Commissioners discuss closing of Meta ambulance service, employee back pay

By Colin Willard, Staff Writer
Posted 1/4/23

VIENNA — At the Dec. 19 Maries County Commission meeting, Presiding Commissioner Victor Stratman said he received a letter from the Community Ambulance Service of Meta informing the …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

E-mail
Password
Log in

Commissioners discuss closing of Meta ambulance service, employee back pay

Posted

VIENNA — At the Dec. 19 Maries County Commission meeting, Presiding Commissioner Victor Stratman said he received a letter from the Community Ambulance Service of Meta informing the commissioners that the ambulance service would begin dissolution in June. In the letter, board members offered to meet with the commissioners to discuss future possibilities for the area the group serves.

“Our first responders know there will be a void in ambulance coverage in our area and want to continue serving the public the best they can,” the letter said. It also stated that the board was in discussion with Meta Fire and Rescue to keep medical first responders in the area to assist with medical calls as needed.

“Our main concern is patient transport and emergency medical technician care in our present district,” the letter said. “There will be coverage adjustments and response times will be extended. Hopefully, by acknowledging these changes, action can be taken by surrounding ambulance services to assist the public in their time of need.”

Stratman told the other commissioners that volunteers provide the services and receive no tax support.

“They would like to have that area served,” he said. “But I don’t see how we can really take that on. We have trouble getting staff and keeping staff for what we do now.”

Stratman suggested possibly making a tax levy a ballot measure to support ambulance services in the Meta area, but he did not think it would pass.

“Those people are not used to paying,” he said. “I think the chances of getting the levy passed over there to pay when they haven’t been paying is not worth the expense to have the election.

“Slim to none,” Eastern District Commissioner Doug Drewel added. “You’d never get anything passed there on an increase in money.”

County Clerk Rhonda Rodgers asked if people in Meta would care if they no longer had local ambulance services.

Stratman said their service should be basically the same.

“They were at the whim of anybody that was willing to serve,” he said. “They have like three people that work, and they’re volunteers. They’ve been covered by Osage or Maries anyway when they couldn’t get anything else.”

Finances

Rodgers informed the commissioners that the county owed almost $15,000 in back pay to employees who worked for the county in 2017. The state determines payment thresholds and Cost of Living Adjustments (COLA) for counties based on assessed valuations. In 2017, Maries County moved up into a higher bracket, but employees did not receive corresponding raises that year. She said that the county can allocate the back pay as a line item.

County payroll in 2023 will increase by about $7,000 more than last year.

Crump Law Offices returned $1,200 worth of checks for fees paid to him in October, November and December for work he did not do for the county. The firm was receiving $400 per month as a retainer for representing the public administrator’s office in court, but that ended before payments ceased.

Since the start of January, Prosecuting Attorney Tony Skouby works full-time with Maries County. His role will include assisting the public administrator’s office with courtroom appearances.

Around the 

courthouse

Stratman said he received a bid from Tom Campbell Floor Covering to remove the carpet and base on the courtroom floor following the removal of an old bench. The bid proposed a $400 cost for the removal and a $1,175 cost for the installation of a covering and vinyl base. The estimated price of plank flooring ranges from $2.59 to $5.99 per square foot, which would cost between $1,813 and $4,193 to cover about 700 square feet. The vinyl base costs $200 per box, and it would not exceed two boxes. The bid also estimated $185 for a bucket of cement and $150 for door molding.

The bid did not include the price of moving furniture or carpenter work required for floor preparations. Carpenter fees are $40 per man hour and material.

Deputy County Clerk Renee Kottwitz informed the commissioners about a complaint from a courthouse visitor who had to walk past people smoking on the courthouse steps to enter the building. Rodgers added that there had been several complaints in the past.

The commissioners discussed a few alternatives, such as putting no smoking signs up and requiring people to smoke at the back entrance, but they did not take any action.

License office manager Jennifer Roberson stopped by the meeting to tell the commissioners that a customer pointed out that she could read the information on the office’s computer screens. Roberson requested two privacy screens for the license office computers, and the commissioners approved the purchase.

Other business

Jeremy Manning, a structural engineer with Smith & Co. Engineers in Poplar Bluff, visited the meeting to let the commissioners know that his company had an interest in the county’s next bridge project, which will start with bids in July and construction beginning next year. The project will rebuild the bridge on County Road 213 over Fly Creek.

Stratman shared some demographic information he received from the Meramec Regional Planning Commission (MRPC) about the eight counties it serves. There are 198,000 people in MRPC’s service area. Of that total, 50.3 percent of the population is male, and 49.7 percent of the population is female.

The racial composition of MRPC’s service area is 91 percent white, two percent Black, two percent Asian, 0.5 percent Native American, 0.2 percent Hawaiian or Pacific Islander and 4.3 percent other. Pulaski County is the region’s most racially diverse county.

The median age of the region is 40.8 years old.

The median household income for Maries County is $48,276, which is below the $57,290 median in Missouri.