA change would be difficult if the current service providers did not support the change.
“I lean towards this option because I think it is the best for the patient and ambulance staff,” Peterson said. “I believe that it needs to be looked into by the township.”
Bassing said the report should also have investigated having the Mayo Clinic ambulance service provide service in this area and didn’t further explore the idea of having a private ambulance service take over the area.
Bassing also disputed the report’s claim that there weren’t any deficiencies noted with the Tower Area Ambulance Service.
“Our request stated we felt there were deficiencies in response times and level of service,” Bassing said. “It was just obvious. I don’t know how they let that pass. We are fighting that parochialism. They are not agreeing that ALS was a higher level of service.”
Peterson added that in the past, TAAS had missed some emergency calls when they weren’t staffed 24/7.
They both also questioned why the report only looked at regionalized service by combining Tower and Cook, and not the wider area.
The board agreed to accept the study, but they will have Bassing try to negotiate the final fee with McGrath. The board is not asking the McGrath group to attend a meeting to present the final report.
“They didn’t deliver everything we wanted,” said clerk JoAnn Bassing. “But the final report was much better than the draft.”
“We learned that nothing substitutes for our own learning,” said Peterson. “We need to learn on our own and apply it. We need to put the patient first.”
The board took no action on the Tower Ambulance Commission’s Ad Hoc Committee report (see related story in this week’s paper).
“I don’t think they have the authority to ask us [to join a joint powers commission],” said John Bassing, who asked board members to review the proposal for discussion next month.
“They’ve captured a lot from the McGrath report and put their spin on it,” said supervisor Rick Stoehr. “The people who wrote it don’t have the knowledge to write it.”
Supervisor Barb Lofquist said the idea of assessing a levy based on property values was a no go.
“They should assess a straight rate like the solid waste fee,” she said. “Otherwise, we get screwed again as it happened with the ISD 2142 bonding.”
Clerk’s wages
Chair Bassing left the room as the board discussed a motion from Lofquist about increasing the clerk’s wages to the 2020 level, an additional $5,119 on top of the current annual wage. This sets the clerk’s annual wage at $27,799.
The board voted 4-0 for the motion. John Bassing had left the room for the discussion and vote, since it was a conflict of interest since the clerk is his wife.
Skubic asked about setting office hours. JoAnn Bassing said hours will be starting soon and will be 10 a.m. – 2 p.m., Tuesday through Thursday, as well as by appointment.
JoAnn Bassing said there are problems with the phone system not ringing, and Frontier came out to check and said the problem was with the township’s phones. She said they are looking into options for reducing the number of landlines the township pays for, as well as getting new phones if needed.
In other business, the board:
• Again, denied a request from Lee Peterson to have public comment moved to the top of the regular agenda. Peterson wants the public to have input on the agenda, payroll, claims, and making changes to the minutes. He also asked that the claims list be available with the regular packet, which is published several days prior to the meeting. Clerk JoAnn Bassing noted it was difficult to get all the claims processed that early. Peterson suggested moving the meeting day later in the week.
• Had a limited discussion on an approved claim from the previous month for sanding on Birch Point Extension and heard a question from Mark Drobac on why the decision was made to have the road sanded. “I would like the township to put up a sign saying this is a minimally maintained road, and travel is at your own risk,” he said. The township was billed $287 by St. Louis County Public Works.
• Will advertise for bids on lawn care services.
• Heard that the Cook Fire Department does not want to implement an automatic box alarm system with Greenwood, but would just like to be paged out immediately when needed.
• Approved liquor license applications from Shamrock Landing, Gruben’s, Timbuktu, and the Vermilion Club.
• Voted 3-2, with Drobac and Skubic voting against, to send a letter to St. Louis County Planning, asking for a moratorium on lakeshore RV parks in the township.
• Voted down a motion, 2-3, that would have allowed all supervisors to have keys to the clerk/treasurer office, with Drobac and Lofquist voting for the key access. Right now, keys are limited to the clerk and treasurer.
Read more about this Greenwood Town Board meeting in next week’s paper or online at timberjay.com.