The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/979496
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Late season morels Petersburg resident Gary Leavitt found a nice bunch of morels, including this largest one while hunting this past week. He said they were in Pike Coun- ty in the same spot he had good luck last year. James Capozella photo Council votes for transfer to add paramedic By Andy Heuring Pike County Councilmen voted for a transfer within the EMS budget to fund the hiring of an additional para- medic during their Tuesday morning meeting. EMS Director Chris Young requested four transfers totaling $ 36,239 from technicians' vacation and sick days to paramed- ic, group health insurance, FICA and PERF. Young said last year at budget time he requested two additional full-time paramedics, but only one was put in the bud- get for 2018. Young said he starts each month with eight paramedic shifts unfilled. In April, he said that number grew to 19 shifts due to vaca- tion and sick days, and then he had a full-time employee suffer a fracture and it bal- looned to 27 shifts. He said the part-time people he us- es to fill the shifts are excel- lent people, but because of restrictions on the number of hours part-time employ- ees can work, it is getting nearly impossible to fill that many shifts. Young said he thinks by adding a full-time per- son, which will reduce the amount of overtime being required to fill these shifts, they should see some sav- ings. He said they won't know until the end of the year, but they should be close to not needing any ad- ditional money. Young said so far this year, they have had 79 more runs than last year at this time. "Why is that? " asked Councilman Randy Harris. Young said he didn't know, but he thought an ag- ing population probably con- tributed. Before councilmen vot- ed, Auditor Ron Wilson said, "You realize doing this transfer, you are adding an employee not just for 2018, but every year after this." "It may be moving mon- ey around and there will be a little increase, but not $ 30,000 to $40,000 a year," said Young. Harris moved to approve the request. It was second- ed by Councilman Greg Mangin and passed by a 6 -0 vote. Max Elliott was not at the meeting. Councilmen also ap- proved an additional appro- priation request of $5,000 for part-time clerical. In a letter to the council, Treasurer Marta Query explained Nyla Dooley had retired and was replaced by Susan Brittain. She explained there are cer- tain duties in the office only Dooley is familiar with and she was staying on to handle those and help train others. Query only requested $12,340 in part-time clerical because she thought Dooley wasn't going to retire as ear- ly as she did. Councilman Greg Man- gin asked how much longer Dooley was going to contin- ue to work as part-time cler- ical. "I hope until the end of my term. A fter that, I don't care," said Query. "I think she is sincere- ly trying to use the county money wisely," said Council- man Harris. Query's requested was ap- proved by a 6 -0 vote. INDIANA REGION 15 REQUESTS MORE MONEY Lisa Gelhausen, of Indi- ana Region 15, asked the County Council for $1,400 more this year. She told councilmen they have been assessed 45 cents per capita like the other five counties: Crawford, Dubois, Orange, Perry and Spencer. How- ever, she asked the county to budget 56 cents per capi- ta for 2019, which would in- crease their bill of $5,780.25 about $1,400 to $7,193.20. She said in 2017, Pike County paid $5,700 and re- ceived $ 850,000 in grants Region 15 administered. She said since 1998, Pike County had contributed about $103,000 to Region 15 and received $7.7 mil- lion grants. "I think that is a pretty good investment," said Gelhausen. She showed councilmen a listing of what each county in Region 15 had received in grant funds since 1998. Pike County's $7.7 million was the lowest, with the next lowest being nearly double that amount at $13.3 million for Orange County. The oth- ers were Crawford $15.7 mil- lion, Perry $16,8 million, Du- bois $25.8 million and Spen- cer $ 31.1 million. "Why is there such a dis- parity between our per cap- tia return and everyone else's? " asked Councilman Harris. "It is all about the proj- ects. . . The project we have worked on with Pike Coun- ty is really good," said Gel- hausen. See TR ANSFER on page 9