Charles City reaches new one-year contract agreement with AMR

By Kelly Terpstra, kterpstra@charlescitypress.com

Substantial changes up front in terms of reimbursement are part of a new contract between Charles City and its ambulance service provider, AMR (American Medical Response).

The new agreement ends almost a year of uncertainty after the prior contract had run out this past June. A mutual agreement had been in place ever since initial talks broke down.

“The county and the hospital are not part of this. This is only for the city,” said Dawn Staudt, AMR station supervisor.

City Administrator Steve Diers announced the news during a City Council planning session on Tuesday, signaling the wait to reach a deal is over — at least for now. Diers called the new one-year contract a “feeling-out” year.

“The contract renewal is a stop-gap. It’s a conversation that will still continue. We need to find out a longer-term solution,” said Diers.

In the old contract, which was in place for more than 20 years, AMR most recently paid the city $4,600 for the staffing of ambulance drivers, $11,400 for the use of radio dispatch services and $7,600 for rental of space at the fire station.

AMR requested those payments to the city be eliminated and asked for additional direct funding of $128,000. The city and county will continue to fund those aforementioned services in-kind.

The city agreed to eliminate the almost $24,000 in fees paid by AMR to the city, and agreed to provide AMR with a $50,000 annual subsidy.

To offset not receiving the full reimbursement amount requested, Diers said rates for services charged by AMR will increase substantially — some by as much as 80 to 100 percent.

A call inside the city limits and St. Charles township will cost more than $1,500 for an emergency ALS (advanced life support) ambulance call. A specialty care transport will run almost $1,700.

Whether Floyd County or the Floyd County Medical Center agree to also provide monetary assistance for calls is something Diers said could happen in the future.

“They haven’t made a specific request for level of service. With the county, it’s one of those things where if and when we have the ability to respond, we do,” said Diers.

Staudt said AMR responds to hundreds of calls outside the city limits and St. Charles township. Staudt said AMR averages about 1,100 calls for service a year and just under 1,000 of those are patients who are transported.

Staudt said there are 19 crew members on staff in Charles City. She is the other paramedic alongside Marty Parcher, Charles City’s assistant fire chief. There are four EMTs, two of those with advanced training, who work under Staudt and Parcher.

The contract provides one ALS ambulance to be on call for a 24-hour, seven days a week schedule. AMR also employs a backup ambulance when the need arises.

After AMR ended its contract with Iowa Falls, some newer AMR equipment and staff from that community have become available in Charles City as well, according to Diers.

Also at the meeting Tuesday:

• It was announced that the first phase of the CDBG (Community Development Block Grant) has received two contracted bids from Kellogg Construction to do work on two homes in Charles City that qualified.

The grants provide up to $24,999 in rehab per home and up to $5,750 in lead hazard reduction activity. The Iowa Economic Development Authority awarded the CDBG in the amount of $232,700 last September. That total has a local match of $13,800 that raises the total grant money to $246,500.

The scope of work that will be performed upon council approval are at houses at 206 8th Avenue and 105 9th Avenue in Charles City. Kellog’s total base bid for work done at the 9th Avenue location is just over $30,000 and improvements made at the 8th Avenue residence saw a contracted bid of almost $27,000. There are six scheduled home improvement projects that will be done via the grant money.

The homeowner of 207 S. Iowa Street participated in the 2012 CDBG owner-occupied rehab program as well. A lien was recorded against that property for the amount of work completed ($24,999) because the homeowner did not live at that property for the five years required for the forgivable loan to be released

• A change order will be made with Kamm Excavating, which was awarded the Lime Residual Removal Project last year. Due to poor weather conditions, the $82,000 project to remove the material from the lime lagoons west of the water treatment plant was put on hold. Kamm Excavating will attempt to remove the 8,000 tons of lime later this summer. The change order will be on the June 3 City Council regular meeting agenda.

• The council members also discussed a disabled person’s request to use a golf cart to access his home that he has a hard time maneuvering around due to the Hildreth Street Reconstruction Project. City Attorney Brad Sloter has prepared an agreement for use of the golf cart during time that local traffic is prevented from using Hildreth Street.

• The city also discussed the possible sale of more than 4,500 planted trees to interested parties. The many different species of trees need to be removed for the WRRF construction project. Diers said the trees are several years old and vary in height from 3 to 7 feet.

• The city also talked about giving non-bargaining unit employees the same raise as union employees. A resolution has been prepared that reflects a 2.75 pay increase for the fiscal year 2020.