MINUTES FROM THE REGULAR MONTHLY MEETING OF THE NORTH FORK AMBULANCE HEALTH SERVICE DISTRICT
The Regular Monthly meeting of the Board of Directors of the North Fork Ambulance Health Service District located in the Counties of Delta, Montrose and Gunnison, Colorado, was held at 110 E. Hotchkiss Ave, Hotchkiss, Colorado, on Thursday, October 17, 2024 at 11:00 a.m.
CALL TO ORDER: The meeting was called to order at 11:03 am.
ADDITIONS TO THE AGENDA: Dan Miller requested that a discussion about powerload cots be added under new business.
ROLL CALL: Board members present – Dan Miller, Peter Pruett, Marcus Roeder and Dave Kreutz. Bonnie Eisenberg was present via phone.
Others present include: Kathy Steckel, Diane Perry, Tanya Applegate, Joe Applegate, Marvin Pemberton and Medeina Ryan.
CONFLICT OF INTEREST DISCLOSURE: No conflict of interest.
PUBLIC COMMENT: No public comment.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES: Minutes from the September 19, 2024 Regular Monthly Meeting were reviewed. Marcus Roeder made a motion that the minutes be approved as written. The motion was seconded. All were in favor.
REPORTS:
FINANCE REPORT: Financials for September were presented and reviewed. No unusual expenditures in September. Peter had questions about Treasurers Fees. Marcus made comments about how well our P&L statistics and balance sheet look. Marcus Roeder made a motion to approve the financials for September. The motion was seconded. All were in favor.
APPROVAL OF APPROPRIATIONS: Peter Pruett made a motion to approve the appropriations for September as presented. The motion was seconded. All were in favor.
DISTRICT CHIEF REPORT: Kathy Steckel gave an overview of her report (see attached).
Administration: Kathy is still working compiling data for the Strategic Plan. Kathy is working on renewing our DEA license. They are now requiring an 8-hour class in addition to the license fee, so like everything else, the cost is going up.
Finance: Completed the draft 2025 budget. Met with the Finance Committee to go over the budget. They made recommended adding a few items to the budget.
HR: Hired a new ALS Shift Supervisor, Brett Anderson. Interviewing two new drivers. Restructured upper Admin to include an Assistant Chief position. Will begin advertising the position next week.
COMMUNICATIONS/PR: Decided not to do the Holiday Marketplace this year. We have been running it for the NF Auxiliary and passing the proceeds on to them. We don't have the staff to keep this up and are now doing the Health Expo in the spring, which is more in line with our mission.
OPERATION: Three station coordinators have been hired. These are very part-time positions designed to help with day-to-day operations and scheduling at each station.
PREVENTION: Hope to have the completed Community Health Needs Assessment by the end of November. Medeina provided some stories about what the CARES program is doing. Marcus feels it is important to capture some metrics and some of these stories for publicity and for funding opportunities. The Medical Rides program is continuing, but we lack the personnel to have it grow at this time.
UNFINISHED BUSINESS: No unfinished business.
NEW BUSINESS:
2025 Budget Q&A: Questions about the $104,000 under capital equipment purchase led to a discussion about power load cots. Marvin was very persuasive about the benefits of having the power load feature. He also suggested that we might look into adding the wing bar feature to our cots for larger patients. Marcus suggested that another possible capital expenditure to be added to the 2025 budget might be a 4-wheeler or side-by-side with a trailer. The budget will change and will be presented again at the next meeting.
Decommissioned Ambulance: The 2003 Ambulance has been released from the state and we can now declare it as surplus and sell it. Kathy has two organizations that might be interested in it – West Elk Mine and CAREFLIGHT in Grand Junction. Marcus Roeder made a motion that any excess money from the decommissioned ambulance be donated to NFAA. The idea is for us to donate the ambulance to one of the two agencies above and have them make an in kind donation to NFAA. The motion was seconded. All were in favor.
Power load Cots: Since Marvin sold everyone on the power load cots, there are two ways we can move forward. We can buy them now before the prices go up on November 1st and pay for them out of this year's budget or we can wait until February to apply for a 50% matching grant from the state. If we wait we won't be able to get the cots until fall of next year and there is a possibility that we might not get the grant. Peter favors option A – getting them this year and made a motion that we amend the 2024 budget to include the purchase of three power load cots, up to $104,000.00. The motion was seconded. All were in favor.
EXECUTIVE SESSION: The board entered Executive Session at 12:26 pm and returned to regular session at 1:00 pm.
Peter Pruett made a motion to approve the revised contract with the District Chief per Executive Session discussion. The motion was seconded. All were in favor.
ANNOUNCEMENTS: Next Regular Meeting is Thursday, November 21, 2024 at 11 am.
ADJOURNMENT: There being no further matters before the board, Dan Miller made a motion to adjourn. All were in favor. Meeting was adjourned at 1:05 pm.