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Monroe County EMS vehicles being upgraded

WOODSFIELD — Monroe County Emergency Medical Services will have two new vehicles for its fleet, thanks to support from county commissioners and the voting public.

At a regular meeting of the Monroe County Board of Commissioners on Monday, Phil Keevert, county EMS director, talked with commissioners about purchasing two new 2019 Chevy chassis trucks.

The department has been working with older trucks and equipment, so all three commissioners, Mick Schumacher, Carl Davis, and Tim Price, agreed to sign an agreement to purchase the vehicles.

Keevert said the cost of the trucks that will be purchased will be $351,583.

“This will be more like a lease than a loan, I’m told. That’s how you have to do it with these kind of trucks for the department,” Keevert said. “We will have to make payments on it. One can be here in the next few weeks. The other one still needs to get Monroe County EMS on the side of it with the unit number. It will be great to get these because we are working with some trucks right now that have some mechanical problems. All of the trucks will have the same color stripes on them, with silver and blue, and we are using red lettering.”

Keevert said the money for the trucks will come from revenue generated by a half-mill levy that was approved by voters in November. Keevert said this levy was much-needed. due to the department growing and needing to obtain more medical equipment, supplies and staff. This levy generates about $357,000 a year. The EMS receives $607,000 in total levy proceeds when that money is counted along with another half-mill levy that was put in place in 2001.

According to a fact sheet provided by Keevert, operating costs a year for Monroe County EMS include:

∫ Average truck purchase cost is $140,000 to $180,000.

∫ Fuel cost is $28,180, and 80 percent of the money for fuel is spent in Monroe County.

∫ Truck maintenance is $53,956, and 70 percent of the money for maintenance is spent in Monroe County.

∫ Medication costs to stock the trucks is $22,319.

∫ Miscellaneous supply costs to stock the trucks is $28,257.

∫ Yearly staff cost for one paid/volunteer department is $209,175.

∫ Cost of yearly training is $12,000.

∫ Cost to purchase and maintain needed equipment is $61,280.

∫ Cost to maintain buildings for a year with utilities is $48,850.

In an unrelated matter, Ren’ee Rector-Brown, office manager and veterans outreach coordinator for Congressman Bill Johnson R-Ohio, also came to the commissioners meeting to introduce herself to the officials of Monroe County. Rector is taking the place of Kevin Smart, who had worked with Johnson since 2016. Smart currently works as a human resources manager for Petta Enterprises in Cambridge, Ohio.

“If you guys have any kind of veteran-affiliated events in this area, reach out to me and we will show support for it,” Rector-Brown said. “I have been helping veterans for a really long time.”

The next Monroe County Board of Commissioners meeting will be at 9 a.m. next Monday at the courthouse in Woodsfield.

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