Floyd County supervisors OK radio deal with AMR ambulance service

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

The Floyd County Board of Supervisors approved an agreement Monday morning to provide radios to AMR ambulance service to use when the county switches to a new communications system, sometime after the first of the year.

The county will purchase portable radios and pagers to be provided to AMR, with most of the cost of the pagers being reimbursed to the county by the ambulance company.

At the supervisors meeting last week, the board had balked at the idea of providing what at that meeting had been estimated at about $42,600 in radio equipment to a private ambulance service that is charging a subsidy to the city and county to provide service.

But supervisors also recognized the need for the ambulance service to be able to be part of the new radio system that county dispatchers, law enforcement, fire departments and other emergency responders will begin using.

County Auditor Gloria Carr said she, along with county Emergency Medical Coordinator Jason Webster and Lt. Travis Bartz of the Sheriff’s Office, had been talking with a representative of AMR, and had “some really productive conversation” and “a lot of things got cleared up.”

Carr had been designated last week by the Board of Supervisors to negotiate with AMR.

Carr said after taking a closer look with the AMR representative at the equipment that would be needed, the estimated equipment cost was reduced from $42,602 to about $32,500.

She said AMR told them that because the cost of the radios hadn’t been included in the company’s budget for the current three-year contract with Floyd County and Charles City, the most the company could pay would be $5,000 in the current year of the contract, and $5,000 in the next and final year of the contract, which will end June 30, 2026.

The agreement – which was made official Monday morning by the supervisors – is that the county will purchase eight portable radios at a total cost of about $22,000.

The eight units will provide a radio for the driver and another for the paramedic or EMT in back of the ambulance with the patient, for each of the four ambulances available to AMR in Charles City and the rest of Floyd County.

The radios will remain the property of the county and AMR will cover their maintenance and replacement if damaged or lost.

The county will also purchase 15 pagers for $10,527 to be used by AMR staff while on call. AMR will reimburse the county $5,000 this contract year and $5,000 next contract year, and will own the pagers.

Carr said that Keith Starr, chair of the county 911 Service Board, said that group could probably pick up the additional $527 that AMR said it couldn’t pay for the pagers.

The county’s share of the cost will be paid out of the communications project funds. The supervisors had approved issuing $4.83 million in emergency communications bonds to purchase new radios and pagers for law enforcement, fire departments and other public emergency responders in the county, as well as installing a new 300-foot radio tower near Rockford.

The system will be part of the Iowa Statewide Interoperable Communications System (ISICS) that the State Patrol and many other counties and agencies use across the state.

Also at the meeting, the supervisors:

• Set Monday, Dec. 16, at 10 a.m. in the supervisors boardroom as the time for the completion hearing for a $368,571 drainage repair project in Drainage District No. 3, located south and west of Floyd.

Attending remotely, Tyler Conley, a professional engineer with Bolton & Menk, the company that the supervisors hired to prepare the project plans and then supervise the project, talked about some remaining damage claims and unfinished work, including with two drainage district landowners who were at the meeting.

The supervisors act as trustees for the drainage district, and the costs for the project will be assessed to the property owners in the district based on a formula that determines how much value each parcel receives from the district.

• Agreed to negotiate about a bill that had been submitted by attorney Thomas Reavely, who had been hired by the county to give a second opinion on how a Worth County wind energy ruling issued in Worth County District Court, might affect similar actions being considered in Floyd County regarding commercial wind energy.

Supervisor Chair Mark Kuhn wondered why Reavely was charging an hourly rate as well as a mileage charge for the time he spent driving to and from his office in Des Moines and Charles City, and Carr wondered why the county was being asked to pay for charges made before the county has signed an agreement with the attorney.

• Approved appointing Caitlyn Angell as a commissioner on the Floyd County Veterans Affairs Commission, to replace Maureen Ruane and fill the remaining time on her term, until June 30, 2027.