Plains Ambulance services look for a place to expand

PLAINS – The Town of Plains held its regular meeting of the Plains Town Council on Thursday, May 1, at 7:00 p.m. in the town hall council room. 

The meeting began covering unfinished business from the last meeting. 

This included going over the intent to raise water raters, announcing that letters detailing the prescribed raises have been sent out and ads placed in the paper informing residents of the future rate raises. 

Mayor Greg Eitelberg also noted that there would be a more in-depth meeting on the matter held on Wednesday, May 14, open to the public. 

“Montana Rural Water, will be coming doing the same presentation as before,” Eitelberg said.

The mayor also noted he would be giving several presentations that evening including some focusing on the suppression systems on the town fire hydrants and future maintenance on the water tower, among other matters. 

The mayor announced the security cameras at the pool park are up and running and will hopefully prevent the area from being damaged or vandalized in the future.

The final announcement pertained to the proposed town clean-up, which will go ahead as planned on July 26, the mayor noted the fire department was on board and was looking forward to a good turnout.

The meeting then moved to new business, which focused on the town’s ambulance barn, used by the Plains Ambulance Service. 

Emergency Medical Technician Larry Nielson, and President of Volunteers, Kevin Kerr were in attendance to present the issue to the council and the public. 

Nielson began by stating the Plains service had been given an ambulance by Bighorn, bringing the Plains fleet up to three vehicles.

“Bighorn got out of the business all together because of liabilities and expenses,” Nielson said.

Nielson continued by stating the Plains Ambulance Service was looking to purchase a new ambulance as the Bighorn vehicle was a 1997 model, and it would be a good idea to have two back up ambulances in case the aging fleet required repairs.

Nielson stated the crew needed more dependable vehicles than what they were currently working with. 

“We are in the process of trying to buy another transport ambulance because our transport ambulance is getting high on mileage,” Nielson said. 

Nielson then moved to the matter of storing the ambulances, and the issue of providing EMTs with a work environment that is up to state and county standards. 

As it stands only two ambulances can be stored in the ambulance barn, one is stored at Nielson’s home, and if the service acquires a new ambulance its home would have to be figured out. 

“We still have no parking we still have no sleeping facilities. We do require people to be in close proximity to the barn if they live outside the immediate area,” Nielson said.

Kerr reiterated the issue of adding ambulances without adding additional space at the barn. 

“Part of that is OK. We have all these ambulances but we have no place to store them. And that is why we are looking at remodeling the building we are in or building a new one, and so far the figures have shown it is actually cheaper for us to go out and buy a new property, put up a new building exactly like we want and then sell the existing one or rent it to some other agency,” Kerr said.  

The mayor seemed receptive to the idea, understanding it was in its initial stages but stated his willingness to work with the ambulance services on the issue. 

“We do have the well over on the backside of town. I was hoping in my four to five year plan I was going to try to maybe get some drawings for a fire department and get some grant money to build it, so that is something I would like to try,” Eitelberg said. “I know we can’t afford to build it as a town from a tax standpoint but if we get grant money to do it we actually have a decent property over there. So that is something I want to look at in the years to come.”