Medics upset on door issue

After further discussion with Jay Emergency Medical Service, the Jay County Commissioners are putting a hold on plans to install a cutoff switch on heaters in the EMS garages after learning of mechanical issues with the bay doors.

In response to an article and editorial in The Commercial Review last week about an automatic cutoff switch for heaters in the garage at the Portland base, JEMS director Teresa Foster-Geesaman and JEMS employees spoke to commissioners this morning about the issue.

During this morning's meeting, a missing piece of the puzzle fell into place - the fact that aging closing mechanisms on the bay doors are prone to malfunction.

JEMS members felt the article and editorial insinuated the failure to close the doors was a personnel issue, while this morning, employees brought to light some mechanical issues with the closing system.

"If our garage doors worked correctly, we wouldn't have this problem," said JEMS employee Mandy Auker. "(The article) makes us look lazy and incapable of performing our jobs."

The commissioners approved last week spending $874.50 to install a cutoff switch to shut off the hanging heaters in the garage when the doors are open. They were informed of the heating waste by Don Crawmer of Fort Recovery Construction and Equipment, who offered the cutoff switch as a solution.

The mechanical problems with the doors, however, weren't brought to the attention of Crawmer or the commissioners until this morning.

"It was never mentioned there were problems with the doors," Crawmer said later in the meeting.

"We made a hasty decision," said commissioner Jim Zimmerman. "We probably should have done a little more investigating."

"We were unaware there was any door problems," said commissioner Faron Parr and added later, "I didn't even know."

This morning, other JEMS employees expressed problems with the doors, stating that they could hit the close button on their remotes several times without the door budging, or that the door would appear to close but then roll back up after going down a few feet.

The Portland JEMS base contains a 65 percent efficient heater, which chews through fuel trying to heat the bay if the door is left open during colder weather.

Foster-Geesaman said the opening mechanisms have been repaired in the past, but that the systems aren't 100 percent reliable.

With the information about the mechanical problems, the commissioners changed course and perhaps money needs to be spent to replace the doors instead of the cutoff switch.

"If it comes to the point when you need new outdoor garage openers, I'll be the first to commit, go buy one," said commissioner Milo Miller Jr. "Maybe we need to put the openers on and forget the (cutoff switch)."

Foster-Geesaman said it could cost about $750 per door to install the same closing system that is in place as the Dunkirk JEMS base, which closes itself automatically after a few minutes if left open.

The commissioners said they will look into the problem further and consider the door replacement and said that a combination of new door mechanisms and a cutoff switch could be a solution.

"We'll hash it over and see what we want to do," Miller said.

In other business this morning, the commissioners:

•Made several appointments and reappointments to various boards, including: Jim Zimmerman, Wabash River Heritage Corridor Commission; Jim Bruner, Public Defender Board; David Littler and Roger Locker, Jay County Hospital board of trustees; Darrell Borders and Ailesia Franklin, Convention, Visitor and Tourism Commission; Joe Sommers and Don Denney, Jay County Regional Sewer District board; Jay King, Alcoholic Beverage Board of Jay County.

The commissioners also reappointed all current county department heads.[[In-content Ad]]