Jason Nelson’s tenure as Allen County ambulance director ended abruptly Tuesday morning when Allen County commissioners Dick Works and Tom Williams voted to make his resignation of a week earlier effective immediately. Nelson resigned at last week’s meeting and said he’d work until Jan. 31. DARRELL Baughn told commissioners if a merger of county and Iola services leads to vacating the county’s ambulance station in the 400 block of North State, he would like it made available for the Allen County Volunteer Fire Department.
Jim Talkington, sworn in as a new commissioner Monday, missed his first meeting because of illness.
Commissioners decided to move on with Michael Burnett as interim director. Nelson will be paid through the end of the month.
Burnett, 30, has served on Allen County ambulance crews seven years. A paramedic, he has 11 years of emergency medical experience, first learning skill sets shortly after graduating from Garnett High School and being laid off at a plant in Ottawa.
“I was off work and decided I’d take an emergency medical technician course,” Burnett said.
A shift supervisor with Allen County EMS the past 3½ years, he also is fire chief of rural fire departments in the Welda area, where he lives.
Terry Call, 52, who has been involved with ambulance billing the past eight years, was made chief financial officer for the county’s EMS, coincidental with Burnett’s promotion. During his tenure Call also has been Emergency Management Services director, and helps Pam Beasley, its director now, “when I’m asked.”
Commissioners said they anticipated Burnett and Call, working together, could find ways to save money within the ambulance service. On Dec. 31 commissioners approved a transfer of $135,204 to keep the ambulance finances solvent, a necessity of Kansas’ cash-basis law.
Commissioners will seek applicants for a full-time director. Burnett said he would seek the position.
“Keep us in mind,” said Baughn, the volunteers’ chief. “It would be perfect for us.”
The AC volunteers have four trucks, including a tanker, that are kept at the RV park on the west edge of Iola. The trucks and volunteers answer calls in Geneva and Carlyle townships, north of Iola, and help out elsewhere when asked.
A tax levy of 5 mills in several townships in about a third of northwest Allen County generates $120,000 a year, of which $70,000 goes to Iola’s fire department to protect rural areas within about three miles of the city. Allen County volunteers last year received $23,600, LaHarpe volunteers $27,000.
“We used to operate on about $1,000 a year,” Baughn said.
Having heated quarters for trucks would be a godsend for the volunteers, he added. Commissioners said they would consider Baughn’s request if a change occurred with ambulance service.
On Feb. 5, county commissioners and Iola council members will meet for the second time in a joint session to discuss ambulance service.
County’s interim director named
