City moves forward on Tower Area Ambulance Service expansion

MONDAY, APRIL 24, 2017 — The Tower City Council, at its April 24 meeting, gave full approval to the Tower Area Ambulance Service’s request to expand the service to include four paid-on-call staff members. The new staff will be on call 24 hours each Monday through Friday. It is expected that four people will be hired, two emergency medical responders (EMR) and two experienced emergency medical technicians (EMT), paid to be on call over 12 hour shifts.

Tower Area Ambulance Service Director Steve Altenburg delivered a convincing case for expanding the service to include paid-on-call staff to the Tower City Council at its regular meeting, April 10. The on call staff will improve response times, and assure that two staff members are always available to quickly respond to medical calls, Mondays through Fridays, according to Altenburg. In addition, the paid staff will permit the ambulance service to fulfill calls for more medical transfers from area hospitals and result in additional revenues for the service. The ambulance service has already fulfilled requests for 17 transfers the first quarter of 2017, but had to decline 37 transfer opportunities because of staffing concerns. In 2016 the ambulance conducted 88 transfers and serviced 449 calls. “156 transfers a year, three transfers each week, will cover the expense of the paid-on-call staff. Altenburg’s proposal reflects EMTs earning $13 an hour and EMRs earning $10 an hour for 60 hour weeks. Each of the two crews will cost $71,760 each year, before matching withholdings, workers compensation and unemployment insurance costs.

“The financial benefits include self-sustaining wages, increased annual net revenue and long-term financial viability for the ambulance service,” Altenburg said. With demand for ambulance service continually increasing it is expected that the paid-on-call staff will be better able to serve patients as well as patient transfer services.

The city council was unanimous in its support of the proposal. The goal is to have the new staff members start paid on call July 1. Emergency medical responder training, hosted by the Tower Area Ambulance Service, is now ongoing and it is expected that the city will soon be advertising for applicants to fill the four new positions.

The Town of Breitung and City of Tower have come to agreement on a new, four-year, police contract. The new contract begins in 2018 and offers an automatic two-year option to renew at the end of the contract. The new terms also require a two-year notice from Tower, to end the contract.

The starting base rate is $100,866 and will move, incrementally, to $110,498.36 in 2021. In addition to the base rate, Tower will pay, annually, $5,000 for police car replacement; $3,000 for Tower call overtime and $6,500 for operating supplies. The city of tower will no longer be responsible for any portion of the township’s unemployment insurance expense.

Additional expenses paid by Tower, to Breitung, include 45 percent of the Chief’s and the supervising officer’s pay raises. The city will also cover 45 percent of matching payroll deductions, medical coverage and longevity pay for the chief and supervising officer. In addition, the city will pay 45 percent of the part-time pay rate of $16.00 to cover additional vacation earned by the chief and supervising officer.

The motion to accept the newly negotiated contract passed with the unanimous support of every city councilor and the mayor.

The city discussed, at length, the Cook Hospital’s attempt to have the state implement Vermilion Lake Township, Greenwood Township and three other townships, located at the western end of the hospital district, into the existing hospital district. Greenwood and Vermilion Lake townships are a part of the Tower Area Ambulance Service and the city is concerned that if these townships were forced into the hospital district it could raise issues for the ambulance service.

Mayor Josh Carlson said that he did not want to meddle into the imbroglio between the hospital district and townships. Others on the council wanted to support Vermilion Lake Township’s resolution objecting to annexation by the hospital district. Alderman Lance Dougherty made a motion in support of Vermilion Lake Township. Alderman Kevin Fitton supported the motion, however the motion failed with a three-two vote. The council moved on without any action on the hospital district occurring.

In other action, the Tower City Council:

Reversed its April 10 decision to cancel the Erickson family Hoodoo Point cabin lease. The Erickson’s paid the delinquent balance of the lease and will enter into an agreement with the city to bring property taxes current by the end of 2017.
Passed an Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board application policy which requires city council approval on all applications related to city projects.
Approved the purchase of a six-foot by 50-foot boat dock to be installed at Hoodoo Point. the dock will be leased to campers
Accepted responsibility for administering a special deer hunt within city limits and increased the antlerless deer limit, for each hunter, to five
Established the loan criteria required by applicants interested in borrowing city development funds
Approved allowing a boat temporary storage building to remain at Standing Bear Marina until the end of the 2017 boating season.