By Examiner Staff
The Hardy County Emergency Ambulance Authority last week held a special public meeting at the Office of Emergency Management to discuss “operations.”
Paul Lewis, director of the OEM and President of the HCEAA Board, listed the established rules for the meeting. After participants recited the Pledge of Allegiance and heard the invocation, Lewis called for the group to go into executive session to discuss legal and personnel related issues.
The Hardy County Medical Director, Carmen Rexroad MD, replied that Lewis could not call for a general executive session to discuss personnel, but needed to be more specific in stating why. Lewis then deleted the executive session call from the agenda and moved forward with the meeting.
One of the major issues that likely would have consumed most or all of the executive session came from the Hardy County Sheriff’s Department’s recent arrest of Derek Alt.
The Sheriff’s Department arrested Alt on Nov 19 on the accusation that he had not turned in ambulance run sheets and names of personnel who responded to a double murder call. Alt had informed the County Commission that he could not turn over the records without a subpoena.
WHSV News quoted a Sheriff’s Department officer as stating in the complaint that “he was given ample time to comply with the officer’s request for the records and continues to refuse to release the records so this officer intended to charge him with obstructing the investigation.”
The charge against Alt was obstruction.
Lewis later addressed the issue, confirming the need for a subpoena for the records. He also shared that, contrary to some speculation on social media, that Alt retains his positions of employment and that a hearing on the matter has been scheduled for Jan 30.
An executive session did take place on the matter at the close of the meeting.
Much of the time was spent discussing ways to address the financial problems facing Hardy County’s ambulance services. Alt, as HCEAA executive director, took the opportunity at the beginning “to clarify some things.”
He said that as executive director, “I do not run the business. I make recommendations and the (HCEAA) Board makes the decisions.”
This protocol is similar to most similarly structured organizations. Executive directors administer the organization, but Boards remain the final decision-makers.
Alt shared to those present that they had worked together to come up with ideas on how to improve the financial conditions. He opened by asking if municipalities could help by providing financial support, perhaps through raised city and town sales taxes.
Municipal sales taxes often, but not always, are applied by one of the 34 cities in the home rule program. Whether or not done through home rule, all municipalities charging them must get approval from the State. Steven Schetrom, County Commissioner and HCEAA Board member, stated that he did not believe that the towns and cities could charge more than they do currently.
Additionally, some already have their own fire departments and EMS crews.
Other ideas proposed included sharing fuel costs with other county organizations, sharing supply orders with other first responder entities such as Valley Health, and other ways to try to work with other institutions.
Another option, referred to by Alt as the “least popular,” lay in cutting cash stipends. Wardensville Volunteer Rescue Squad from January to September received approximately $55,000 while West Hardy EMS got around $71,000.
Alt also suggested that staff cuts could also help. Jean Flanigan, on the HCEAA Board, said “well, it’s our biggest expense,” then inquired about fine tuning schedules to the busiest periods.
Board member Fran Welton then asked about collection of the ambulance fees. Lewis replied that the non compliance number is at about 20 percent and that those who do not pay eventually get taken to Magistrate Court. Later, Schretrom asked about recommendations for a new ambulance fee, to which Lewis replied that $200 for the regular fee and $100 for homesteads could be levied.
“Expenditures are not the problem,” Alt explained, adding that “it’s a revenue problem.”
Lewis then opened the floor for public comment.
Officials from other ambulance services raised concerns about some of the proposed solutions to the overall financial problems. Becky Fishel from WVRS shared that “if you take our stipend, we close our doors. We just had to pay $10,000 to fix an ambulance.”
Others pointed out that West Hardy EMS has had to put back money for a new building after they were informed in June that they had to vacate their current facility.
Discussions on budgeting spurred an Alt suggestion to have three separate operating budgets, each overseen by the Board, to which Billie Biddle, treasurer for West Hardy EMS said “I agree with Derek.” Earlier Biddle had expressed frustration that Alt as an executive director could present during the meeting agenda while others “had to wait until the public is invited to speak.”
Dr. Tim Thorn, Board member, called for cooperation, saying that “the truth is, we need West Hardy and West Hardy needs us” and that working together on little things “will help to fix the big things.”
