City Board approves Benton County EMS

The Siloam Springs Board of Directors met to approve a second EMS contract, a purchase and a budget amendment on Tuesday.

First on the agenda for the Feb. 7 meeting was the 2017 EMS contract with Benton County. Board members approved a similar contract with the city of Gentry in January.

Director Brad Burns said the deal was more palatable than the Gentry agreement that was passed a few weeks ago.

Fire Chief Jeremey Criner said the formula that was used to determine the cost of covering

Gentry’s EMS needs was used for Benton County with the exception of a percentage increase to reflect the longer response times and often rougher roads that put additional strain on both crews and equipment.

The contract amount was $444,224.28, a 1.5 percent increase from 2016’s total.

Director Steve Beers asked Criner how the city would adjust its cost for the real incident rate, as opposed to the projected rate. Criner responded that the actual number of responses would not affect the cost to the city until the number of annual responses passed 750, at which time the city would have to purchase additional equipment and have an additional EMS team standing by. The number of responses for 2016 was 497.

The contract was approved by a vote of 6-0, with Director Lucas Roebuck absent.

Criner remained as the presenter for the next agenda item, which was a budget amendment for the Fire Department. The amendment was made so the department could purchase an oxygen generating system to replace the supplier that currently refills city stocks.

The oxygen is used regularly during EMS responses.

Currently, the city pays an average of $8,326 per year for the service. The generating system would be financed interest-free over four years for $7,086 per year. Over the 15year expected lifespan for the system, the city is expected to save around $100,000, Criner said.

Director Amy Smith thanked Criner for finding alternative ways to save the city money and asked where the unit would be stored. Criner said the system is about the size of the podium that he was speaking from, and there was a room picked out in the department’s existing space for it. The amendment was approved unanimously.

The final agenda item covered Tuesday was a purchase request for the Infrastructure division of the city’s street department. Public Works Director Steve Gorszczyk presented a request for the budgeted purchase of a new mini excavator to join the excavators owned by the streets division and the electric department.

Currently, the infrastructure division is often forced to borrow the electric department’s excavator because the single unit belonging to the street department is used heavily.

Smith asked if it was a problem that the infrastructure division had to borrow the electric department’s excavator. Gorszczyk said the purchase will allow the electric department to have their excavator when they need it and eliminate the need to keep asking to borrow equipment.

The purchase, which was approved unanimously, includes five bucket attachments, a jackhammer attachment, a compactor and a 22-foot-long trailer. The new excavator is also equipped with a hydraulic “thumb,” which allows the unit to grab objects. The board also: • Met new electric department head Phillip Stokes. Stokes most recently worked with the Grand River Dam Authority, where he said he was impressed in his dealings with Siloam Springs and former department head Art Farine.

• Approved City Administrator Phillip Patterson’s informal request to issue a request for proposals for future uses of the Old Post Office.

• Heard public comments from Tyler Carroll and Casey Letellier thanking the city for their help on a new business venture on East Main Street. Several directors thanked the pair for investing in the community.

• Heard comments from Patterson on the broadcasting of future meetings. Patterson said the new streaming service allows time-stamping, which will make it easier to skip to certain agenda items in the video of the meeting. Patterson also said the city was getting close to being able to broadcast on Cox channel 245 in HD. Patterson said the city was just waiting on a part replacement from Cox.