looking for answers

[sbsp]

It is great to have the optimism of trusting those in charge to fund priorities but recent history has new windows, doors and addition at the fire station at the cost of $130,000 plus of tax dollars a priority over funding a paramedic. If no one hears the alarm ringing, let me just say it is wake up time.

Kirk

[John Bolton]

Trish Scott states that she has confidence in those who are in charge...
While Kirk alludes that precious tax revenue is being spent on dubious remodeling work.
Like Fox News says.." We report...you decide"

http://beaverislandnews.com/2014%20St%2 ... pt2014.pdf

Since I was not witness to the actual discussions involved on the reasons behind the decision... I can only read the minutes.... I ask for anyone who was there to come forward and give detail on this issue.

It could very well be that the revenue spent on this project was well valued and sorely needed, and we here on the forum (of which the majority are off island non voting taxpayers ) would be well served on receiving some needed details. The tax revenue amounts spent are similar to those amounts being mentioned as needed in the near future to keep a Paramedic program afloat. (Apples to Apples comparison?)

it is obvious that there are hundreds more interested people reading this thread than can actually attend the local meetings.
In that light, I would hope "those in charge" as Trish calls them, would shed some light on this subject.
It would be a perfect opportunity for our elected officials to explain how the decision process works.
I would really like to hear what they have to say.

I mean, somebody elected them...
It would be prudent to talk to the rest of us...
We, the land owning, taxpaying, voting disenfranchised, are all here, listening...
.

[E. Naranjo]

First of all I will admit that I am one of the people that Andy has referred to in her post. I am guilty of "just discussing it on the forum and not attending the meeting that was posted on here". I am equally as guilty of "asking questions and complaining on the forum". Now that those confessions are behind me I would like to come forward and present these questions to you (probably because I feel that you will give a response). 1.) When are the next regularly scheduled meetings for both townships? 2.) Who should I direct my questions to at the future meetings?


Next I would like to state that it is my belief that the majority of us who are "complaining on the forum" really do want what is best for the community. Who here does not want to be taken care of in the event of a life threatening emergency?


Jeff, you are right, time is of the essence! I guess if we did not care then these things would be much easier to deal with. Let us hope and pray for the continuation of good health to all on the island!

[Chamber of Commerce]

[quote="E. Naranjo"].................I would like to come forward and present these questions to you (probably because I feel that you will give a response). 1.) When are the next regularly scheduled meetings for both townships? 2.) Who should I direct my questions to at the future meetings?..................

_____________________________________________
www.beaverisland.org

http://www.beaverisland.org/beaver-isla ... government

PEAINE TOWNSHIP
Township government serving Peaine Twp. (231) 448-2389 View Web Site
ST. JAMES TOWNSHIP
Township government serving St. James Twp. (231) 448-2260 View Web Site

[sbsp]

In rereading the St. James Township minutes that John Bolton posted above, I do not see in the minutes where any board members recused themselves from voting to award the bid. I assume the James Wojan recused himself from voting his brother to receive the bid. Maybe someone could clarify the minutes which seem to be unclear.
Now back to the paramedic issue.

Kirk

[Andy's Grooming Barn]

Eric -EMS authority meeting are not regular scheduled meeting but they are posted at the township hall and post office when they have them. The township meetings are on the calendar off the right hand side of the township website. This is for our township.

As for St. James, I am not sure where they are posted, their website isn't up to date, I believe but am not sure that they need to turn their information into Krys Lyle as she does them but she can not do so unless she is given the information.

Also Honestly I would be surprised if any township official would respond on this forum, not a real good way to do business. I don't know when Bill Haggard is in his office as it isn't on the website but Bill Kohls office hours are on the calendar on the township website, if you wish to talk to him you can stop in or call him during those hours.

[John Bolton]

Andy/ E. Narranjo:
I am NOT complaining here on the forum. I do not hear a lot of mere complaining. I hear frustrated folks looking for some answers.
I am asking questions. Yes, you can go to the meeting, voice your opinion. But I cant.. Not now.

I want to hear from Trish Scott's, "folks in charge" right here on this forum, as it is truly a community forum, especially for those of us who still have to remain on the mainland to make a living. We put both our hearts and money toward the island's benefit, so I believe we deserve to ask questions and expect some answers to shed light on darkness that seems to prevail here on these two issues that are beginning to intertwine..

A few words from the island's elected officials could make a lot of the "complaining " just melt away. Personally, I have known many of those "Folks in Charge" for decades and consider them good straight people. I, for one, want to give them the benefit of any doubt, state their case, and perhaps listen, just a little, to we, the disenfranchised during the discussion.

I will complain if what I and many others in this community forum consider a reasonable request for input , is merely ignored.....

And do not believe for one moment "they" are not monitoring this thread...The island is extremely small and gossip goes around faster than cornmeal through a goose...few folks are ignorant of what is being discussed on the forum.

E. Naranjo, I am not sure how long you have been on island... but if you think this is something... just wait till March Madness

[sbsp]

I don't mean to jump over John's post but have some critical information. In review of the video, the call on the field stands! The minutes of the St. James Township meeting that John posted are correct in the fact that no board member recused themselves. Sec 3, about 3:45 into it, James Wojan votes in support for his brother's bid in violation of the nepotism laws governing a governmental body. This is additionally a violation of the Open Meetings Act and makes the vote/award null and void. I'm surprised the clerk didn't catch that one. A quorum is only necessary for legally convening a posted meeting and has nothing to do with the voting, Mr. Wojan was required to recuse himself.
Now back to John and Andy's post. It's no wonder that the townships choose to avoid addressing the public on the Forum, it would make it much harder to keep things from becoming public.
We still have the paramedic issue to solve.

I stand corrected, there is no violation for a direct family member of a township board to vote on the award of a governmental contract to another family member and is not considered a violation of nepotism laws. I apologize for any harm or misinformation my post may have caused in this important discussion.

Kirk

[JFPowers]

Politicians everywhere are utilizing technology to reach their constituents. Even President Obama has utilized Google hangouts and other methods to allow the general public to communicate with him.

Politicians here have used the forum and Joe Moore's website to ask for your votes but none of them have as of yet taken the step to reach out to their constituents via the forum or other non formal methods to discuss their constituents concerns.

This will change someday and it will make Beaver Island a better place, as many of these issues that can be solved by more openness and more communication. Many folks that pay the taxes that keep the island going just don't have the access they need to feel that their concerns are being addressed. This needs to change, since the island needs the taxpayers support to maintain its economic viability.

[BI Pirate]

Eric, Oiy mate, good choice on Marley's "Don't Worry, Be Happy", as the island's anthem. It might be a good time to join hands and all sing it, chilling out, may be with a rum drink or two. Me and my crew will be chilling out with some spiced delight while watching Downton Abbey tonight. A good break from all the scuttlebutt on the forum.

[John Bolton]

Don't Worry, be Happy?
That is because as a Pirate from W.I. , you haven't paid Beaver Island property taxes... just Whiskey Island taxes...if that

BTW: What are the levied millage rates over there?

[BMcCaw]

I thought Whiskey Island is part of St. James Township.

[jflanagan]

This has been an interesting discussion.

Since this is such an important topic I'd suggest that we all stay on the ems topic. While some of the other issues that have been mentioned are important such as combining townships and selling underused property. those issues cannot possibly be addressed without delaying movement on the issue of emergency medical care.

I also understand why elected officials refuse to discuss these issues on an open forum when these discussions often deteriorate into name calling. That said I do agree that they could and must make better use of modern methods of alerting the public to items like meeting information, including agendas.

Finally, I'm another of those non-resident taxpayers who lives on the island and contributes to the island economy for most of the year.

I would appreciate sensible attempts to save taxpayer money.

That said, considering the time and effort our FD volunteers put in and the value of the equipment that they use, expenditures to make their work more comfortable and protect that equipment are sensible.

As a taxpayer, if my taxes must go up to pay for continued fine emergency care and to offer fair salaries and good working conditions to those who provided them, so be it.

[sbsp]

James -
I agree that this discussion should refocus on the immediate critical issue of a paramedic replacement before we lose all the emergency medical benefits that position allows us and thereby having to start all over again.
I believe, at least from my point, that the side discussions are simply to illustrate that had a financial plan along with priority fiscal responsibility been in place we could have funding for a paramedic without as you state, increased taxes. I don't think anyone is proposing taking an eye off the paramedic position to solve the other fiscal problems, but, they do need to be addressed in time.
I am still hopeful that someone in a leadership position will step up here and let the public know the status of the paramedic replacement plan. I agree that the Forum is an opportunity to do that and if posts are met with disrespect, the leaders can and should cut the conversation off at that time.
Thank you for your input, it is critical that people speak up and express their views.

Kirk

[medic5740]

The Marginal Effect of One Paramedic

Although this wording was taken from a post on the beaverislandforum.com website, it is not a reflection on the person who wrote that post.

Here are some facts about the EMS on Beaver Island.

1. Beaver Island EMS is a separate entity from the Beaver Island Fire Department.

2. Beaver Island EMS had a total of 87 emergency medical calls on Beaver Island in the year 2014. Mathematically, this number is small compared to a service on the mainland, but to those 87 people and their families, this was a very important service. For four or five patients during the summer of 2014, advanced life support (ALS) with a paramedic was very important. These four or five patients would not have survived with a basic life support agency (BLS) transporting them. They would not have survived the trip to the Beaver Island Rural Health Center (BIRHC) where they may have had the opportunity to receive the advanced life support care that they needed.

3. BIEMS became an advanced life support agency in the year 2000. In that first year, there were just less than one hundred calls for service, which means the number of patients that needed advanced life support were approximately the same number as 2014. The BIEMS agency was not only an advanced life support agency, but also a State of Michigan certified initial education sponsor and a certified continuing education sponsor. The highest level of EMS instruction allowed under that certification is now called Advanced EMT by the National Registry of EMTs.

4. So, for the last fifteen years, Beaver Island has had an advanced life support service, and the residents, summer and winter, as well as visitors have been able to rely on the EMS system to help them in an emergency.

5. For those who are not familiar with the organization of BIEMS, it was organized as a club made up with volunteers. In 1987-88, this group raised its own money for everything with the help of the Beaver Island Medical Center. When the service became Limited Advanced, the intermediate level of emergency services, it became obvious that during the summer months volunteers needed to be paid something to give up their summer jobs. Most employers would not allow their cook or cashier to walk out to go on an emergency, leaving their business understaffed with the possibility of not returning to the island the same day. So we took a reasonable pay per call amount and gave those people flying off the island with a patient a flat rate of $20.

6. When BIEMS became an advanced life support agency with the ability to treat many emergencies in the same manner as an emergency room, we had to have paramedics available for emergencies. These paramedics had to be available 24 hours per day, 7 days a week, 365 days of the year as required by the laws of the State of Michigan. Once again, the summer season became an issue. A person that spent the two years of junior college to work and study to become a paramedic could not be expected to continue to volunteer and give up the summer employment to be a volunteer, so the pay for being available was set to a wage for a common type job for a 12 hour shift of $8.00 per hour, or $100 per day. But the on-call paramedic had to be available for a full 24 hours. This began in 2002-2003 or thereabout. This pay was only for the summer months because three of the paramedics had full time jobs that allowed them a regular income AND allowed them to be available for emergencies at any time of the day in any season of the year. And what are we paying paramedics after thirteen years? Would you believe $100 per day or $4.33 per hour? No raise, no incentives, nothing.

7. In the same time frame, the Beaver Island EMS purchased a new chassis for an ambulance and a used box and had this ambulance put in service as the primary ambulance. The year was 2003. The emergency response vehicle was also replaced in the next year or so. These vehicles are the same vehicles that were in service as Mike and Bev Russell left the island. These are the same vehicles in use today. On the positive side, this ambulance is a four wheel drive modified van chassis, has less than fifteen thousand miles on it, and is still the primary response ambulance. The used ambulance purchased to replace the gift ambulance from East Jordan EMS was one with a hundred thousand miles on it, and wasnâ??t expected to last this long. It is unusable during the hot summer months because there is no working climate control on the ambulance, a requirement for even a basic life support ambulance. So the situation now is that both an ambulance and an emergency response vehicle need to be replaced.

8. Someone said, â??Letâ??s get rid of the emergency response vehicle.â?￾ Iâ??m absolutely certain that this would be a really, really bad idea for EMS on Beaver Island. On a response down the island or a response out into Port St. James, the emergency response vehicle can be on the scene from eight to ten minutes more quickly that the ambulance because the ambulance must wait for the responders to arrive at the garage, but the ERV can leave immediately with one paramedic on board to arrive more quickly on the scene and begin assessment and treatment While itâ??s true that the majority of the treatment awaits the ambulance, it makes no sense to waste the 8-10 minutes of time for a delayed ambulance response. â??Time is muscle,â?￾ Time is tissue,â?￾ and time may be the difference between life and death in a life threatening emergency.

9. The difference between the organizational finances now and in the historic past of BIEMS is this: The paramedic, the EMT, and the MFR all get paid a very minimal amount to be available. This represents about a 75% increase in the on call wages, the availability wages. When divided over the last fifteen years, it represents an increase of 5% per year with the lower level licensees being paid for the first time, and the paramedic being paid the exact same in 2014 as was paid in 2004. No raise, no thank you gifts, and no other perks were provided to the paramedic. The director of EMS began to be paid when Sarah McCafferty took over as director. This was not a paid position prior to that time, which was approximately 2006-7. It should be a paid position since there is a large quantity of paperwork necessary to accomplish the provision of emergency medical care in any agency licensed by the State of Michigan.

10. Unless someone talks to and convinces people already living on Beaver Island to step up and do the training, and unless those that step up for the training have a reasonable expectation to be paid a living wage, and unless we cover the license requirements for maintaining an advanced life support agency license, here are the things that will be lost immediately:

a. Advanced Life Support Agency license for BIEMS
b. Advanced Life Support vehicle license for 57 Alpha 2, the primary ambulance
c. Advanced Life support vehicle license for 57 Echo 4, the emergency response vehicle
d. Ability to educate and train island people beyond the EMT level
e. Air Transport Vehicle licensed at advanced life support level

11. The cost of bringing a paramedic over to Beaver Island from the mainland will be very expensive. Letâ??s consider someone willing and able to come and spend three days in a row to cover as paramedic. The flight cost is approximately $100 for three days or $33.00 per day. The motel costs for this will be approximately $100 per day. The wages for paying this person to come and provide coverage will be at least $250 per day. This makes an estimation of cost for covering EMS with one paramedic from the mainland approximately $1000 or $10,000 per month. This adds up to $120,000 per year. This is cost prohibitive. It would take more than two mills per township to pay for the paramedic and maintain the advanced life support license.

12. We have two paramedics on Beaver Island right now. Neither one of those, nor any others who might be interested in the education or training are going to continue or start doing the paramedicâ??s job for the $4.33 per hour or $100 per day. Kathy Ehinger and Joe Moore are both working and covering the paramedic position for sub-minimum wage pay right now. No person, no matter how dedicated, is going to go through a two year junior college program and work for $4.33 per hour. Even if they went through the training, had to buy their own books, and pay their own costs for the education and training, why would they stay on Beaver Island and help their neighbors for $4.33 per hour? They could go to work for Boyne City EMS and make $200 for a 12 hour shift or go to work for Emmett County EMS and make three times the Beaver Island rate per hour. Whatâ??s going to keep them here?

13. Well, you might say, â??We canâ??t afford advanced life support then.â?￾ Thatâ??s not true. You just have to convince some of the people who are currently licensed at the Basic EMT level to take the education program that is being given, literally given, $10-12,000 worth of tuition per person to the island by Lisa Ferris-McCann. You have to provide them with some reason to give up 1200 hours of family time to take this program. You have to provide them maybe even some financial help to accomplish the program, for flights and lodging for clinical. Maybe you should pay them the $4.33 per hour to attend the classes, and then give them a bonus if they successfully complete the program and become licensed. Some carrot needs to be there if you want them to give and give and give 1200 or more hours to getting licensed as a paramedic. This sketch of a plan certainly wonâ??t cost you the $120,000 or more for just one year of paramedic. Get the people who have a vested interest in the provision of emergency medical services on Beaver Island, and give them some reason to go through this education program. If the township or BIEMS is not willing to invest in these people, why would they work hard toward paramedic licensing? If you expect them to pay for it and you expect them to sign a contract and you donâ??t give them anything, why would they give of themselves and make their family sacrifice? A $4.33 hourly pay rate after the license is a rotten, stinky, moldy carrot, and this will not convince anyone to do the program.

14. In the meantime, while these carrot people are doing the training, you need to convince some of the people who have provided EMS on the island as paramedics to come to the island and cover some of the days until the program is completed. Here are some names of people who could come over and help that know what the island EMS is like: Mike Russell, Bev Russell, Kristen Russell Potter, Sarah McCafferty, Bob Hamil, Steve Rose, and Shirley Sigler Curtis. Iâ??ll bet that Kathie Ehinger has some more names of people who would love to come here and cover. Has anyone asked her? Has any contacted these people? You need to contact an EMS agency on the mainland and pay the costs mentioned above for whatever days you canâ??t cover using these people and Kathie Ehinger. Who knows, if you are putting forth some serious effort, you might even get Joe Moore to cover a couple of shifts per week after he gets a thirty day vacation from EMS, something he hasnâ??t had in four years.

15. It is now January 5, 2015, and you have less than 90 days to make up your mind and DO SOMETHING. Finish the Emergency Services Authority paperwork, get the two townships to approve it. Fill the five positions. Contact some possible paramedics. Convince Beaver Island resident EMTs to take the program. Get the program scheduled for an on island paramedic class. DO SOMETHING!

I didnâ??t work the last twenty-eight years to get Beaver Island EMS to the advanced level only to have it go backwards fifteen years.

Joe Moore, paramedic instructor