Benny Westcott
Fire Chief Nick Tyler last week told the Sweet Home Fire and Ambulance District board that the patient transport rate to hospitals during medical calls was 57% in February, a number he is seeking to improve – one that, however, has often been beyond the district’s control.
“As a second month went by and we’re looking at the 50 to 60% transport rate, it’s not because our guys aren’t doing the right things,” he said at the board’s March 21 meeting.
“It’s just that people, for whatever reason, are refusing to go (to the hospital) once they call us.”
According to Tyler, patients refused transport 32 times in February, despite recommendations from first responders.
Board member Larry Johnson wondered how many weren’t aware of or had not signed up for FireMed, which covers emergency transport expenses. He asked if the district would consider sending FireMed fliers to their homes.
“Some of those may be significant problems where they should have been transported,” he said. “Will that reoccur, and we go out and provide assistance again and they don’t go?”
According to Julie Mayfield, assistant to the chief, visitors often stop by the station to pay their bills, then request FireMed applications upon seeing the full amounts.
Of the patients transported in February, 56.3% were taken to Samaritan Lebanon Community Hospital, 3.4%, or 67 patients, went to Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center in Corvallis, 20 patients were transported to PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Medical Center at Riverbend in Springfield, and six were taken to Samaritan Albany General Hospital.
Tyler said that Sweet Home ambulances travel to Corvallis twice a day on average, meaning that they’re out of service twice as long as they would be if headed to Lebanon. Corvallis-bound calls specifically involve “cardiac arrest,” “ortho reasons” and “big heavy traumas.”
In other meeting business:
— Tyler announced that following testing, bearings on the district’s ladder truck likely won’t pass inspection next year.
The chief didn’t know how much the issue would cost to address, adding that the district’s vehicle maintenance budget has been expended “for a little while.”
“I’m really nervous to hear what that number is,” Tyler said. “I’m hoping it stays within five digits and doesn’t go bigger than that. It could be $10,000, it could be $50,000, I don’t know.”
He added that battalion chief Randy Whitfield has submitted a vehicle maintenance budget request for next year that’s about $26,500 higher than last year’s.
“I told them when they submitted it to shoot for the moon and make me restrict you – don’t restrict yourself,” Tyler said. “We’ll just have to sit down and scale back where we can, if we can.”
He added that the last ambulance the district bought cost $260,000, but a recent demo model was going for $320,000.
— Battalion Chief Eli Harris said the Sweet Home Fire and Ambulance District is teaming with the Lebanon Fire District on an academy for new volunteer recruits. “Burn and learn” training sessions will be held at the former City Hall in Sweet Home, where smoke machines will create an industrial search area, and at the Brownsville Rural Fire Protection District Station 61.
— Tyler said that the district, along with the City of Sweet Home and the Sweet Home School District, are proposing to change the comprehensive plan map for their properties, which consist of 280 acres.
The plan is proposed to change from the commercial central (C-1), commercial highway (C-2), residential low density (R-1), residential medium density (R-2), residential high density (R-2) and mixed-use employment (MUE) zones to the public facility (PF) zone.
The Sweet Home Planning Commission will hold a public hearing regarding this change at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, May 4, at City Hall. A recommendation will then be made to the Sweet Home City Council, which will decide on the proposal following a public hearing.
— The board unanimously approved the 2023-24 budget calendar, scheduling just one budget committee meeting instead of two, following the committee’s request after last year’s deliberations.
That meeting will be held Tuesday, May 16. Tyler will present his budget message and document, and the committee will consider recommendations from citizens. The board will then adopt the budget at its regular meeting, scheduled for Tuesday, June 20.
— The board made three appointments to the district’s new civil service commission: Wally Shreves, Bruce Davis and Craig Pettinger.
Shreves, now retired, is a former Green Beret and senior director of operations for ATI Specialty Alloys and Components’ Oregon plants, working in Albany.
Davis is a civil lieutenant for the Linn County Sheriff’s Office. Pettinger is an Oregon Department of Forestry unit forester in the Sweet Home office.
Board member Charlene Adams said she was impressed that more people than the district needed applied. (Sweet Home Police Department Captain Ryan Cummings also expressed interest).
“Historically, especially when you’re trying to start a committee, it’s kind of hard to fill that sometimes,” she said. “So it’s especially nice to have people that are willing to step up and do it.”
“And the quality is just unbelievable,” board member Rob Younger added.
— Younger commented on SHFAD’s March 18 awards banquet, held for the first time since 2019.
“It was nice to get everybody back together, network, and see the families,” he said.
— Tyler reported that the district’s February expenses were $462,943.12 against an income of $321,593.32, accounting for a net income of -$141,349.80.