EMT City Administrator

May 24--Ann Hafner knew she wanted to become an ambulance volunteer after her sister-in-law, living in another state, died of an asthma attack when the ambulance responding to the call got lost en route. "I didn't want that to happen to anybody," Hafner said. Several years later, Hafner is living up to that goal as the manager of the Killdeer Area Ambulance Service. However, she said it is becoming more difficult as the oil industry in the Bakken increasingly rears its booming head on the Killdeer landscape. "It's all coming this way," Hafner said. "We have days when, 'What's going to happen next?'" Thankfully for Hafner and the ambulance service, help is on the way in the form of a new ambulance, housing for its employees and the promise of a new hall. Ambulance service officials gathered at the corner of Center Avenue and High Street on Thursday to break ground on the new hall, which is slated to be completed in early 2014, and show off its new ambulance and house where ambulance staff will stay. "We're excited," said Tracey Dolezal, a Killdeer Ambulance District Board member and an EMT who has spent 20 years with the service. "With the growth and the change and all the oil development, it's exciting. We've got to have the foresight to be prepared." Officials estimate the actual population of Dunn County is more than 4,000, which means the Killdeer Area Ambulance Service directly serves more than 3,000 people over 956 square miles -- numbers that includes several oil rigs, crew camps and RV parks -- while also assisting neighboring ambulance services such as Belfield, Dickinson, Halliday and McKenzie County on emergencies. Not to mention the service covers an area Hafner called, "significant no-man's land," in the Badlands along the Maah Daah Hey Trail and in parts of Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Likewise, Hafner said Killdeer has been dependent on other area ambulance services. "We couldn't make it if we didn't have their help," she said. "We're pretty dependent on each other." However, with three just full-time employees and about 20 volunteers on the service's active roster, there are still times when Killdeer's emergency responders are stretched thin. In 2006, the service responded to just 56 calls. That number had increased to 288 in 2012 -- more than five times as many as six years prior and 22 percent of which were directly related to the oil industry. As of Thursday, the service had responded to 111 calls in 2013. Daryl Dukart, president of Killdeer Ambulance District Board, said the service is on target to respond to about 350 calls this year, which he called "a tremendous amount of growth for what you would consider a rural ambulance." Having newer equipment helps, but with it must come changes. The new ambulance, which cost about $150,000, is too big to fit into the existing ambulance hall the service shares with the West Dunn Fire District on Central Avenue. Dukart said the new hall will cost around $850,000. More than $470,000 of the funding has been raised, donated or allocated. Killdeer and Dunn County officials hope much of the rest comes from state oil-impact funds that are being apportioned through recent legislation designed to help fund counties in the Oil Patch. Two new houses -- one of which will house EMT Beth Grove and her family -- were built for an estimated total of $260,000. The money that came from the Dunn County Job Development Authority, housing grant money and energy impact money from the 2011-13 biennium. Hafner said the houses make it much easier for the ambulance service to hire and retain employees. "We couldn't hire people because there's nowhere for them to go," she said. "You can't hire somebody that we could afford to pay and expect them to rent a house here for what the rents are." No matter how crazy Killdeer gets as the oil industry slowly seeps its way south into the Bakken, Hafner said the ambulance service is committed to performing its duties just as it has when the it began more than 50 years ago with five volunteers and a single station wagon ambulance. "There's still that core of good-old North Dakota 'We can do this here,'" she said. "This is Killdeer. This the Frontier. This is the cowboys. There is that, 'we can do this.' There's a lot of people who, no matter how bad it gets, will back you up and say, 'OK, we can do this,' and we can." More from around the web ___ ©2013 the Dickinson Press (Dickinson, N.D.) Visit the Dickinson Press (Dickinson, N.D.) at www.thedickinsonpress.com Distributed by MCT Information Services A service of YellowBrix, Inc. View the full article

A PARAGLIDER is preparing to embark on the challenge of a lifetime by flying more than 60 miles non-stop through the Himalaya Mountains, to raise funds for Kent Air Ambulance. Father-of-two David Maidman, 48, from Hawkenbury, Kent, will set off from Himachal Pradesh in Bir, India, in October. He is planning to fly unassisted in one continuous flight over mountain ranges for up to five hours, reaching heights of 15,000ft above sea level. Avid The avid adventurer is aiming to raise a grand total of Pounds 9,000 for the Air Ambulance and Demelza Hospice Care for Children. Mr Maidman said: The challenge is ambitious but achievable and there is always the possibility that there won't be enough lifting air in which case I'll be heading down. I'll then have to seek a safe landing zone and prepare to hike to the nearest village and this is where the adventure truly begins. David qualified as a glider pilot four years ago after training at Airworks Paragliding School in East Sussex, and has since flown in France, Spain and Morocco. He was inspired to complete his challenge by Ed Stafford who became the first man to walk the entire length of the Amazon river in South America. Injured He is aiming to raise Pounds 5,000 for the Air Ambulance and Pounds 4,000 for Demelza Hospice Care for Children and you can sponsor him by going to www.justgiving.com/david-maidman Last month, the helicopter was called to a 75-year-old paraglider injured at Mount Caburn, East Sussex, and flew him to the nearby Royal Sussex County Hospital at Brighton. Mr Maidman added: The Air Ambulance is very respected in my flying club because we know we can always call upon their service when things don't quite go according to plan. A service of YellowBrix, Inc. View the full article

THE Cornwall Air Ambulance's headquarters is to be transformed into a glitzy ballroom and casino for this year's summer event. Tickets have gone on sale for the summer ball, which is being held in the hangar at the charity's headquarters at Newquay Airport on July 27. Guests will be able to dance the night away airside with the helicopter itself as a backdrop. Fundraising co-ordinator Tom Matthews said: It's great being able to use our hangar for events such as this. It's a unique space that we'll make look absolutely stunning. We're inviting people to join us for an evening of great food, live entertainment, a casino and an auction with some unique prizes. Maybe you'd like to spoil someone in your life or get together with a few friends and make a night of it; whatever the reason, we'd love to see you there and we can guarantee a great night. Guests will also be able to find out more about the charity's work and even win a dinner with the aircrew. Earlier this year the charity announced a new helicopter contract, due to start at the end of 2014, significantly increasing the number of missions it can fly. Chief executive Paula Martin said: Being such a vital emergency service, it's very easy to forget that we're a charity 100 per cent funded thanks to the generosity of the general public. People are often shocked to find out we don't receive money from central or local government and that without the public and businesses supporting us we simply wouldn't be here. The summer ball is a great excuse to celebrate the service, dress to the nines and have a ball. Tickets and tables can be booked at www.cornwallairambulancetrust.org A service of YellowBrix, Inc. View the full article

By Julia Marsh; Amber Sutherland A Greenwich Village co-op board that has sued the city for blocking its entrance with bike-share racks nearly saw its worst fears realized yesterday when emergency responders had trouble getting to a 92-year-old resident in distress. An EMS crew encountered difficulties getting the sick man from the entrance of The Cambridge at 175 W. 13th St., around 60 feet of bike racks and to the ambulance. "I would like these bike racks to get out of the way," the victim's wife, Lee Liss, told The Post. "The ambulance couldn't get to him. These bike racks are a detriment." Edward Liss, a retired physician who lives on the 20th floor, suffered an undisclosed medical emergency, according to authorities, and his family called for help around 2:30 p.m. yesterday. "It's exactly what this building feared would happen," said Steven Shore, the building's attorney, who filed a lawsuit over the bike racks last week. "The good news is the guy's not dead." Parking spots for 39 bicycles create a barricade that runs the length of the 20-story co-op. The ambulance was forced to park three doors down along West 13th Street for the emergency call, the co-op board's vice president, Dave Marcus, told The Post. It took EMS workers more than an hour before Liss was taken to Beth Israel Hospital. "With great difficulty they managed to get the guy out," said Marcus. He called the kiosk, which was installed in the dead of night last month, an "impregnable wall." "The ambulance was forced to pull in at the eastern-most portion of the bike rack, where they had a clear shot to the sidewalk," Marcus added. Liss was recovering at Beth Israel yesterday. The Cambridge residents sued the city last Monday claiming the Department of Transportation put the rack on the wrong side of the street and then changed its maps to make the mistake look like part of the plan. John Dewitt Gregory, 82, a longtime resident who uses a walker, said the obtrusive stations have made his daily life so difficult he's considering moving out. "It's very difficult to navigate when I come outside the building," Gregory griped. "I can't get the walker through these stands because they're just too narrow. Going and coming back has become a real pain." A Department of Transportation spokesman maintained that the EMTs had no trouble responding to the call. The FDNY did not immediately respond to a request for comment. julia.marsh@nypost.com Originally published by Julia Marsh and Amber Sutherland. © 2013 The New York Post. Provided by ProQuest LLC. All rights Reserved. A service of YellowBrix, Inc. View the full article

May 19--In December 2009, Santa Clara County Supervisor George Shirakawa Jr. flew into the San Diego airport, rented a Grand Marquis and headed to a marina Marriott for a five-day taxpayer-funded trip. With the county's vital ambulance contract soon up for bid, Shirakawa and his chief of staff, Eddie Garcia, asserted that they were conducting a tour of the "WestMed" ambulance service, according to documents they would later file with the county justifying the $1,742 in expenses. But the now-disgraced politician and his former right-hand man never visited Westmed, whose headquarters is in Hayward -- 475 miles from San Diego and just 25 miles from Shirakawa's San Jose office. Instead, they stopped by the San Diego offices of Rural/Metro, an Arizona-based company that had just declared its interest in taking over Santa Clara County's highly lucrative ambulance contract. Just weeks before the trip, Rural/Metro hired Shirakawa's former lobbying partners to help the company navigate the local terrain. Ten months later, Shirakawa cast a deciding vote to hand Rural/Metro the $375 million contract, a move that was controversial then and remains controversial now. The company is under fire for slow response times, and its paramedics are threatening to strike. Meanwhile, Shirakawa is set to be sentenced next month for squandering county funds and campaign contributions on his entertainment and gambling habits. It's unclear what role, if any, Shirakawa's visit to Rural/Metro had on the company winning the county's highly contentious ambulance contract, but in an email to the district attorney in March, County Executive Jeff Smith expressed concern with any deciding vote that Shirakawa cast during his four years in office. Kirk Hanson, executive director of Santa Clara University's ethics center, agreed. "I hope the county is examining all decisions where Shirakawa's votes were decisive," he said. "And if there is specific misbehavior, I think there's grounds for reconsidering." Shirakawa's influence and connections would have been valuable to any firm trying to wrestle the ambulance deal away from American Medical Response, the company that held the contract here for half a century. Before the East San Jose Democrat ran for supervisor in 2008, the longtime politician was a consultant for the well-known lobbying firm Saggau-DeRollo, which represented Rural/Metro before, during and after the bruising contract talks. Two days after their visit to Rural/Metro, Shirakawa and Garcia used the county credit card to have lunch in San Diego with the company's San Jose-based lobbyist, Dustin DeRollo, who said last week that he was in town on another matter and had nothing to do with Shirakawa's visit to Rural/Metro. While it's typical for local governments to send staff members with expertise to scout businesses vying for big contracts, it's unusual for elected officials who ultimately vote on the deals to go. "Certainly it would seem unusual to visit one (side) and not the other," as Shirakawa did, said Barbara Pletz, who served for 20 years as San Mateo County's Emergency Medical Services administrator. Norman Kline, a member of the California Common Cause board, noted that "whenever you have a city council person or a county supervisor meeting in private with people who are going to benefit from their decision, that should raise red flags." Indeed, just six weeks before Rural/Metro signed a five-year agreement with the county, the company made an unusually large donation -- $50,000 -- to the local Democratic Party chapter. Tom Saggau, who advises his clients on political contributions, said the timing of that donation was in no way suspect. "If they write a check," he said, "it's certainly not to garner support or influence legislative action." Shirakawa, the sole county board member to visit Rural/Metro, also accepted a $250 campaign contribution from the company's public affairs director, $769 from the company's political action committee, and a $50 ticket to a chamber barbecue from the company after it won the contract. In 2012, the PAC also gave $1,006 to Shirakawa's senior policy aide and $769 each to Shirakawa and Supervisor Dave Cortese, who also voted in favor of the Rural/Metro contract. While there was nothing illegal about those donations, Smith, the county executive, became concerned in March after District Attorney Jeff Rosen filed corruption charges against Shirakawa that revealed he took illegal cash contributions from still-unknown donors. In an email to the DA obtained by this newspaper, Smith wrote: "I am worried about the legal integrity of Board actions IF George took such donations from parties before the Board. In particular, contract decisions where George was the decisive vote." It remains unclear why the twice-elected supervisor identified Westmed instead of Rural/Metro when he documented his publicly funded business trip, which took place one day after the company announced it would bid on the county contract. Shirakawa, 51, has declined interview requests since his March 1 arrest but responded in a brief email: "Westmed. Huh???" He responded with a second email acknowledging the Rural/Metro meeting and saying: "If there was reference to any other company, then it was a result of human error." County officials also had originally described a clerical error. But when pushed by deputy county counsel Susan Swain at a reporter's request, one of Shirakawa's former District 2 staff members, Marisa Ybarra, "now recalls that she was informed to put Western Med on the documents," Swain said in an email. Rural/Metro officials strongly decry any notion they tried to win Shirakawa's influence, and they insist he asked for both the visit and a campaign contribution. Any "allegations of impropriety between Rural/Metro and former Supervisor Shirakawa" would be false, and any "defamation" would be met with "immediate action," corporate counsel Jennifer Holsman Tetreault wrote in a May 2 letter to this newspaper. In an interview, the company's California director of public affairs, Michael Simonsen, said: "Rural/Metro had absolutely nothing to do with him coming to San Diego." Instead, he said, Shirakawa's office contacted him to request an in-person meeting at the company's San Diego headquarters, which took place at Simonsen's office on Dec. 4, 2009, and lasted an hour. "We talked about the system in San Diego, introduced him to our partners in the fire department, talked about our partnership in San Diego and how we run the EMS system here and showed him around the office," Simonsen said. "It's more of an administrative office." Simonsen said he only gave Shirakawa a campaign donation because the supervisor asked for it. "If I had known that my measly $250 contribution was not going to be used in support of his campaign and was going to be used for other things, then I certainly wouldn't have written that check," Simonsen said, referring to Shirakawa's gambling troubles. DeRollo, the former lobbying partner, expressed similar frustration. "I'm not just disappointed, I'm very angry that George's actions are hurting a lot of people and could damage people's reputations," DeRollo said. "That's another unfair outcome of his behavior." As Shirakawa was touting the Rural/Metro deal to his colleagues, San Diego's city attorney was accusing the company of billing irregularities, involving potentially millions of dollars. In 2011, San Diego nullified its contract with Rural/Metro before reaching a settlement. It now is exploring options that include seeking a new provider. Rural/Metro won Santa Clara County's business in December 2010 by offering a far less expensive service than American Medical Response. The 3-2 decision came after a bruising battle over who would provide 911 service to the nearly 2 million residents in the county. At a Dec. 14, 2010, public meeting, Shirakawa declared his support for Rural/Metro, and he hailed the vetting of the only two contenders as fair. "The process certainly was very independent," he said. "No one can say they weren't involved in a process that has a lot of credibility." The county later released an announcement quoting Shirakawa saying, "During these tough economic times, we not only have to be stewards of county resources, we also have to consider how our decisions will impact what residents will have to pay for services." So far, the impact has been dubious. After just a year and a half, the county informed Rural/Metro in January that it had breached its contract by failing to arrive within 12 minutes on 90 percent of calls in two specific months. County officials now say additional violations could cost the company its contract. At a meeting Wednesday before the county's health and hospitals committee, Simonsen said that "we understand that 90 percent is 90 percent, and we must meet those goals," adding, "we of course want to be above that." Looking back now, county officials are perplexed by Shirakawa's connections with Rural/Metro. Former Supervisor Liz Kniss, who together with Supervisor Ken Yeager voted against the contract, said she had no idea whom Shirakawa was really visiting on that San Diego trip. "You'd never see anything like that from the other supervisors," she said. "It was not only unacceptable, but so many things were fishy." The owner of Westmed said he has no idea why his company's name was used by the now-convicted supervisor. "I have no business operations of any sort in San Diego County, not ever," Westmed President Erik Mandler said. As to bidding on the Santa Clara County contract, he added, "we never even considered it." Contact Karen de Sa at 408-920-5781. Timeline 2004-07: George Shirakawa works as a consultant on retainer for the lobbying firm Saggau-DeRollo and is a partner and co-owner with them in two separate LLCs. November 2007: Saggau-DeRollo registers Rural/Metro ambulance company as a new client. Dec. 1, 2009: Rural/Metro declares its intent to bid on the Santa Clara County ambulance contract. Dec. 2-6, 2009: Shirakawa visits San Diego on a taxpayer-funded trip and spends one hour Dec. 4 with his chief of staff, Eddie Garcia, at the Rural/Metro administrative office. Feb. 10, 2010: County supervisors receive Shirakawa's "Travel Memo" describing a trip to "meet and tour with WestMed Ambulatory Services and personnel." Dec. 14, 2010: Shirakawa casts a decisive vote as Santa Clara County supervisors, in a 3-2 decision, approve a five-year contract with Rural/Metro. Nov. 1, 2010: Rural/Metro donates $50,000 to the county's Democratic Central Committee. Aug. 25, 2011: Rural/Metro gifts Shirakawa a $50 ticket to a local fundraiser. March 14, 2012: Rural/Metro's public affairs director gives $250 to Shirakawa's campaign. May 25, 2012: Rural/Metro's political action committee donates $1,006 to Shirakawa's senior policy aide, Andres Quintero, and $769 each to Shirakawa and Supervisor Dave Cortese, who also voted in favor of the Rural/Metro contract. March 1, 2013: Shirakawa is arrested and announces he will plead guilty to charges of corruption and abuse of public funds. ___ ©2013 the San Jose Mercury News (San Jose, Calif.) Visit the San Jose Mercury News (San Jose, Calif.) at www.mercurynews.com Distributed by MCT Information Services A service of YellowBrix, Inc. View the full article

THE death of an ambulance patient following a traffic collision was not connected to the incident, police have said. The man, who was in his 50s, was being transported to hospital in an ambulance when it was in a collision with another vehicle on the Westlink in Belfast on Thursday. The patient later died in hospital. Three paramedics were also taken to hospital following the crash. © 2013 Belfast Telegraph. Provided by ProQuest LLC. All rights Reserved. A service of YellowBrix, Inc. View the full article

May 18--In December 2009, Santa Clara County Supervisor George Shirakawa Jr. flew into the San Diego airport, rented a Grand Marquis and headed to a marina Marriott for a five-day taxpayer-funded trip. With the county's vital ambulance contract soon up for bid, Shirakawa and his chief of staff, Eddie Garcia, asserted that they were conducting a tour of the "WestMed" ambulance service, according to documents they would later file with the county justifying the $1,742 in expenses. But the now-disgraced politician and his former right-hand man never visited Westmed, whose headquarters is in Hayward -- 475 miles from San Diego and just 25 miles from Shirakawa's San Jose office. Instead, they stopped by the San Diego offices of Rural/Metro, an Arizona-based company that had just declared its interest in taking over Santa Clara County's highly lucrative ambulance contract. Just weeks before the trip, Rural/Metro hired Shirakawa's former lobbying partners to help the company navigate the local terrain. Ten months later, Shirakawa cast a deciding vote to hand Rural/Metro the $375 million contract, a move that was controversial then and remains controversial now. The company is under fire for slow response times, and its paramedics are threatening to strike. Meanwhile, Shirakawa is set to be sentenced next month for squandering county funds and campaign contributions on his entertainment and gambling habits. It's unclear what role, if any, Shirakawa's visit to Rural/Metro had on the company winning the county's highly contentious ambulance contract, but in an email to the district attorney in March, County Executive Jeff Smith expressed concern with any deciding vote that Shirakawa cast during his four years in office. Kirk Hanson, executive director of Santa Clara University's ethics center, agreed. "I hope the county is examining all decisions where Shirakawa's votes were decisive," he said. "And if there is specific misbehavior, I think there's grounds for reconsidering." Shirakawa's influence and connections would have been valuable to any firm trying to wrestle the ambulance deal away from American Medical Response, the company that held the contract here for half a century. Before the East San Jose Democrat ran for supervisor in 2008, the longtime politician was a consultant for the well-known lobbying firm Saggau-DeRollo, which represented Rural/Metro before, during and after the bruising contract talks. Two days after their visit to Rural/Metro, Shirakawa and Garcia used the county credit card to have lunch in San Diego with the company's San Jose-based lobbyist, Dustin DeRollo, who said last week that he was in town on another matter and had nothing to do with Shirakawa's visit to Rural/Metro. While it's typical for local governments to send staff members with expertise to scout businesses vying for big contracts, it's unusual for elected officials who ultimately vote on the deals to go. "Certainly it would seem unusual to visit one (side) and not the other," as Shirakawa did, said Barbara Pletz, who served for 20 years as San Mateo County's Emergency Medical Services administrator. Norman Kline, a member of the California Common Cause board, noted that "whenever you have a city council person or a county supervisor meeting in private with people who are going to benefit from their decision, that should raise red flags." Indeed, just six weeks before Rural/Metro signed a five-year agreement with the county, the company made an unusually large donation -- $50,000 -- to the local Democratic Party chapter. Tom Saggau, who advises his clients on political contributions, said the timing of that donation was in no way suspect. "If they write a check," he said, "it's certainly not to garner support or influence legislative action." Shirakawa, the sole county board member to visit Rural/Metro, also accepted a $250 campaign contribution from the company's public affairs director, $769 from the company's political action committee, and a $50 ticket to a chamber barbecue from the company after it won the contract. In 2012, the PAC also gave $1,006 to Shirakawa's senior policy aide and $769 each to Shirakawa and Supervisor Dave Cortese, who also voted in favor of the Rural/Metro contract. While there was nothing illegal about those donations, Smith, the county executive, became concerned in March after District Attorney Jeff Rosen filed corruption charges against Shirakawa that revealed he took illegal cash contributions from still-unknown donors. In an email to the DA obtained by this newspaper, Smith wrote: "I am worried about the legal integrity of Board actions IF George took such donations from parties before the Board. In particular, contract decisions where George was the decisive vote." It remains unclear why the twice-elected supervisor identified Westmed instead of Rural/Metro when he documented his publicly funded business trip, which took place one day after the company announced it would bid on the county contract. Shirakawa, 51, has declined interview requests since his March 1 arrest but responded in a brief email: "Westmed. Huh???" He responded with a second email acknowledging the Rural/Metro meeting and saying: "If there was reference to any other company, then it was a result of human error." County officials also had originally described a clerical error. But when pushed by deputy county counsel Susan Swain at a reporter's request, one of Shirakawa's former District 2 staff members, Marisa Ybarra, "now recalls that she was informed to put Western Med on the documents," Swain said in an email. Rural/Metro officials strongly decry any notion they tried to win Shirakawa's influence, and they insist he asked for both the visit and a campaign contribution. Any "allegations of impropriety between Rural/Metro and former Supervisor Shirakawa" would be false, and any "defamation" would be met with "immediate action," corporate counsel Jennifer Holsman Tetreault wrote in a May 2 letter to this newspaper. In an interview, the company's California director of public affairs, Michael Simonsen, said: "Rural/Metro had absolutely nothing to do with him coming to San Diego." Instead, he said, Shirakawa's office contacted him to request an in-person meeting at the company's San Diego headquarters, which took place at Simonsen's office on Dec. 4, 2009, and lasted an hour. "We talked about the system in San Diego, introduced him to our partners in the fire department, talked about our partnership in San Diego and how we run the EMS system here and showed him around the office," Simonsen said. "It's more of an administrative office." Simonsen said he only gave Shirakawa a campaign donation because the supervisor asked for it. "If I had known that my measly $250 contribution was not going to be used in support of his campaign and was going to be used for other things, then I certainly wouldn't have written that check," Simonsen said, referring to Shirakawa's gambling troubles. DeRollo, the former lobbying partner, expressed similar frustration. "I'm not just disappointed, I'm very angry that George's actions are hurting a lot of people and could damage people's reputations," DeRollo said. "That's another unfair outcome of his behavior." As Shirakawa was touting the Rural/Metro deal to his colleagues, San Diego's city attorney was accusing the company of billing irregularities, involving potentially millions of dollars. In 2011, San Diego nullified its contract with Rural/Metro before reaching a settlement. It now is exploring options that include seeking a new provider. Rural/Metro won Santa Clara County's business in December 2010 by offering a far less expensive service than American Medical Response. The 3-2 decision came after a bruising battle over who would provide 911 service to the nearly 2 million residents in the county. At a Dec. 14, 2010, public meeting, Shirakawa declared his support for Rural/Metro, and he hailed the vetting of the only two contenders as fair. "The process certainly was very independent," he said. "No one can say they weren't involved in a process that has a lot of credibility." The county later released an announcement quoting Shirakawa saying, "During these tough economic times, we not only have to be stewards of county resources, we also have to consider how our decisions will impact what residents will have to pay for services." So far, the impact has been dubious. After just a year and a half, the county informed Rural/Metro in January that it had breached its contract by failing to arrive within 12 minutes on 90 percent of calls in two specific months. County officials now say additional violations could cost the company its contract. At a meeting Wednesday before the county's health and hospitals committee, Simonsen said that "we understand that 90 percent is 90 percent, and we must meet those goals," adding, "we of course want to be above that." Looking back now, county officials are perplexed by Shirakawa's connections with Rural/Metro. Former Supervisor Liz Kniss, who together with Supervisor Ken Yeager voted against the contract, said she had no idea whom Shirakawa was really visiting on that San Diego trip. "You'd never see anything like that from the other supervisors," she said. "It was not only unacceptable, but so many things were fishy." The owner of Westmed said he has no idea why his company's name was used by the now-convicted supervisor. "I have no business operations of any sort in San Diego County, not ever," Westmed President Erik Mandler said. As to bidding on the Santa Clara County contract, he added, "we never even considered it." Contact Karen de Sa at 408-920-5781. Timeline 2004-07: George Shirakawa works as a consultant on retainer for the lobbying firm Saggau-DeRollo and is a partner and co-owner with them in two separate LLCs. November 2007: Saggau-DeRollo registers Rural/Metro ambulance company as a new client. Dec. 1, 2009: Rural/Metro declares its intent to bid on the Santa Clara County ambulance contract. Dec. 2-6, 2009: Shirakawa visits San Diego on a taxpayer-funded trip and spends one hour Dec. 4 with his chief of staff, Eddie Garcia, at the Rural/Metro administrative office. Feb. 10, 2010: County supervisors receive Shirakawa's "Travel Memo" describing a trip to "meet and tour with WestMed Ambulatory Services and personnel." Dec. 14, 2010: Shirakawa casts a decisive vote as Santa Clara County supervisors, in a 3-2 decision, approve a five-year contract with Rural/Metro. Nov. 1, 2010: Rural/Metro donates $50,000 to the county's Democratic Central Committee. Aug. 25, 2011: Rural/Metro gifts Shirakawa a $50 ticket to a local fundraiser. March 14, 2012: Rural/Metro's public affairs director gives $250 to Shirakawa's campaign. May 25, 2012: Rural/Metro's political action committee donates $1,006 to Shirakawa's senior policy aide, Andres Quintero, and $769 each to Shirakawa and Supervisor Dave Cortese, who also voted in favor of the Rural/Metro contract. March 1, 2013: Shirakawa is arrested and announces he will plead guilty to charges of corruption and abuse of public funds. ___ ©2013 the San Jose Mercury News (San Jose, Calif.) Visit the San Jose Mercury News (San Jose, Calif.) at www.mercurynews.com Distributed by MCT Information Services A service of YellowBrix, Inc. View the full article

LISBON -- When asked to describe a hero, many words come to mind: adventurer, daredevil, conqueror, even idol. However, when asked to describe an everyday hero, different words come to mind: brave, sel?ess, caring and knowledgeable, among others. EMS week is an opportunity to honor emergency medical service providers and to educate the community about this profession. Lisbon Emergency will offer several free community events to celebrate EMS week, including an EMS for Kids Day from 5 to 7 p.m. Wednesday, May 22, and a Community EMS Day from noon to 5 p.m. Saturday, May 25. Both events are free and will take place at the new base at 42 Village St. EMS for Kids Day includes a Teddy Bear Clinic where EMS staff will work with kids to assist in providing medical care for their furry friends, including vitals, bandaging and splinting. There will also be tours of the ambulance, as well as coloring books and other activities for kids. Community EMS Day includes a free lunch, health screenings, health information, tours of the base and tours of the newly acquired ambulance. Staff will be on hand to help answer questions and teach the community about what EMS is all about. Lisbon Emergency is the primary emergency medical services provider to Lisbon, Lisbon Falls and Bowdoin, averaging around 900 emergency calls per year. It also serves as a back up service to other local fire and rescue services. Lisbon Emergency is a private, nonpro?t ambulance service, often staffed with local volunteers. Providers are trained at the EMT through the paramedic level to provide immediate life-saving care and transport to the hospital for more For more information visit www.lisbonemergency.com/emsweek. A service of YellowBrix, Inc. View the full article

By Lela Garlington While the town board hasn't voted on it yet, Collierville likely will go with a separate ambulance contract rather than stay with a countywide contract. Unlike Bartlett, Germantown and Memphis, Collierville won't be operating an in-house ambulance service through its fire department. The Collierville Board of Mayor and Aldermen is expected to vote on the matter at its June 10 meeting. During the Shelby County Commission's public works committee meeting on Wednesday, the county public works director said Collierville would not be a part of the county system. Town officials notified the county Tuesday of its decision. Collierville's decision to drop out affects the cost of the county's contract. Earlier this year, Collierville agreed to look at whether to remain part of the countywide ambulance service or opt out and seek a separate ambulance contract for its residents. "Out of the responsibility to ourselves and our citizens, we wanted to see what we could get with a stand-alone contract," said Collierville spokesman Mark Heuberger. While he declined to provide specific details because the matter is still under negotiation, Heuberger said, "We will have higher levels of guaranteed services without a significant increase in cost" by going with a stand-alone or Collierville-only contract. In addition, the town's possible provider, Rural/Metro Corp. has its local offices in Collierville. Rural/Metro has contracts in 90 locations in 21 states, according to its website. In Tennessee, it has contracts with Knox, Polk, Loudon and Franklin counties in addition to the one in Shelby County. "It is all about service. We will have at least as good if not better service with our own vendor," said Collierville Fire Chief Jerry Crawford. The town sought the proposals in February for the roughly 36 square miles of coverage area and its 45,550 residents. The proposal called for the final and best offer by April 29 and negotiations with the finalists starting May 10. The proposal said Collierville has about 2,000 ambulance calls each year. It is seeking a response time of nine minutes or less. A separate contract would be for five years. It would start July 1 and go through June 30, 2018. Originally published by Lela Garlington garlington@commercialappeal.com 901-529-2349 . © 2013 Commercial Appeal, The. Provided by ProQuest LLC. All rights Reserved. A service of YellowBrix, Inc. View the full article

May 14--PORTLAND -- Angel 1, a new ambulance for newborns, infants and children, has been formally placed in service by officials at the Barbara Bush Children's Hospital at Maine Medical Center. The ambulance, which doctors and nurses said is a newborn and pediatric intensive-care unit on wheels, was put in service at a ceremony next to the children's hospital. The $300,000 vehicle, which cost another $100,000 to equip, can handle one or two critically ill children and is equipped with incubators and advanced medical equipment. It is primarily used for transporting ill newborns or children from other hospitals to the Barbara Bush Children's Hospital. Unlike many smaller and rural hospitals, the MMC facility has intensive-care units for young patients. The vehicle was paid for entirely with donations, with more than half raised at Walmart stores in Maine last year. The retail company provided another $50,000 after employees decided to name the children's hospital their primary charity in Maine. ___ ©2013 the Portland Press Herald (Portland, Maine) Visit the Portland Press Herald (Portland, Maine) at www.pressherald.com Distributed by MCT Information Services A service of YellowBrix, Inc. View the full article

By Edward D Murphy Maine children's hospital rolls out new ambulance By Edward D. Murphy emurphy@mainetoday.com Staff Writer PORTLAND - Angel 1, a new ambulance for newborns, infants and children, has been formally placed in service by officials at the Barbara Bush Children's Hospital at Maine Medical Center. [image removed] Caption: Registered nurse Sue Rainville will use this incubator for infants who are transported in a new pediatric ambulance, unveiled Tuesday at Maine Medical Center. John Patriquin / Staff Photographer Registered Nurse Laura Barra and respiratory therapist John Fischer inspect the interior of a new pediatric ambulance at Maine Medical Center on Tuesday. John Patriquin / Staff Photographer The ambulance, which doctors and nurses said is a newborn and pediatric intensive-care unit on wheels, was put in service at a ceremony next to the children's hospital. The $300,000 vehicle, which cost another $100,000 to equip, can handle one or two critically ill children and is equipped with incubators and advanced medical equipment. It is primarily used for transporting ill newborns or children from other hospitals to the Barbara Bush Children's Hospital. Unlike many smaller and rural hospitals, the MMC facility has intensive- care units for young patients. The vehicle was paid for entirely with donations, with more than half raised at Walmart stores in Maine last year. The retail company provided another $50,000 after employees decided to name the children's hospital their primary charity in Maine. Originally published by By Edward D. Murphy emurphy@mainetoday.com Staff Writer. © 2013 Portland Press Herald. Provided by ProQuest LLC. All rights Reserved. A service of YellowBrix, Inc. View the full article

WASHINGTON, May 14, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) kicks off the 40th annual Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Week starting May 19th with events in communities across the nation, as well as several national events organized around the theme "EMS: One Mission. One Team." EMS for Children (EMSC) Day, focusing on EMS response to children, child safety and injury prevention, will be celebrated on Wednesday, May 22, 2013. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20100616/DC22034LOGO-d ) "The extraordinary response by first responders to the bombings at the Boston Marathon illustrated what is best about EMS professionals and their commitment to saving lives," said the president of the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP), Andy Sama, MD, FACEP. "While others ran from the disaster, EMS professionals ran toward the victims to offer life-saving assistance. They didn't hesitate for a moment to offer help where the need was greatest." EMS providers include paramedics, emergency medical technicians, first responders, firefighters and police, some paid, some volunteer. National EMS Week will feature hundreds of grassroots activities coast-to-coast, including safety demonstrations, fire station open houses and CPR classes. Here are a few ways people can participate in EMS activities at the local level: Disaster preparedness at home Check out ACEP's new learning adventure game for children. This project was funded by the Department of Homeland Security and Federal Emergency Management Agency to teach children the basic principles of home disaster preparedness for a variety of scenarios including earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes and floods. The game is free. Visit www.disasterhero.com for more information. Compression-only CPR Studies have shown that early intervention performing CPR without mouth-to-mouth breaths can improve the survival rate of people in cardiac arrest. Contact your local Red Cross or American Heart Association affiliate to learn about CPR classes in your community. Early stroke recognition Studies have shown that the early recognition and treatment of stroke improve chances of recovery. Learn how to recognize the signs and symptoms of this medical emergency by contacting the American Stroke Association. EMS Week 2013 sponsors include Genentech, MedicAlert Foundation, Mylan Specialty, Physio-Control, Vidacare, American Heart Association, EMS World, EMS Today, Journal of Emergency Medical Services (JEMS), Masimo, Advanced Circulatory Systems, Cryothermic Systems, Emergency Care & Safety Institute, Innovative Trauma Care, Jones & Bartlett Learning and NAEMT. Our federal partners are CDC, FEMA, ASPR/Emergency Care Coordination Center (ECCC), and NHTSA. ACEP is the national medical specialty society representing emergency medicine. ACEP is committed to advancing emergency care through continuing education, research and public education. Headquartered in Dallas, Texas, ACEP has 53 chapters representing each state, as well as Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia. A Government Services Chapter represents emergency physicians employed by military branches and other government agencies. On Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/ national.ems.weekwww.acep.org/emsweek SOURCE American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) Originally published by American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP). © 2013 PRNewswire. Provided by ProQuest LLC. All rights Reserved. A service of YellowBrix, Inc. View the full article

May 14--City Manager Bill Parrish is calling the need to pay for an ambulance study an "investment in public safety." We can go along with the argument because there's nothing wrong with evaluating services, especially ones that are in place to protect the health and safety of the public. Parrish said the study's purpose is to assess whether or not the Owensboro Fire Department could take over the full-time duties of the ambulance service. Since 2008, the city, county and Owensboro Health have been in a year-to-year agreement with Yellow Ambulance, which comes up for renewal every February. The contract is overseen by the Medical Control Authority -- a public board with members who represent each of the three parties. Under the current deal, no taxpayer money is exchanged with Yellow Ambulance. The private ambulance company just receives the exclusive rights to operate in Owensboro-Daviess County. However, Judge-Executive Al Mattingly said the county hasn't been asked to contribute to the study financially or otherwise. And the hospital's response was, "We were not asked directly by the city to be involved in the study regarding the ambulance service, but we are well aware of what is taking place as we have four employees who are active with the Medical Control Authority board of directors." So here's the question we have: How is it possible to have three intermingled entities dependent on the same ambulance service, but City Hall doesn't deem it necessary to involve the county and the hospital in this study? We don't doubt the legitimacy behind seeking ways to improve public safety. But the city likely views the ambulance service as a potential revenue source. Why else even think about adding another service when there is a capable private ambulance company that's meeting the city's and county's emergency needs at no direct cost to the taxpayer? We're sure the city is also looking at the fact that OFD is already the first responders to all emergencies -- fire, medical runs and wrecks -- and has been since 2006. In that first year (November 2006 to November 2007), fire units arrived at the scene of medical emergencies before ambulances about 60 to 65 percent of the time, according to an earlier Messenger-Inquirer report. In those cases, the average response time was four minutes for fire crews and four and a half minutes for Yellow Ambulance. All city firefighters are trained EMTs and have the ability to stabilize patients until the arrival of the ambulance. But so far, only one of the city's 94 firefighters is a licensed paramedic, meaning more training or staff would have to be added to meet the essential advanced life support care that can't be provided by EMTs. Another question is what happens if the data returns in OFD's favor? Where would that put the county and hospital? It's doubtful Yellow Ambulance would be willing to stick around if the city no longer required its services. At this point, it seems the study and its potential outcome raise more questions than answers. What we do know, however, is that the city shouldn't be going down this road alone. Both the county and hospital have huge stakes in this study and by no means should they be left out of the loop. ___ ©2013 the Messenger-Inquirer (Owensboro, Ky.) Visit the Messenger-Inquirer (Owensboro, Ky.) at www.messenger-inquirer.com Distributed by MCT Information Services A service of YellowBrix, Inc. View the full article

May 11--Santa Clara County residents should be asking serious questions about the quality of ambulance service being provided by Rural Metro in its first year and a half on the job. They can't expect county officials to volunteer the information. The Mercury News' Karen de Sa reports that since taking over ambulance service, Rural Metro has violated its contract by repeatedly responding too slowly to emergencies and has paid more than $4.7 million in fines for lack of performance. County Executive Jeff Smith said that the county has notified Rural Metro that it was in breach of contract after three serious violations. One more serious breach, Smith said, and the county will consider terminating the contract. But we know this only because we asked. It has not been discussed at public meetings, even though it's hard to imagine a service of greater importance. Board President Ken Yeager says the county's Emergency Medical Services staff assured him that Rural Metro now has its house in order. The company submitted a "systems enhancement plan," and a spokesman says it doesn't plan on being out of compliance again. But since its last breach of contract in December, Rural Metro was fined $305,500 in January and $279,500 in February for such things as being late to emergency scenes and not having three ambulances ready to deploy, as required in the contract. Rural Metro is required to have ambulances arrive within 12 minutes of a call 90 percent of the time -- the industry standard. In the 10 years before it took over the contract, the previous provider, AMR, never failed to meet that standard until the final months, when its employees were moving to the new contractor. Rural Metro first missed the target in July 2011 and then again in October and in January of 2012. Another serious concern is Rural Metro's ability to respond to a multi-casualty disaster. On Feb. 7, in the letter informing Rural Metro that it was in breach of contract, the county demanded that the company adhere to its agreement to have "five Rural Metro ambulances and a Rural Metro supervisor to be available for immediate response should a strike team be activated and that no less than three Rural Metro ambulances are available at all times." Failure to comply leaves communities more vulnerable to earthquakes and other disasters. When Rural Metro was competing with AMR for this contract, we doubted its ability to provide the service it promised for its bid price and questioned what appeared to be less-than-transparent procedures on the county's part. Rural Metro and the county have blamed each other for problems. According to county officials, all of this is either now perfectly OK -- or we are in big trouble. You decide whom to believe. We'll keep trying to get the real answer. ___ ©2013 the San Jose Mercury News (San Jose, Calif.) Visit the San Jose Mercury News (San Jose, Calif.) at www.mercurynews.com Distributed by MCT Information Services A service of YellowBrix, Inc. View the full article

By Georgina O'Halloran An investigation was launched after a man told how he had to drive the seriously injured boy to hospital as there was no ambulance available. Vakaris Martinaitis, who lived with his parents and sister in Midleton, Co Cork, lost his fight for life at Cork University Hospital on Wednesday, two days after the fall. In a statement issued to The Irish Times late last night, the HSE said it had launched an investigation in to how the incident had been handled - and why the ambulance had not been made available. "The preliminary examination of the facts surrounding this tragic incident has confirmed that an emergency ambulance was immediately available to respond to the call. "In order to fully establish all the facts surrounding the management of this emergency call - including why the emergency ambulance was not made available - a formal review has been established." The boy would have celebrated his second birthday today, his mother Aukse Martinaitiene said yesterday. His parents, Aukse and Vidas, who are from Lithuania and have been living in Ireland for nine years, were otherwise too upset to speak. Man tells of 'shock' Former GAA player Kevin Hennessy, who drove the boy to Cork University Hospital, part of the way under Garda escort, spoke yesterday of his "shock" at being told to bring the toddler to SouthDoc as there was no ambulance in the area. Mr Hennessy, who lives in the same housing estate in Castleredmond, told how he ran to his assistance and called the emergency services when he saw the boy lying injured on the grass and his father crying and shouting. "I could see a bruise and a graze on his forehead and he had a noticeable swelling on his forehead," said Mr Hennessy. "I spoke to the dispatcher and I said I have an emergency. I said a young boy is after falling out of a window and he has head injuries." "He said 'I'm sorry but we don't have an ambulance in the area' and [he asked] had I transport. I said I have transport and he said to take him to SouthDoc in Midleton," said the father of three. Mr Hennessy and the boy's father laid the toddler in the back of the car and made the five-minute drive to SouthDoc. At SouthDoc Mr Hennessy told how the doctor gave him a letter of referral and told him to take the child to Cork University Hospital. Mr Hennessy said that on the way he realised the traffic was heavier than expected and called the garda - who he said could not have been more helpful - to provide an escort part of the way to the hospital. The HSE statement added that the review team who will carry out the investigation will include experts in pre-hospital emergency care and primary care from both Ireland and the UK. The terms of reference are also being finalised. A representative from the team will liaise with the family on the review. Originally published by Georgina O'Halloran. © 2013 Irish Times. Provided by ProQuest LLC. All rights Reserved. A service of YellowBrix, Inc. View the full article

May 10--Santa Clara County residents should be asking serious questions about the quality of ambulance service being provided by Rural Metro in its first year and a half on the job. They can't expect county officials to volunteer the information. The Mercury News' Karen de Sa reports that since taking over ambulance service, Rural Metro has violated its contract by repeatedly responding too slowly to emergencies and has paid more than $4.7 million in fines for lack of performance. County Executive Jeff Smith said that the county has notified Rural Metro that it was in breach of contract after three serious violations. One more serious breach, Smith said, and the county will consider terminating the contract. But we know this only because we asked. It has not been discussed at public meetings, even though it's hard to imagine a service of greater importance. Board President Ken Yeager says the county's Emergency Medical Services staff assured him that Rural Metro now has its house in order. The company submitted a "systems enhancement plan," and a spokesman says it doesn't plan on being out of compliance again. But since its last breach of contract in December, Rural Metro was fined $305,500 in January and $279,500 in February for such things as being late to emergency scenes and not having three ambulances ready to deploy, as required in the contract. Rural Metro is required to have ambulances arrive within 12 minutes of a call 90 percent of the time -- the industry standard. In the 10 years before it took over the contract, the previous provider, AMR, never failed to meet that standard until the final months, when its employees were moving to the new contractor. Rural Metro first missed the target in July 2011 and then again in October and in January of 2012. Another serious concern is Rural Metro's ability to respond to a multi-casualty disaster. On Feb. 7, in the letter informing Rural Metro that it was in breach of contract, the county demanded that the company adhere to its agreement to have "five Rural Metro ambulances and a Rural Metro supervisor to be available for immediate response should a strike team be activated and that no less than three Rural Metro ambulances are available at all times." Failure to comply leaves communities more vulnerable to earthquakes and other disasters. When Rural Metro was competing with AMR for this contract, we doubted its ability to provide the service it promised for its bid price and questioned what appeared to be less-than-transparent procedures on the county's part. Rural Metro and the county have blamed each other for problems. According to county officials, all of this is either now perfectly OK -- or we are in big trouble. You decide whom to believe. We'll keep trying to get the real answer. ___ ©2013 the San Jose Mercury News (San Jose, Calif.) Visit the San Jose Mercury News (San Jose, Calif.) at www.mercurynews.com Distributed by MCT Information Services A service of YellowBrix, Inc. View the full article

May 09--EL RENO -- Prosecutors continued Thursday morning to point out contradictions in the story Rebecca Bryan gave to authorities after her husband was shot. Bryan, 54, is on trial in the murder of Keith Bryan, 52, the Nichols Hills fire chief who was shot to death Sept. 20, 2011, in the Mustang home he shared with his wife of 33 years. Rebecca Bryan blamed an intruder who she said walked into the house at 1320 W Rose Hill Drive and shot Keith Bryan before apologizing and saying the fire chief should have hired him. James McClung, the EMSA paramedic who responded the night Keith Bryan was shot, testified Thursday that Rebecca Bryan told him she had come into the room to find an intruder standing over her husband after shooting him. That story contradicts what she told police that night. She told officers she was sitting in the living room next to her husband when the intruder came in through the garage and fired one shot into her husband's head. McClung also told the jury Rebecca Bryan was more concerned with preserving fingerprints in the living room than the well being of her husband. "She was excited about us not touching anything," McClung said. "Not once was I asked how he was doing, if he was still alive." A friend testified Wednesday that Rebecca Bryan showed her a photo of another man's penis while they drove to the hospital after the shooting and said she had had sex with the man earlier that day. Bryan's defense attorney has argued the couple had a strained marriage but reconciled before the shooting. Investigators turned their attention to Rebecca Bryan after they found a gun, a glove, a shell casing and a blanket with bullet holes in the dryer in the home's utility room. The gun, which belonged to the Bryans, was later identified as the weapon used to shoot Keith Bryan. Reporter Bryan Dean is tweeting updates from the trial. Follow along below: ___ ©2013 The Oklahoman Visit The Oklahoman at www.newsok.com Distributed by MCT Information Services A service of YellowBrix, Inc. View the full article

May 09--SOMERSET -- City officials are projecting another significant shortfall for Somerset-Pulaski County EMS in the upcoming fiscal year, and although a new contract be-tween the city and county is still up in the air, they're empha-sizing that EMS service won't suffer for it. "We're very proud of EMS and the level of service for the city and county," said Somerset Mayor Eddie Girdler during a Monday budget workshop meeting. "I don't think anybody goes to sleep at night wondering whether or not they're going to be provided service." Tentative budget numbers for a number of city departments, including EMS, were presented during the meeting. Before officials dove into the EMS numbers, Girdler told the councilors that he, after speaking with Somerset City Attorney Carrie Wiese and Pulaski County Attorney Martin Hatfield, decided to adopt the original 1995 interlocal agreement -- termi-nated by the council in March over a disagreement with county officials on who was to cover a $982,907 shortfall in the current fiscal year. "I've decided the best way to approach this is to live with the current contract we have with the county," said Girdler. Girdler's words echoed an announcement he released last week about the situation. Girdler said he had "extensive discussions" with Hatfield and Wiese, and he thanked Hatfield for his help with the situation, saying the county attorney had been "extremely helpful." But Girdler stated that he had yet to hear a formal response from the county. A call placed late Wednesday afternoon to Pulaski County Judge-executive Barty Bullock and Hatfield were not returned by press time. The disagreement began in January after city officials asked that the county cover the shortfall. Questions were raised about who was to cover what in regards to EMS operations -- guidelines of which were established through the 1995 agreement. As per the agreement, the county had provided around $1.2 million yearly to EMS from occupational tax revenue. As "overseer" of EMS, the city provided additional funding and managed the operations of EMS. The agreement also stated that additional occupational tax funds would need to cover "unanticipated" shortfalls in the EMS budget. Not long after councilors terminated the agreement, the county began the process of securing those funds after obtaining financial documents from the city. Billy Duncan, acting EMS chief, presented his budget requests for the 2013-2014 Fiscal Year on Monday. Included in those numbers was an expected shortfall of $585,000 -- a result of changes in Medicaid and Medicare, according to Duncan and Girdler, which led to this year's shortfall as well. City Budget Manager Jimmy Hogg said he and Duncan came up with the shortfall after averaging out the collection rates for Medicaid and Medicare from the last several years. "That's about as good a projection as we could come up with," Hogg said. "We're hoping those numbers are pretty close." "That number will be given to the county," Girdler said. "Really nothing's changed except we want to provide services now and determine who pays later." The city has proposed a new agreement that would entail the county paying $1.6 million yearly to the city to ensure any shortfalls are covered -- and anything beyond that the city intends to cover itself. But so far, no agreement has been reached on any new contracts. So instead, the city has opted to re-establish the terms of the 1995 agreement until new contract terms are worked out. " ... The county would still come out $200,000 better by accepting that (new) proposal," said Girdler. EMS has a collection rate of around 87 percent -- considered a relatively good rate -- but that hasn't stopped the shortfall from developing. Duncan said EMS will soon lose upwards of 10 percent of the money Medicaid does provide because dialysis services, something that currently requires transport from home, may be provided "in-house" for patients. "Nobody's got money," said Duncan. "Everybody's broke." Duncan said he spent six months acting as a "squeaky wheel" in securing around $26,000 out of $76,000 currently owed to EMS by the state's veterans' affairs cabinet. Duncan said he plans to remount one of the EMS vehicles to better equip it for transport of obese patients, and he plans on trading in a vehicle that isn't used due to mechanical issues to help cover that cost. Drug costs increased significantly, and Duncan told councilors that the cost of one advanced life drug -- one required by the state to be kept in the ambulances -- went up 35 percent. And Duncan said the new Health Care Reform Law, slated to take effect fully in 2014, will impact EMS as well. "It's just going to get worse," said Duncan. Girdler said he hopes the city can establish some type of board to oversee EMS operations. The board would regularly communicate with city and county officials both to ensure issues, such as shortfalls, are recognized quickly. "We will try to establish lines of communication," said Girdler. The councilors praised Duncan for his and his employees' dedication during the last several months of uncertainty. "Even through this confusion and turmoil you all have provided outstanding service and you continue to do so," said Tom Eastham. "I know it's stressful on you and your employees, but you have absolutely shown your true colors and I appreciate that." ___ ©2013 the Commonwealth Journal (Somerset, Ky.) Visit the Commonwealth Journal (Somerset, Ky.) at somerset-kentucky.com Distributed by MCT Information Services A service of YellowBrix, Inc. View the full article

May 08--A former Coral Springs firefighter/paramedic was sentenced to 15 years in prison Tuesday for being an armed escort for a man he thought was dealing drugs. Santiago Gonzalez came to the attention of federal agents when an informant said he bragged that he played a role in the beheading murders of a South Florida couple. Though the charges Gonzalez pleaded guilty to earlier this year were shocking enough -- attempted drug-trafficking and a weapons offense -- the claim that he was involved in the bizarre crimes featured in the "Pain & Gain" movie, now playing in theaters, catapulted his case to a more sensational level. A teary Gonzalez, 49, of Davie, blew kisses to his family and waved to some former colleagues from the fire department during his sentencing hearing in federal court in Fort Lauderdale. "I truly and sincerely apologize," Gonzalez said. "I have completely devastated, shocked and broken the hearts of all who love, care and depend on me." The informant, who Gonzalez considered a family friend for 15 years, was working under cover for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The informant told agents that Gonzalez claimed -- off tape -- that he was involved in "numerous armed kidnappings and robberies" and the murders of a wealthy Hungarian couple, as well as the disposal of their bodies. Prosecutors did not charge Gonzalez with anything to do with the homicides. The gruesome murders of Frank Griga and Krisztina Furton in 1995 are part of the bizarre tale featured in "Pain & Gain," an action movie starring Mark Wahlberg and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson that was filmed in South Florida and opened in movie theaters two weeks ago. The couple's bodies were dismembered, stuffed into 55-gallon oil drums and dumped in a canal on the edge of the Everglades in Miami-Dade County. Their severed heads -- with their teeth pulled out so that it would be more difficult to identify them -- were found near Interstate 75 in Broward County. Three men, who were part of the Miami Lakes Sun Gym crew, were convicted for their roles in the murders. Two of them are on death row. Gail Levine, a Miami-Dade assistant state attorney who prosecuted the murder cases, said Tuesday that Gonzalez was a friend of John Raimondo, a former Miami-Dade County jail guard who pleaded guilty to a lesser role in the case -- kidnapping -- and was sentenced to eight years in prison. Gonzalez and Raimondo were workout buddies at the Sun Gym at that time and Gonzalez was interviewed by detectives during the investigation, she said. "But I have no credible information that links Mr. Gonzalez to the murders," Levine said in an interview Tuesday. In a letter Gonzalez wrote to the judge, he identified the informant in the drugs and weapon case as Tony Lopez. Gonzalez wrote that he let Lopez, 34, a tow truck driver from Southwest Ranches, live rent-free in a family member's house and claimed Lopez set him up after failing to pay a $5,000 utilities bill. Gonzalez previously said that Lopez made up the allegations about him claiming to be involved in the murders and disposal of the bodies. Intrigued by the informant's allegations about Gonzalez, the ATF agents set up a scenario last year where Gonzalez agreed to be an armed guard helping to deliver more than 67 pounds of cocaine in Broward and Miami-Dade counties. Gonzalez was caught on video and audio recordings talking about moving the drugs, which were actually sham cocaine. Assistant U.S. Attorney Courtney Coker wrote in court documents that Gonzalez was recorded at a meeting in a Miami Lakes cigar shop claiming he had guarded marijuana shipments in the past and offering to provide "armed protection services" at a cost of about $250 per pound of cocaine. He was recorded guarding the drugs four times between Sept. 6, 2012, and Jan. 24, when he was arrested. U.S. District Judge William Zloch agreed to follow the recommendation negotiated by prosecutors and the defense in the plea agreement that Gonzalez be sentenced to 15 years in federal prison. About 20 family members and friends, including Gonzalez's wife, two of his four children, who range in age from 9 to 20, his mother, other relatives and some former colleagues from Coral Springs Fire Department supported him in court. Dressed in beige scrubs, handcuffed, shackled and several pounds lighter than when he was arrested, Gonzalez struggled to hold in his emotions in court. He waved, blew little kisses, gave grateful nods to his supporters and begged for forgiveness. He told the judge he was motivated by severe depression brought on by financial troubles caused by living a lifestyle he couldn't afford. "Overwhelming stress and experimenting with drugs and alcohol overwhelmed my better judgment and for this I am sorry. I take full responsibility for my foolish actions and my bad decisions," Gonzalez said. He has been jailed since his arrest and resigned in disgrace from his $65,430-a-year city job. Coral Springs personnel records show he previously had been disciplined and demoted for misconduct on the job. "Brothers and sisters, we made a difference in the lives we saved and fought for the ones we couldn't. Please forgive me and watch over my family," Gonzalez said to his former colleagues in court. pmcmahon@tribune.com, 954-356-4533 or Twitter @SentinelPaula ___ ©2013 the Sun Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) Visit the Sun Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) at www.sun-sentinel.com Distributed by MCT Information Services A service of YellowBrix, Inc. View the full article

May 07--A former Coral Springs firefighter/paramedic was sentenced to 15 years in prison Tuesday for being an armed escort for someone he thought was dealing drugs. Santiago Gonzalez came to the attention of federal agents when an informant said he bragged that he played a role in the beheading murders of a South Florida couple. Though the charges Gonzalez pleaded guilty to were shocking enough -- attempted drug-trafficking and a weapons offense -- the claim that he was involved in the bizarre crimes featured in the "Pain & Gain" movie, now playing in theaters, catapulted his case to a more sensational level. A teary Gonzalez, 49, of Davie, blew kisses to his family and waved to some former colleagues from the fire department during his sentencing hearing in federal court in Fort Lauderdale. "I truly and sincerely apologize," Gonzalez told the judge. "I have completely devastated, shocked and broken the hearts of all who love, care and depend on me." The confidential informant, who Gonzalez thought was a family friend for more than a dozen years, was actually working under cover for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The informant told agents that Gonzalez claimed -- off tape -- that he was involved in "numerous armed kidnappings and robberies" and the murders of a wealthy Hungarian couple, as well as the disposal of their bodies. Prosecutors did not charge Gonzalez with anything to do with the homicides. The gruesome murders of Frank Griga and Krisztina Furton in 1995 are part of the bizarre tale featured in "Pain & Gain," an action movie starring Mark Wahlberg and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson that was filmed in South Florida and opened in movie theaters two weeks ago. The couple's bodies were dismembered, stuffed into 55-gallon oil drums and dumped in a canal on the edge of the Everglades in Miami-Dade County. Their severed heads -- with their teeth pulled out so that it would be more difficult for authorities to identify them -- were found near Interstate 75 in Broward County. Three men were convicted for their roles in the murders and two of them are on Death Row. ATF agents, who were intrigued by the informant's allegations about Gonzalez, set up a scenario where Gonzalez agreed he'd be an armed guard for a man he was told was delivering more than 67 pounds of cocaine during several trips in Broward and Miami-Dade counties. Gonzalez was caught on video and audio recordings talking about moving the drugs, which were actually sham cocaine. U.S. District Judge William Zloch agreed to follow the recommendation by prosecutors and the defense negotiated in the plea agreement, and sentenced Gonzalez to 15 years. About 20 family members and friends, including Gonzalez's wife, two of his four children, who range in age from 9 to 20, his mother, other relatives and some former colleagues from Coral Springs Fire Department showed up to support him in court. Dressed in beige scrubs, handcuffed, shackled and several pounds lighter than he was at the time of his Jan. 24 arrest, Gonzalez seemed to be struggling to hold in his emotions in court. He waved, blew little kisses, gave grateful nods to his supporters and begged for forgiveness from everyone who knows him. He told the judge he was motivated by severe depression brought on by financial troubles caused by living a lifestyle he couldn't afford. "Overwhelming stress and experimenting with drugs and alcohol overwhelmed my better judgment and for this I am sorry. I take full responsibility for my foolish actions and my bad decisions," Gonzalez said. He has been jailed since his arrest and resigned in disgrace from his $65,430-a-year city job. Coral Springs personnel records show he had been disciplined and demoted for misconduct on the job. "Brothers and sisters, we made a difference in the lives we saved and fought for the ones we couldn't. Please forgive me and watch over my family," Gonzalez said to his former colleagues in court. Check back later for updates on this report. pmcmahon@tribune.com, 954-356-4533 or Twitter @SentinelPaula ___ ©2013 the Sun Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) Visit the Sun Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) at www.sun-sentinel.com Distributed by MCT Information Services A service of YellowBrix, Inc. View the full article

May 07--Oregon City Council is expected to approve billing insurance companies, Medicare, and Medicaid for emergency medical runs at its next regular meeting. The practice, known as "soft billing," is the norm for Toledo-area cities. Oregon officials support it as a way to maintain their city's financial stability. Council, meeting on Monday as the committee of the whole, approved putting the soft billing on the agenda for its meeting next Monday. Once the measure is adopted, the EMS billing will be done by an outside company, Medicount Management, Inc. Individuals will not be billed. Officials have been studying the EMS billing for months, and believe eventually it could generate annual revenue of $250,000 for Oregon. The ordinance council will consider next week does not set specific charges -- that will be done later. ___ ©2013 The Blade (Toledo, Ohio) Visit The Blade (Toledo, Ohio) at www.toledoblade.com Distributed by MCT Information Services A service of YellowBrix, Inc. View the full article

May 02--It's a long list: sprains, strains, heat exhaustion, dehydration and breathing and heart problems -- even chafing. On Sunday, as thousands of runners take to the streets for the Pittsburgh Marathon and Half-Marathon, medical personnel with the race will be prepared to deal with the wide range of conditions and medical problems that typically assail race participants. But they'll also be prepared for a grimmer reality: traumatic injuries, like the ones seen at the finish line of the Boston Marathon. After twin bombs exploded at the Boston finish line on April 15, race organizers and medical personnel adjusted their plans and protocols and took advice from their counterparts in Boston. At a news conference Wednesday, Mark Bocian, the city's acting chief of emergency medical services, and Ronald Roth, a doctor of emergency medicine with UPMC and the city's medical director, detailed some of those measures. "Medical preparation for the marathon is really a yearlong thing, but as you can imagine the tragedy in Boston has prompted us to take an even closer look at what we do here in Pittsburgh," Dr. Roth said. He spoke with two UPMC-trained colleagues in Boston who staffed the finish line medical tent that was suddenly inundated with bombing victims. "This, along with our internal conversations with the marathon, with the city of Pittsburgh and with Allegheny County, resulted in us bringing additional equipment to our finish line and taking additional steps to make sure that the runners, the spectators and our volunteers will be safe at this year's marathon," Dr. Roth said. "One [of] the things they would have liked to have had at the finish line are tourniquets," he said, speaking of what he learned from his Boston colleagues. "So we have tourniquets as well as additional trauma gear." Chief Bocian said that he participated in a conference call with the chief of emergency medical services in Boston after the terrorist attacks. The attacks prompted EMS to adjust some of its plans, staging medical apparatus closer to the finish line, for example. But, as in most races, the primary threat to runners is weather. Race organizers will closely monitor six special thermometers along the course that measure the wet bulb temperature, a metric that takes into account ambient heat, radiant heat and humidity to gauge the likelihood of heat-related injuries on the course. Sunday's weather is not expected to get into the danger zone -- the forecast calls for sunny skies with a high near 72 -- but flags posted at aid stations will let runners know if they should take it easy. Green and yellow flags signal that runners can proceed as they normally would, but if a red flag is flown, it's because organizers are advising runners to slow their pace. A black flag may indicate the race has been stopped and runners are instructed to follow directions from race officials. There will already be 15 aid stations along the course along with a "field hospital" at the finish line. The aid stations will be stocked with, among other things, 7,500 adhesive bandages, 150 vomit bags, more than 400 feet of intravenous tubing, 125 jars of petroleum jelly and at least one sign: "Don't eat the Vaseline." Additionally, there will be more medical staff on hand. Dr. Roth said the event usually draws around 300 volunteers from UPMC, including doctors, nurses and certified athletic trainers. This year, around 400 signed up. The city paramedics working the race announced last week that they would donate their wages to the One Fund Boston, which supports victims of the Boston bombings. Since the announcement, more paramedics have volunteered to work, he said. In a related development, the U.S. Postal Service said Wednesday it will remove its collection boxes along the route of the Pittsburgh Marathon this weekend as a security precaution. Moriah Balingit: mbalingit@post-gazette.com, 412-263-2533 or on Twitter @MoriahBee. ___ ©2013 the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Visit the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette at www.post-gazette.com Distributed by MCT Information Services A service of YellowBrix, Inc. View the full article

Farmers pull together to haul tractor for 16 miles ; Group raises funds for county's air ambulance with epic road tripFULL DETAILS OF THE ESSEX YOUNG FARMERS SHOW GO! P6-7 THESE hardy young farmers hauled a tractor 16 miles along the streets of Essex to raise money fs or the county's air ambulance. It took about 20 Essex Young Farmers almost seven hours to pull the two-and-a-half tonne vehicle all the way from Toppesfield Hall in Great Yeldham to Great Dunmow. They went via Finchingfield, Great Bardfield and Great Easton and were kept going by friends dishing out food and drinks from a trailer being towed alongside. Steven Mynott, 26, from Gosfield, is chairman of the Halstead Young Farmers Association. He said: Everyone was so knackered after, most people were still feeling the effect days after the tractor pull. We were kept going by the thought of getting to the pub, most of us stayed in there until closing. Most of the group are young farmers, but some non-farmers were invited along to help out - and a short distance was completed by a 30-strong all-female group pulling the tractor. More than Pounds 1,000 was raised, with 25 per cent going to the air ambulance and the rest to the Essex Young Farmers fund to build its new HQ at Chatham Green. The event was organised by Halstead Young Farmers and Dunmow Young Farmers - headed by Sam Body, 21, from Braintree. He said: It was really hard, harder than we originally thought. The whole day went really well, there was no point where I thought we wouldn't do it, but some of the hills were really tough. My knees were quiet sore after and we didn't train for it, which was a bit silly. We do a lot of manual labour so we were used to it, but 16 miles is no mean feat. Sponsoring the tractor pull was The Saracens Head pub in Dunmow, along with the National Farmers Union. On May 19 they will gather again for the Essex Young Farmers Country Show at Boyton Hall, Roxwell. A service of YellowBrix, Inc. View the full article

BELOEIL, QC, May 1, 2013 /PRNewswire/ - Demers Ambulances is proud to announce it has signed RedStorm Fire & Rescue Apparatus Inc. as their new dealer for the states of Virginia, Maryland and Delaware. "The sales team at RedStorm is one of the best in the industry," said Ahren Taszreak, the US Dealer Development Manager for Demers Ambulances "They not only understand the products, but can also relate to the end-user because their employees have all worked in the emergency industry. Their service approach provides the end- user with a single point of contact, and gives them the ability to work with a select group of highly dedicated service providers. We are proud to have RedStorm representing Demers Ambulances in Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware". "At RedStorm our mission is to meet the needs of first responders and patient transporters with exceptional products and a high level of customized service," said Jim Featherstone, RedStorm's President. "We are very excited to be adding the Demers line of ambulances to our offering because they bring aircraft-like quality and engineering to everything they do. Demers Ambulances are the best tested ambulances in the industry and offer the most fuel-saving features. They offer our customers something with a distinct difference." Demers Ambulances is the Canadian leader in the design, manufacture and distribution of ambulances, and one of the largest firms of its kind in North America. Over the past 50 years, Demers Ambulances has sold more than 15,000 ambulances to customers in over 20 countries. Demers Ambulances is accredited ISO 9001:2008 and certified by Transport Canada and the USA DOT, by the National Truck Equipment Association (NTEA) in the USA within their "MEMBER VERIFICATION PROGRAM" and recognized as a "QUALIFIED VEHICLES MODIFIER" (QVM) by the Ford Motor Company and, approved up fitter for Mercedes Benz Sprinter Customer Assurance Program. Demers Ambulances meets the highest standards in the industry. To learn more about Demers Ambulances, visit www.demers-ambulances.com SOURCE Demers-Ambulances inc. Originally published by Demers-Ambulances inc.. © 2013 PRNewswire. Provided by ProQuest LLC. All rights Reserved. A service of YellowBrix, Inc. View the full article

A MASS charity cycling event starting in Bude is calling on folks with spokes to get on their bikes. The stunt starts on Saturday, May 25, and finishes at Land's End on Monday, May 27, with camping stops en route. In aid of the Cornwall Air Ambulance Trust, Ride On aims to attract about 100 cyclists to join over the bank holiday weekend, with a special pirate-themed final day. The emphasis is definitely on fun, said Tom Matthews, organiser and fundraising events officer for the charity. It's a ride, not a race, but we promise it will take in some of Cornwall's beautiful scenery and heritage that you don't get to see from the A30. There would even be a few special guests joining in, but he would not reveal any more details. The cyclists will meander through 140 miles of quiet lanes and cycle routes, stopping overnight at campsites along the way with Cornish cream teas, pasties and Sharp's Doom Bar for those who fancy an evening tipple, celebrating all that is Cornish. Saffron cakes will be given out to those taking part at the air ambulance base with members of the aircrew on hand with a helicopter to demonstrate where the money raised will be spent. There will also be a Ride On party at Land's End when everyone arrives at the finish line. This event really is open to anyone with access to a roadworthy bike, added Mr Matthews. Campsites have been pre-booked and all equipment and tents will be transported between them so cyclists won't have to carry it themselves. The distance works out at about 47 miles per day and cyclists are being encouraged to have a few practice rides before the first day. It really is only through the generosity of the people of Cornwall that we can continue our vital work, saving time and saving lives, said Mr Matthews. For more information about Ride On and to register for the event, visit www.cornwallairambu-lancetrust.org or call 01637 889926. A service of YellowBrix, Inc. View the full article