May 1, 2024
By: Dwayne Page
No new employees for the DeKalb County Ambulance Service.
Last month, DeKalb EMS Director Hoyte Hale informed the budget committee that he wished to expand the number of EMS staff from the current level of 20 to a total of 24 beginning with the 2024-25 budget year.
During Tuesday night’s meeting, the budget committee denied the request.
By having four more full time employees (preferably paramedics), Hale said the ambulance service could fully staff three Advanced Life Support 24/7 crews (24 hours per day, 7 days per week) including two crews at the headquarters in Smithville and one at the new Liberty Fire Hall. ALS ambulance crews consist of EMTs and a paramedic.
If approved the EMS budget line item for medical personnel would have increased from $775,028 this year to $911,787 next year (fiscal year 2024-25).
First district commissioner and budget committee member Tom Chandler suggested Tuesday night that now is not the time to expand the EMS staff and add to the budget with other issues the county is facing that need to be addressed.
“Prior to last year there wasn’t even an ambulance in Liberty. There is one there now and its there for 12 hours a day. I don’t see any reason at this point especially given the other things like the situation with the jail and school to be expanding that building in Liberty and adding staff to make those 24 hours,” said Chandler.
Chandler later made a motion that the four new EMS positions requested be removed from the proposed budget and that Director Hale re-submit his budget after changing the numbers. The motion was approved on a 6-1 voice vote with member Tony (Cully) Culwell voting no.
Currently, the county has three staffed ambulances but only two operate 24 hours per day every day (ALS) while the other (day truck) is staffed for 12 hours per day every day (Basic Life Support).
“The way we have it split up right now, we have a paramedic truck on top (Smithville) and a paramedic truck in Liberty. If that paramedic truck here in town goes outside the city limits the one in Liberty comes back to town (Smithville). We have the BLS crew, but their call volume has increased greatly because they have been catching 911 calls during that transition of us coming up the hill,” explained Assistant EMS Director Trent Phipps at a previous budget committee meeting.
“Anything (ambulance) with a paramedic on it is an ALS truck. When we have two EMTS on it that’s considered a BLS truck. Their (EMTs) abilities are slightly limited to that of a paramedic. They can’t do as much stuff. If that BLS truck with two EMTS responds to a call, the Liberty truck almost always has to come to them wherever they are in the county and assist them with that depending upon the type of the call,” said Phipps.
“The state requires in my yearly audit that we have an Advanced Emergency Medical Technician (AEMT) with a paramedic on 95% of our calls,” added EMS Director Hale.
“There are no ambulances at the Liberty Station after 8 p.m.,” explained County Mayor Matt Adcock. “The BLS (Basic Life Support) day truck hours are 8:00 a.m. until 8:00 p.m. After the day truck shift has concluded the 12-hour shift, the ALS (Advanced Life Support) truck at the Liberty Station returns to the Smithville Station (station 1),” said Adcock.
Director Hale had also asked for a capital project allocation of $172, 720 for sleeping quarters to be added to the Liberty Station to house the requested third ALS unit providing uninterrupted coverage of the western and northern portions of the county. Although the budget committee has not yet taken up that request (sleeping quarters), members have signaled that they may also cut funding for that in the new budget.