By Gail Peckler-Dziki~Correspondent
Silver Lake Trustee Barb Ironside, Chairman of the Emergency Services Committee, brought forth a written contract to present to the Silver Lake Rescue Squad (SLRS) at the Oct. 2 regular board meeting.
Village President Sue Gerber contested the contract saying the contract didn’t look like a collaboration with SLRS. “Why would they agree to some of this contract?”
Gerber also commented that it had not come through committee but was developed through a series of emails and that it gives control to SLFD.
Several meetings ago, the question regarding who has the authority to upgrade a call was asked. While SLRS does provide some advanced life support (ALS), the group does not have the highest level of paramedic.
Recently, both Silver Lake Fire Department (SLFD) personnel and SLRS responded to a medical call. SLFD personnel suggested that the call should be upgraded and Salem be called to the home. SLRS personnel disagreed and arranged an intercept on the way to the hospital. And then the question was asked, who is qualified to make the upgrade decision.
Silver Lake attorney Linda Gray called the state and reported that she was told that since SLRS holds the higher license, they are the ones responsible to determine upgrade to paramedic.
Ironside brought forth an opinion obtained by the SLFD. SLFD member Greg Galich explained that it took the state a week and a half of collaboration to get this opinion.
“If there is a verbal or written contract and money is exchanged, the emergency services fall under the supervision of the fire chief and the village board,” Galich said.
Previously, Gray had reported that the contracted rescue services falls under he supervision of only the village board.
Trustee Soti Wilber said that board members had sat with SLRS members and a number of their suggestions were woven into this proposed contract. It was pointed out that it had been run by attorney Gray and this proposed contract was being sent to the SLRS attorney for review.
The board voted unanimously to send the proposed contract to the SLRS attorney. Decker was absent. When Gerber voted no, Ironside reminded her that she could not vote since her son is a member of SLRS.