At the regular Rico Fire Protection meeting held Oct. 15, under Administrative Report, David Kunz reported that the SAR and ambulance components of the 2012 Rico Center grant are almost complete. The rescue saw was purchased, Todd Jones and Benn Vernadakis will find the snowmobiles and the pending EMT-B class is under old business.
Colorado Fire Relief Fund Grant for wild land fire PPE, hose fittings and hand tools has been awarded and all equipment has been ordered and invoiced. Everything has been received and inventoried except for the wild land jackets and pants which are backordered. This grant will be closed out October 31, 2012.
The FEMA/AFG grant is an approximately $50k grant for new structural fire PPE. No word yet, awards are being made.
SWAHAC grant: The Southwest Council of Governments has taken over as financial agent for this grant, which is for new SCBAs. Mr. Kunz has contacted Susan Hakanson at the SWCOG and it sounds as if this will start moving forward in the next month.
El Pomar: David Kunz will see if there is additional funding for wild land gear once CFRF is closed out.
Compliance/Recordkeeping: Tyler Lapp mentioned that there were at least two different versions of the Department by-laws and that they need to be reconciled.
Old Business. Regarding the Ambulance Billing/Business Options David Kunz is moving forward on setting up billing accounts with Business Options, it will be slow going. One issue is lack of County ambulance licensing, Mr. Kunz will contact Todd Parisi on this. The Rico Fire Protection District board looked over the fee schedule worksheet for regional ambulance services. The Board had a number of questions in regards to how the billing would be implemented including how is a partial transport billed, is there a sliding scale or some other allowance made for the uninsured, why cant the fire district just do the subscription like in the mid-90s? Mr. Kunz said he would get those questions answered and the fee schedule could be considered next month.
David Kunz reported that Pueblo Community College was out of the picture for EMT-B class and that Southwest Memorial Hospital was trying to become an accredited teaching facility once the State approves them. Gina Kotarski would be one of the instructors for the class. Tyler Lapp asked if there could be an IV component in the class. The Board discussed the issue of who would be eligible to take the class, whether they should pay half the cost and the District would reimburse them after a period of service, whether they are obligated to maintain a license be getting CEs. Mr. Lapp brought up that maintaining a certification is important for wild land fire and hazmat training as well. Mr. Kunz mentioned that the cost of the EMT-B class is supposed to be less through SWMH than through PCC and that it was Rico Center money paying for it.
New Business. LP 12 Service contract: Dolores County gave the Rico Protection Fire District a newer LP12 monitor/defibrillator and it needs service and new batteries. Mr. Kunz has two quotes for a service contract for the LP12, one for 3 years and one for 1 year. The cost of each option is $1026.00 per year. Along with the service contract is the option to purchase a new set of lithium-ion batteries at a reduced price. At this time the district has two AEDs, one of which does not meet current defibrillation protocols. While the LP12 has a lot of capability that EMT-Bs would not use, it could be useful for documenting rhythms and also would facilitate patient care as an ALS provider could get in the Districts ambulance and use it. The question is how much money the Board is willing to spend as the service life of this unit is unknown. Mr. Kunz said that he would try to get Todd Parisi to train the EMTs on the LP12. The Board will reconsider this issue at next months meeting.