ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, January 31, 1996 TAG: 9601310034
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: PULASKI
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
Pulaski County residents soon will be charged for emergency medical services, officials will consider expanding the county's recreation program and the county's three law enforcement agencies will study how they can better cooperate, government leaders said Monday night.
Over the past few months, Radford Community Hospital and Columbia Pulaski Community Hospital have put up $70,000 to pay staff members to fill in gaps on the county's two volunteer rescue squads. Though the squads have been serving the county for some 40 years, volunteers have become more difficult to find, especially during the day, when they work at other jobs.
"We know [the hospitals] don't want to continue paying forever," County Administrator Joe Morgan said Monday night at a quarterly joint meeting of the county Board of Supervisors and the Pulaski and Dublin Town Councils.
So the people who use emergency medical services will have to pay instead.
The three governing bodies agreed to start billing for services in three months, and to begin interviewing for a director to oversee Regional Emergency Medical Services Inc., a nonprofit corporation. Its governing board will include representatives of the towns and county, hospitals and rescue squads.
In most cases, private insurance will cover 80 percent of emergency service costs, and the customers will be billed for the rest. Medicare and Medicaid also can be applied to emergency and medical service costs.
Another option will be a membership program, to be set up in the next three months, in which a family would pay about $39 annually to have their own costs covered automatically. This will also be open to people without insurance.
Fred Gravley, a Pulaski County Lifesaving Crew volunteer for 25 years, said the demands and pressures on volunteers have made it hard to keep his crew at full complement.
He said about 25 percent of calls the volunteers handle turn out to be nonemergencies. Those calls will likely stop once billing starts, he said.
Diana Nunley, representing the Pulaski hospital, said average response time has been cut from 15 to 20 minutes to a little more than a minute with the paid people on the crews. But the new system won't work without the volunteers, she said.
In other business, representatives from all three governing bodies said the county-wide recreation program needs to be expanded to include older teen-agers.
"We kind of drop our kids at age 15," said Dublin Councilman Benny Skeens. "You take the kids to a certain level and, all of a sudden, you say 'You're too old, you can't play anymore.'"
"I've always felt that we need to expand that age out beyond what we do now," said Supervisor Bruce Fariss. "There's not much to do in this geographical area. ... There's no theater. There's no roller skating rink. You can't even play any organized sport because there are no programs for you."
The governing bodies approved Fariss' motion to ask for cost estimates for adding activities for participants up to age 18.
In the area of law enforcement, police agencies in all three jurisdictions are cooperating for training programs, a Drug Task Force and more.
Dublin Councilman David Stanley, who admitted his was a minority view on council, said he would like to see the county Sheriff's Office take over more duties in Dublin. The Sheriff's Office already handles dispatching duties for the town.
"My concern is that the taxpayers of Dublin get their money's worth out of the Sheriff's Department," Stanley said. "I think the Sheriff's Department owes us, if you want to put it that way, coverage at night." It could also handle investigation work, he said.
The three governing bodies approved Stanley's motion, 12-5, to continue discussions between county, town, police and Sheriff's Office administrators on further avenues of cooperation.
LENGTH: Medium: 71 linesby CNB