EMS Subcommittee

Monday, April 24, 2023 - 9:00 am

Robin DeLoria - Chairman

Chairman DeLoria called this EMS Subcommittee to order at 9:00 am with the following in attendance: Clayton Barber, Robin DeLoria, Derek Doty, Roy Holzer, Noel Merrihew, Jim Monty, Matt Stanley, Meg Wood, Mark Wright, Matt Watts, Michael LaVallie and Mike Mascarenas.

ALSO PRESENT: Dina Garvey, Michael Watts and Rob Wick

DELORIA: Robert, I just got a couple of questions before we get started. My email went out on the Senate Bill, I didn’t hear back from anybody, but Mike Mascarenas. Did you get that? It was sent on the 19^th, last Wednesday. Mike, what do you know about that?

MASCARENAS: What was it, Robin, refresh my memory.

DELORIA: Tommy approached Noel and I about a Senate Bill that was…

MASCARENAS: For the district, I haven’t heard either way.

DELORIA: How important is that to us, right now?

MASCARENAS: It’s absolutely important to us. I mean there’s multiple avenues that we can get to this. The ability to do that is important for us, just to have an extra tool in the toolbox, whether the Board elects the go that route. Also, up for debate, I’ve heard from several of the colleagues that some may not be interested in being in a district, those that maybe in the outlying areas of county that have other plans, such as like Minerva, Chesterfield, that has other things, but having the ability to do that is important and where those lines are drawn are what would be up for debate.

DELORIA: So, with Mountain Lakes are they gone? Are they now not operating? What’s happening in the hierarchy? Does anybody know?

WATTS: So, the beginning of last year, they joined

WATTS, MICHAEL: Fort Drum Regional Health Planning Organization

DELORIA: And how does that affect Essex County?

WATTS: It really doesn’t, they basically joined together and they oversee, well, North Country Community College is overseeing the education now, but they oversee like the credentialing for our ALS people and any of the CONs that need to be done.

DELORIA: So, North Country got approval from the State to manage the training?

WATTS: So, North Country is doing the training, yes.

DELORIA: So, that’s a big change, you know?

WATTS: Yes

DELORIA: From what it was prior to North Country getting involved.

WATTS: North Country has actually really expanded in the last few months. They’ve spent a lot of money in putting equipment at the Ticonderoga Campus, as well as the Saranac Lake Campus and we’re actually working with them to bring equipment to the Public Safety Building as a training site for them.

DELORIA: Okay, now, Michael took Patty’s job, correct?

WATTS: So, Michael is the senior medic.

DELORIA: Okay, so who took Patty’s job?

WATTS: Nobody yet

DELORIA: It’s still open?

WATTS: Yes

DELORIA: Because that job also had a requirement in it that they were part of, at the time Mountain Lake EMS and they would sit in on those meetings as a liaison to us.

WATTS: Yes

DELORIA: Who’s doing that?

WATTS: I’m still on the Board.

DELORIA: You are?

WATTS: Yup

DELORIA: Okay

WATTS: We aren’t replaced Bryse, yet. There hasn’t been a meeting since Bryse left with Mountain Lakes to replace him. So, there’s still a vacant spot.

DELORIA: So, on the board of Mountains Lakes, on the board of the college?

WATTS: Mountain Lakes.

DELORIA: Okay, so what’s Mountains Lakes Council, I mean how does that affect us?

WATTS: So there’s 4 people from each county represented on there. So, right now we have three that are on there. We need to replace Bryse on there, but we were waiting to see who was going to be the EMS Coordinator, because they EMS Coordinator is automatically on that council.

DELORIA: But, they’re not a voting member or are they?

WATTS: Yes

DELORIA: They are a voting member?

WATTS: Yes

DELORIA: So, that would have been Patty which was Bryse?

WATTS: Yup, so Patty’s still on it.

DELORIA: Okay, good.

WATTS: She’s on it as an EMS person in the county.

DELORIA: And we don’t foresee any, do they have a good relationship with North Country? The EMS Council, now, I know they didn’t when we first started all of this.

WATTS: To the best of my knowledge they do.

WATTS, MICHAEL: Yeah, I think their relationship is, you know, mutual, but they’re operating as separate entities and North Country does what North Country and Mountain Lakes is doing.

DELORIA: Because Mountain Lakes used to do the training, but they’re not doing that because North Country is?

WATTS: They’re doing some, but the way, when Mountain Lakes kind of went their separate ways…

MONTY: What is Mountain Lakes Services, what is their function right now, then? What do they serve for us?

DELORIA: They’re under Public Health Law, what is the number?

WATTS: I don’t…

DELORIA: 29-30

WATTS: I’m not sure what the number is, but they have to remain in effect to approve like CONs, credential the ALS people, things like that.

MONTY: Even with their dysfunctionality?

WATTS: Yes, they’re dysfunctional, but they’re being overseen by Fort Drum right now, so they kind of fell under the umbrella of Fort Drum, So, Fort Drum’s running them, right now.

DELORIA: So, Fort Drum EMS Council?

WATTS: Yes

DOTY: Matt, any idea how the addition of these systems to North Country effects the budget when they come to us?

WATTS: That I don’t know.

HOLZER: Well, it shouldn’t because of the money that we give them from Essex County. I’m happy to hear North Country’s doing some of this, because the student ratio for Franklin and Essex County is very lopsided, so it’s about time we get something back here.

MONTY: And Joe has been very good about that, since we’ve first started to him.

HOLZER: 3 to 1 enrollment.

WATTS: They’ve done a lot of training, they just completed, I don’t know if it’s in this packet?

WICK: Yeah, we did load that in, so listed under task #5. You see there, North Country they completed the Basic EMT course on April 17^th, two members were from Crown Point Fire, one was from Moriah Fire and EMS and one was from Blue Mountain Lake and then April 28^th, they have an EMT refresher course scheduled to be completed and it had 28 students, 9 of which were from a mix of the Essex County agencies and then on 04/04, they had an EMT course that started. There’s 9 students in that currently and there’s a fall course projected at Saranac Lake campus for AEMT.

WATTS: I believe they’re talking about possibly doing a summer class for EMTs, which would be out of the Public Safety Building, that’s why they’re working on trying to get some equipment put into there.

MASCARENAS: And just so this committee’s aware, when Bryse was leaving and we were bring Mike on, I had met with Matt and asked him to hold off on the coordinator position while they restructured and see what they have, knowing that the grant dollars are going to go away in an year and we’re going to take this on on the levy, we wanted to see what the skill sets were of the people that he had in-house, be able to evaluate that over a period of a time and decide whether or not we’re going to continue with that particular position with Matt’s skills set being around EMS and Mike’s in fire, you know maybe there’s a way to make that work. I’m looking for them to tell me that within the next few months to see whether we need to fill that position that was Bryse’s or whether we can continue moving forward.

DELORIA: And that particular positions that you’re holding off on actually has a civil service job description?

MASCARENAS: Absolutely, does.

DELORIA: So, could that conceivably be melded into something else or changed the job description?

MASCARENAS: That’s what I’ve asked Matt to do, essentially is look at what your real needs are, what the skill sets of the people that you have around you, in your department are and decide what is real important to accomplish the job.

DELORIA: Right

MASCARENAS: I think he’s doing a pretty good job at that, I think Mike coming on and seeing what his skill sets are and what he brings to the table. Just so everyone’s aware of why that position necessarily hasn’t been filled or sought after.

DELORIA: One more question, do we know if Travis Howe has any part of that?

WATTS: He does not.

DELORIA: So, who’s the?

WATTS: They just had a change at Fort Drum, too.

WATTS, MICHAEL: Jonathon Cole is the new program director’s name, up there.

DELORIA: Between now and our next meeting, why don’t we try to get all that into a box so we can look at it and completely understand it.

WATTS: Would you be interested in having him come to a meeting?

DELORIA: Sure, maybe even our next one if it fits into your plan. I just had a couple of questions is all, so you tell us.

WATTS, MICHAEL: One of the nice things about North Country taking over the EMS education side of it is, before the agencies were responsible for the upfront costs of education. North Country is absorbing that cost and then submitting the reimbursement to the State to get that money back, so the upfront costs to the agencies to provide training to their members is significantly reduced. I believe an EMT course is costing them $100 upfront.

DELORIA: let’s consider having Joe Keegan at that meeting, too. When you’re ready for it, because if there’s any questions we can get them asked.

WICK: We didn’t have a whole lot of other updates, a lot of stuff that we were going to go through were some of the training and staffing updates that we had, just to kind of give everybody, because there were some class occurring now and some that are coming up here. I did want to talk about the resolution request we have for increased budget for the medic car. So, originally our budget number that had for this year was $50,000.00.Previously the medic cars plus the up-fitting, you know with all the radio equipment and all of that had fell underneath that $50,000.00, but just recently that bid came back, now that’s been bid out two times. So, we’ve tried to get this out and get that in our budget, but the first, I think two times it was bid there were no responses, so this time it came in at $72,950.00, but that is inclusive of all up-fittings, so there isn’t going to be any other additional costs to get that 4^th medic car in and that was included in the grant budget and I am pretty sure that I can finagle some things within the DOS grant budget to make sure that procurement in total is going to be covered by the grant. So, hopeful that can get approved here and moved on to Ways and Means so we can get the award to the bidder and get that squared away.

MASCARENAS: I don’t know how many of you guys have been bidding out vehicles, but they’re coming back ridiculous. Almost that we’ve decided not to get vehicles in certain areas, we bought vehicles that are used now from other agencies just to try and get by. Its’ real difficult to meet budget.

MONTY: That price include, I don’t know what they’re calling it, sometimes that call in delivery charge?

WATTS: Yeah, it’s everything, delivery and in the installation of the radios and the lights.

MONTY: There was another charge they were charging, that they tacked onto a bunch of vehicles.

WICK: It’s an all-inclusive bid. The only other thing we’ll have to have with this is just getting the plaque thing on the side of the vehicle.

So, items 2 and 9 on the agenda; the inventory report update that we wanted to be able to provide out to everybody, because there was a bit of information that we wanted to update on there was the information that we could potentially get from the other agencies in regards to some of their staffing and volunteerism. The only feedback, still that we’ve gotten is still Keene. None of the other agencies have really given us an feedback so that we could have their picture…

WATTS: For the per diems.

WICK: For the per diems to kind of resolve that discussion.

WATTS: The only other agency that did reach out to us was Etown/Lewis asking who was going to be, is the agency paying for the per diems or is the County paying? Before they send anything back they wanted to know that answer.

HOLZER: Is it a questionnaire that you sent out?

WATTS: Yeah

HOLZER: So you sent it to just the fire chiefs or the EMS?

WATTS: The EMS.

HOLZER: So, why don’t you send all of us Supervisors a couple, so maybe we can help move it along.

WATTS: That’s what I was hoping for.

MONTY: I had a conversation with Matt last week, I was approached by the Lewis Fire Department, they went and voted as a fire department and have been approved through the District Commissioners, they want to submit the request to the County to have all the firemen trained in BLS and I think just for volunteer service and I think that’s a hell of an idea. It’s going to increase the pool of volunteers, they don’t necessarily want to be members or on call 24/7, but they want to be there and I think I presented that to Matt last week and we talked about and especially with Mountain Lake Services going to be using the Public Safety Building for training, I think it’s a great way to dip into the pool of volunteers and not necessarily make them so they have to be there 24/7. Most of my firemen in Lewis show up 24/7 anyway, but I think it’s a great idea and I think we ought to explore it.

WATTS: I did float the idea of doing a CFR class to North Country and they’re interested in doing it as soon as I get more feedback for you or the fire department on how many and when they were looking to do it and all that.

MONTY: I think they got 17, their full membership. A lot of those, I think 6 out that 17 at one point were either a paramedic or EMT.

WATTS: As you talk to them, get more feedback on whether they’re interested in a night class, a couple nights a week or if they want to do a weekend thing. You know how they want to do it and when they’re looking to start it, whether it’s in the summer or the fall or whatever.

MONTY: I think it really opens up our pool of volunteers. Most of your firemen already have EVOC training, so there’s an automatic driver. The last situation in Lewis where we had that accident a couple of weeks ago, two firemen drove the ambulance that were on scene. So, I think it’s a good way to increase our pool.

DELORIA: So, are you looking at the CFR or BLS?

WATTS: CFR

DELORIA: And they’re aware of that?

MONTY: Yeah, absolutely.

MASCARENAS: Just to answer Matt’s question and Elizabethtown/Lewis’ question. Dan Palmer and I, several years ago did that initial presentation to the Board, many of you were on the Board, but some of you weren’t. the County at that time was willing to pay the per diem rates for those individuals, being that we wouldn’t have to pay their benefit costs. That was the stance that the Board took at that time. That doesn’t mean that this Board agrees. It means it was a different time, a different Board and you can’t hold a current Board to any past decisions made by the Board. That was the stance that was taken at that time, it’s exactly the way Johnsburgh/Minerva works. I don’t know why we don’t get people to take advantage of that, per se in terms of that on-call. So, in Minerva they have people on-call, they get $75.00 to be on-call and if something happens, they react. I’m not sure why we’re struggling so much and maybe it’s just an understanding thing or an information thing. I do believe that in order for the State to be cost effective and to be able to be sustainable, it absolutely has to happen.

DELORIA: And we have to have the per diems.

MASCARENAS: It has to happen or the cost is just going to explode.

DELORIA: Now, 17 Etown/Lewis, do they live in the Etown/Lewis area, all 17 people?

MONTY: They all live within a stone’s throw of the firehouse. It’s just Lewis, not Etown. Etown has their own fire department. We do respond to 75% of the Etown calls.

WATTS: We’ll send out the letter to you guys, that we sent out to the agencies for the per diems and maybe you guys can.

DELORIA: If we were provided with some sort of a cost analysis, once this starts moving forward and see how many of these people complete this course, then we could bring that back to us and we could give our blessings and/or comment on that. So, at some point in time let‘s bring that back here, because I don’t think we can decide today.

WICK: So, since last meeting we had all of our staffing contracts fully executed. Other than ones that are still hanging out, there are the ones with Keeseville, Wilmington, Lake Placid and those are for like ALS linkups and purchasing and stuff. It’s not any staff activities that are happening.

We really haven’t had any movement in any other areas, any other agencies that that reached out with any formal requests for additional staffing and that other stuff. I’ve seen that since we’ve got the additional staffing onboard in Moriah that it’s gotten a lot better with their responses and they’re making really good use of those people.

WATTS: All the staffing at all the agencies is going really well right now. We’re fully staffed at all the agencies. We still have one medic car position open, but all the stations are covered.

WICK: Within the agenda there’s the updates of kind of like who’s where and some of that stuff, but also put the roaster that these guys track on a monthly basis at the back end. This is kind of what these guys submit at the Public Safety meetings. So, I can keep adding to this as a simpler look. So, it shows you each of the contracted agencies, where they’re at, the times that their scheduled and the rotations and then the pool of the per diem staff below there. Also in the back page in the medic car staff that we have, as well.

WATTS: Also in this packet of stuff is the schedule for each station and the medic cars.

WICK: That one I didn’t send out to everybody, but I can. I think maybe in the digital email package that I sent, but I didn’t print all of that out, but we can certainly provide that to anybody who wants it. So, that gives you an example of power time software, that scheduling tool that we bought a while back and shows where everybody is located on the schedule.

MONTY: I don’t understand Nathan Thomas, we works 80 hours a week?

WATTS: 80 hours a pay period.

MONTY: It says a week.

WICK: That’s a typo.

WATTS, MICHAEL: 48 hours in Newcomb, 8 hours one week, 40 another week and then the week he does 8 hours in Newcomb, he does 32 hours in the medic car.

WICK: So, there’s a lot of flexibility.

MONTY: It seemed like a lot of hours.

WICK: So, last meeting we talked about, there was a question about where the medic cars are at geographically, this graphic I meant to put in both the emails and the prints for today, and I forgot to print that out, but we do have that. So, essentially you;ve got the different townships, but it’s mostly broken out into two primariy areas, generally northern and a generally southern area where one medic car kind of covers the northern areas and one kind of covers the southern areas.

WATTS: You’ll see the different colors from the different towns, there are like two towns per zone, some of the bigger towns have just one zone, but it’s broken into zones and the medic cars let dispatch what zone they’re in, so they know where they’re located, so that’s how that works.

MONTY: But, the cars start in Lewis?

WATTS: So, we have one station in Ti and then we have one station in Lewis.

So, the Ti one covers…

MONTY: Where are the other two?

WATTS: The other two are in Lewis as well?

MONTY: So, why is there one stationed in Ti?

WATTS: Because we only have one person down that way. Everybody else is up this way. Well, we have two down there, him and Nate.

WATTS, MICHAEL: Work opposite days.

DELORIA: And Ti is closer to the lower proximity of North Hudson.

MONTY: Where is it stored?

WATTS: At the police station.

MONTY: Where it’s under camera?

WATTS: Yup

WICK: We also have a contract with Ti for fleet fuel services down there, too.

DELORIA: Good

WATTS: The other thing that you guys asked about wwas the staffing for agencies as far as like what agencies have volunteers, what have paid staffing that they pay on their own and things like that. So, that;s another thying that we can senf out to you.

DELORIA: Yeah, whatever you didn’t send, go ahead and send it to the group and make sure that Mike gets a couple of it.

WATTS: We have 2022 and 2023 call volumes as well for the medic cars.

DELORIA: Have you ever had one in Newcomb, medic car?

WATTS: We did, you have a call there, didn’t you?

WATTS, MICHAEL: Newcomb, yes, I did one.

DELORIA: Interesting and that’s because our ambilance was part unknown?

WATTS, MICHAEL: I just assisted them with loading the patient and starting care.

DELORIA: You were in the area and were able to getting there in tiem and all that stuff?

WATTS, MICHAEL: I believe I was delivering Covid tests or masks over in that area and happened to have a call.

DELORIA: Okay, I did not know that.

WATTS: The medic cars have actually done a call in at least in every town.

MASCARENAS: So what are the calls, Matt?

WATTS: For ’22 or ’23, so far?

MASCARENAS: ’22 is fine.

WATTS: 378 and you’ve got to remember a lot of that time we didn’t have as many medics on the on road as we do now, either. So, we’re at

WATTS, MICHAEL: Almost 180, so far this year.

DELORIA: Wow

MASCARENAS: And that’s either first response or assisted response?

WATTS: Yup

MASCARENAS: Just total numbers?

WATTS: Total numbers, yes.

WATTS, MICHAEL: In that I broke it down also by the disposition of the call. Whether we assisted on scene, provided ALS to the agency, etc.

MASCARENAS: Oh, okay.

WATTS: I think you did a copy of this. We’ll send it to everybody, again.

BARBER: Did that include Chesterfield?

WATTS, MICHAEL: I don’t believe we did any up there, last year.

WATTS: No

BARBER: So, where do we stand in Chesterfield as far as signing a contract?

WATTS: I haven’t heard anything from them.

BARBER: You told me you were going to get with them.

WATTS: Yup, I have not heard back.

BARBER: okay, I’m curious, because like I said, from what I’m hearing, you’re going to have a hard time getting them to sign a contract. I think it’s because of where they’re located and the contract they have with Plattsburgh, because my understanding is if one of our guys go out, Plattsburgh is responsible to replace them with the contract that they have.

WATTS, MICHAEL: The majority of the contract for Chesterfield was for equipoment.

BARBER: That’s true and then they never received the equipment.

WATTS: Because they haven’t signed the contract.

BARBER: And I understand that and I mean I don’t think that;s going to be the reason for signing and I am onbly going by what I am hearing.

MASCARENAS: Can you show me what that contract is?

WATTS: Yeah, the standard contact that we send to every agency. It has three options, one is staffing, one is the intercepts and one is the equipment.

MASCARENAS: Okay

WATTS: And we would like everybody to sign the intercept, if nothing more, so we can bill for the intercepts.

WICK: The contract body, itself is as boilerplate as we could make it and then there’s attachments to it, that specify what services you are electing to have. So, I mean, the versions that we have previously, there was some understanding of how it could be misconstrued when you read it this way or that way. I mean this version that we have now is the simplest, the most clear, non-committal contract that you can have.

MASCARENAS: Maybe they misunderstand it.

WICK: Perhaps, but I don’t know any other way that it could be presented that makes it clear. The only thing being provided to them is the option of ALS linkups and bulk procurements.

WATTS: And it allows for us to get paid for the intercepts. We don’t charge them for anything unless we intercept with them and the equipment’s free.

WATTS, MICHAEL: And it’s already been purchased.

STANLEY: So, it says that AuSable has signed the contract.

WATTS: I don’t think so, I think that might be another typo.

STANLEY: I would say so, because it’s sitting in my inbox in my office.

HOLZER: When you say for the intercept, is it billed directly to the patient or the district?

WATTS: So, it’s now billed to the ambulance service, because they turn around and they bill it.

HOLZER: Okay

WATTS: So, if they have a basic EMT on their ambulance they can only charge a basic rate. If we come on the ambulance and provide care, they can now charge the ALS rate.

HOLZER: So, it’s all about invoice submitting?

WATTS: Correct. So, it’s not costing them anything, because they’re going to bill the basic unless we get on board and then they can bill at the higher rate and basically pass that money back to us.

MASCARENAS: What was the amount that was in the contract for Chesterfield for equipment?

WATTS: Do you remember what they got?

WATTS, MICHAEL: Two monitors and a device.

WATTS: So, probably $50,000.00-$60,000.00 worth of equipment.

MASCARENAS: I am just concerned that if they don’t sign it and we don’t allocate that money long term then we’re going to lose it. It’s money that we can use elsewhere.

WATTS: We’ve already bought the equipment.

MASCARENAS: You brought it, you just haven’t given it to them. Okay

DOTY: And the term of the money is through 2024?

WICK: Yea

DOTY: At which point we’re faced with over $12 million.

MASCARENAS: No sir. Not right now.

DOTY: No, but I’m just trying to look at a timeline.

MASCARENAS: Right now, if, we would probably be about $2.5 million if the County had to add that to the levy today, but my concern is that the problem is getting maybe worse in certain areas, from what I’m hearing and agencies maybe struggling to meet the demands of their calls with lack of volunteerism and those types of things. So, it could grow over time. That’s why I’m not as concerned about the $2.5 milion because we have some debt that’s coming in an end, if we’re able to fignalagle somethings we could potentially take it on without pushing the levy at all. Once you get above that $2.5 million mark, now you;ve going to have some issues in terms of the County being able to absorb those dollars without increasing the levy and that inlines the problem. So, this per diem thing matters, it matters a lot, because fulltime 24/7 operation in every town is going to get you to that number you’re speaking of and that is just simply not sustainbable for any taxing entity.

DELORIA: And certainly the larger communities that have 500-600 runs per year. I mean Newcomb can sistain it, because we have say 100, 110, 120, it bounces back and forth.

WATTS: Ti and Moriah, they’re doing 700-800 calls a year.

DOTY: We’re approaching 1,200.

MONTY: The next 18 months we really hammer the per diems, the volunteers and really push that anyway we can to help make it sustainable.

I would like to see out local agency get a contract with Essex Centers because almost 50% of their calls are front door, back door, Essex Centers to the hospital. So, if you take them out and Elizabethtown and Lewis are paying for that front door/back door. I don’t know if that’s anything we can control. But, it’s something that I think, as two towns and our squads we need to address that, because basically the only thing they get is the medicare, is my understanding, but why are we tying the service when if you just open that door you can wheel them in.

WATTS: Which that has gotten slightly better. I feel like we made a little bit of process when we met with them a couple of months ago.

MASCARENAS: And these small communities, with low call volume to have people on-call, like Steve tells me in Minerva, people sign up, a lot of times they don’t have to answer the call. That’s the nature of the beast. When the whistle blows you’ve got to be available, but a lot of times they’re getting paid just to be available.

DELORIA: The reason we formed this countywide is we figure we would help keep the costs down, but there’s this school of thought that simply does not understand that becoming part of our team is beneficial to the taxpayers. It’s one year at a time on this deal, not one day at a time.

MONTY: But that time is getting short.

WICK: The only other update I mentioned is follow-up from last month. The dispatch policy was pushed out on April 3^rd to the fire departments for cardiac arrest, along with EMS and then AEDs were put out to all the fire departments, as well . that;s been on our agenda for quite awhile.

WATTS: I think we’re finally done, everybody has them now.

WATTS, MICHAEL: Lewis and Moriah.

WICK: And we also have CPR trainings that are going to held on a regular basis. So, we’ve got started on April 18^th in Ti. Once that started the 22^nd in Jay and Upper Jay and one is going to the 27^th at the Jay Highway and some for the summer camps in May and June.

WATTS: Yeah, we’ve done a lot of CPR training in the last couple of months.

WATTS, MICHAEL: The one in Ti that we had last week was 19 people, the one we did for Jay and Upper Jay on Saturday, we had 21 people. So, 40 people in just the last week.

MASCARENAS: I think the summer camp training has been a benefit that we didn’t recognize when we started this thing and kind of how things have other impacts when we do them, but we were really struggling to get certified trainers, so that the towns could open up their summer day camps and get their permits necessary to operate and now that we have those people in-house it’s certainly a lot easier and a benefit to any community that wants to take advantage of it in Essex County. Whether you want to be in our system or not, you use our trainers, you use our facilities and it’s a huge benefit.

WATTS, MICHAEL: And certainly if any of the towns want to host a CPR class for the residents, we’re more than willing to do that, as well.

DELORIA: Okay, anybody have any comments or questions? If not, we stand adjourned.

AS THERE WAS NO FURTHER BUSINESS TO COME BEFORE THIS SUBCOMMITTEE, IT WAS ADJOURNED AT 9:40 AM.

Respectively Submitted,

Dina Garvey, Deputy Clerk

Board of Supervisors