Committee Approves Revised EMS Budget for 2024-25

May 12, 2024
By: Dwayne Page

Members of the DeKalb EMS willing to do so may soon be sharing medical examiner investigator responsibilities when there is an ambulance call involving a death. Director Hoyte Hale would serve as the backup if no staff member is available at the time.

During a meeting Thursday night, the county budget committee approved the EMS operating budget for the 2024-25 fiscal year which includes provisions for payment to EMS staff trained to perform this duty working under the physician who serves as the actual medical examiner/county coroner. Under the plan, $5,000 would be budgeted including $2,000 (for payment) under the medical personnel salary line item and $3,000 for overtime. Director Hale would be expected to make quarterly reports to the county’s Health, Education, and Public Welfare Committee on how this new plan is working.

All five budget committee members in attendance voted in favor of this plan including Tom Chandler, Sabrina Farler, Glynn Merriman, Jeff Barnes, and Mathias Anderson. Members Susannah Cripps and Tony (Cully) Culwell were absent.

Originally, the proposal was to make Director Hale the primary medical examiner death investigator and pay him an extra $5,000 per year and to have EMS employees serve as the backup but the budget committee failed to approve this option on a 3 to 2 vote. Those voting for the plan were Tom Chandler and Mathias Anderson while Sabrina Farler, Glynn Merriman, and Chairman Jeff Barnes voted against it.

Assistant EMS Director Trent Phipps, who came up with this idea, explained to the budget committee how death investigation calls were previously handled by the ambulance service.

“We used to use off duty EMS personnel to answer these calls contracted through the courthouse and (Medical Examiner) Dr. Denise Dingle to do the job at $100 per call,” said Phipps.

“I proposed to him (EMS Director Hale) that we get a group of people willing to do this in their off-duty time and pay them. The EMS has a long-established call in policy which means that if I call someone in to cover an ambulance, we pay them for three hours whether they work two or three hours. Of course, if it goes over, we have to pay them overtime,” said Assistant Director Phipps.

“I asked him (Director Hale) if it would be a good idea to get off duty people trained to come and cover the medical examiner calls and we pay them for three hours unless they do it more which is not very common but to pay them at least three hours to do this,” explained Phipps. “I have had a conversation with several EMS employees and got three solid yeses’ (willing to participate), a bunch of no’s, and a few maybes. The main concern most of them had was will I get paid and how much will I get paid. The other concern they expressed was how many people are going to do this because they do not want to do it all the time,” Phipps continued. “If I can get numbers to (these) people I might get more cooperation. Several of the people who said yes are part time employees and they won’t get any overtime, just straight time to do it,” he added.

According to Phipps, this plan would ensure that a medical death investigator is available to make a prompt response when summoned by law enforcement.

“It was my idea to set a schedule, so dispatch doesn’t have to call a bunch of people, with the sheriff’s department waiting on somebody to get there. Of course, the ambulance is going to show up to start the preliminary things because we have to go, but this would provide a set schedule, so dispatch knows who to call. I will set up a calendar and fill it out every month for who is on call,” said Assistant EMS Director Phipps.

According to the statistics, the county has to do a medical examiner/coroner’s report on 50-60 bodies per year.

At a previous meeting, Director Hale had asked the budget committee to include funding for four new EMS employees, preferable paramedics which would have been needed partly to fully staff a 24/7 crew at the Liberty Fire Station. But after later voting to deny the request, the committee asked Director Hale to rework his budget for re-submission without the proposed four new positions.

During his budget presentation Thursday night, Director Hale explained that after removing proposed funding for four new employees, the line item for medical personnel salaries was reduced from $911,787 to $771,406 for the year.

Part time pay has been increased from $135,000 this year to $140,000 next year and the allocation for overtime pay has been adjusted back to $200,000, down from the original request of $250,000. A part time secretary would get a three dollar per hour increase in pay going from $12 to $15 under Director Hale’s request.

With at three EMS employees planning to attend paramedic school, Director Hale has asked that the budget for In-service training be upped from $18,000 to $40,000.

Meanwhile, Hale wants the allocation for vehicle maintenance and repair to be increased by $10,000 from $65,000 to $75,000 and that the budget for maintenance and repair to the EMS building be adjusted by $3,500 to $8,500. Plans are to replace garage door motors, add security cameras and keyed door pad locks, and to do some painting.

Again, the budget committee approved the proposed $1,818,633 EMS budget for 2024-25 as re-presented by Director Hale. The county commission will have to give final approval with passage of the consolidated budget in June.

May 12, 2024
By: Dwayne Page

The DCHS Tigerette Fast Pitch Softball Team, the District Tournament Champs, will host Marshall County Monday, May 13 in the first round of the Region Tournament in Smithville.

The game begins at 5:30 p.m. at the Danny Bond Field at DCHS and WJLE will broadcast the game LIVE with the Voice of the Tigerettes John Pryor.

The Tigerettes, 19-12, captured the District Tournament Crown last week beating Stone Memorial 11-1 on Thursday which put them in the winner’s bracket finals. DC defeated Upperman 12-0 on Friday before advancing to the championship game and getting a 12-2 win over Upperman in the re-match.

Tigerette Pitcher Kora Kilore was the Tournament MVP while fellow Tigerettes Elaina Turner, Rylee Wilbur, and Bri Murphy were also named to the All-Tournament Team.

For the regular season, Kora Kilgore was Pitcher of the Year. Bryna Pelham took Defensive MVP honors and Rylee Wilbur was awarded as Freshman of the Year.

Members of the Regular Season All Freshman Team were Brooklyn Fuson and Hannah Brown while Gracie Randolph, Bri Murphy, Raylie Cowan, and Zayleigh Bain made the All-District Team-Regular Season.

Meanwhile, the DCHS Tiger Baseball Team, District Tournament runners-up, concluded their season Saturday in the Region Tournament with a 13-1 loss to Lawrence County at Tullahoma.

The Tigers began post-season play in the District Tournament at Baxter on May 2 losing to the Bees 8 to 3 but then DC went on a three game win streak knocking off Cumberland County 6 to 3 on May 3 before beating White County 11-3 and Stone Memorial 9 to 8 on May 4. The Tigers emerged from the losers backet hoping for a rematch with Upperman in quest of a District Tournament Title  but weather intervened forcing them to settle for second place and a road trip to Tullahoma for the Region opener where they lost 8-0 to the Wildcats on Thursday night, May 9. The Tigers then were eliminated by Lawrence County 13-1 on Saturday.

May 12, 2024
By:

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Nashville District will begin controlled spillway gate water release operations for Center Hill Dam, in Lancaster Tennessee, at noon Sunday, May 12.

Water release operations will continue until further notice to accommodate recovery of flood control storage capacity, following the significant rain event over the area this past week.

USACE expects to increase overall water releases at Center Hill Dam to 18,000 cubic-feet per second (cfs). This includes 11,000 cfs from hydropower generators and 7,000 cfs from spillway gate operation.

River conditions below Center Hill dam will be extremely dangerous and the public is discouraged from recreating in the area. Boaters are urged to use extreme caution, wear life jackets and practice responsible water safety.

The district manages 10 locks and dams on the Cumberland River that serve various purposes. Wolf Creek, J. Percy Priest, Dale Hollow and Center Hill dams serve as flood storage projects. USACE main river projects used to maintain stable water levels for navigation are Cordell Hull, Old Hickory, Cheatham and Barkley locks & dams. USACE locks and dams continue to perform as designed throughout the Cumberland River Basin.

Various USACE Nashville District projects become particularly important during times of heavy rainfall. The National Weather Service provides USACE with radar rainfall estimates and forecasts of inflows to reservoirs. USACE in turn provides real-time information and forecasts for the operations of projects and corresponding discharges which are incorporated into official river flood forecasts provided to the public.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Nashville District manages the Cumberland River and its tributaries, balancing the demands for water releases to flood risk management, commercial navigation, production of hydropower, recreation, fish and wildlife, water supply and water quality.