Published: October 15, 2009 03:57 pm      

MESTA looks toward securing grant funds

Mayes Emergency Services Trust Authority Director Rick Langkamp discussed EMS agency grants for the Oklahoma Trauma Fund at their meeting Tuesday night.

“There is $2.5 million per year that will be given out and the most you can ask for is $500,000 per grant,” he said. “I have some ideas that include regional medical direction and additional service to the northeast corner of Mayes and to include parts of Delaware and Craig County.”

There is a meeting in Oklahoma City for the committee developing the criteria for the grants. MESTA is scheduled to attend.

Three of the emergency medical technicians passed the practical exam to be intermediates. One of them has also passed the written exam and is now classified as an EMT-I.

MESTA is hosting basic, intermediate and paramedic refreshers throughout the month. All medics have to recertify every two years to maintain licensure, according to Langkamp.

In other business, the board approved the Christmas bonus program which entails giving a year-end bonus in place of a cost of living for year 2009.

Employees with full-time status will receive $150 for every month of service in 2009 at that full-time position and $75 for every month they were part-time, according to Langkamp.

Part-time employees will receive $75 for every month they were employed in this calendar year.

The director’s bonus will be $4,000, the same as the previous year. The board secretary will receive a $250 bonus.

Langkamp asked the board to also approve the increasing of the bonus structure for EMS Operations Coordinator Steve VanHorn and 911 Coordinator Brandon Hawkins. Currently they receive $1,800. Langkamp requested that each be given $1,000 more. The motion passed.

Board members also approved up to a $5,000 purchase for two EZ-IO’s and a portable ventilator for the ambulances. A demonstration of the EZ-IO was given for the board.

The EZ-IO is designed to help medical professionals gain vascular access in

seconds to provide intravenous therapy to patients, according to their Web site.

It is a “dense bone

insertion procedure” designed to use when standard IVs can’t be utilized.

MESTA approved the appointment of Harriet Dunham as MESTA’s 911 liaison representative to work with the County Commissioners, Pryor City Council and MESTA. According to MESTA, her role would be to assist in insuring that the flow of information existed between these governmental agencies.

“I would like to be a liaison,” Dunham said. “Maybe if we all work together, we can benefit the citizens of Mayes County.”