West Concord looks to hire full-time EMT director

The city of West Concord needs EMTS, and now, eight months after the City Council approved funding for two full-time EMT positions, the city is doubling down on its efforts.
For months, the Dodge Center Ambulance has been covering day time shifts from 5 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday thru Friday for West Concord after losing longtime volunteers who covered the shifts.
But with a potential taxing district on the table for the Dodge Center Ambulance Primary Service Area, the Dodge Center City Council gave notice to both West Concord and Hayfield that a charge of $34 an hour would be enacted for any calls they go on as the primary ambulance.
“The Council did give notice that they intend to charge $34/hour for coverage outside our primary service area starting December 1,” Dodge Center City Administrator Lee Mattson wrote in an email.
As of now, Dodge Center Ambulance receives any of the funds from those calls they go on, which it would also receive on top of the hourly rate.
“We are trying to keep our money in our community and not rely on Dodge Center for daytime coverage after November 30th,” West Concord City Administrator Paula Even Trenda wrote in an email. “We are seeing if we can find a Director (who will also take more calls) and 1 or 2 paid full or part-time EMTs for daytime hours. Council approved the job descriptions, so we started posting them to try and find candidates.”
Current Ambulance Director Peter Moen is a volunteer.
“Although it is a ‘paid’ volunteer, I wouldn’t exactly say he is getting rich on the stipend. He can remain on, as a volunteer EMT, with the City. He could also apply for the full-time position if he’d like,” Trenda wrote. “Otherwise, the position is newly created and the structure of the ambulance service in West Concord will change slightly.”
Trenda explained how Mayor Jeff McCool’s proposal was centered around investing in the community including by recruiting nationally, hiring and retaining “a Full-time professional Ambulance Director (EMT minimal) for a Monday — Friday daytime position who would report to the City Administrator/Clerk.”
The city would also recruit, hire, and retain, one full-time EMT or two part-time EMTS for Monday through Friday daytime shifts, “with a potential to use a volunteer EMT/Driver so there are three people on the call.”
In addition the city hopes to retain volunteers, and have paid on-call for volunteers, while also visiting residents “door-to-door to talk about EMS and FIRE volunteer activities within West Concord and recruit additional volunteers.”
“This was approved at the council meeting on August 15th, as well as discussed as part of our budget meeting on August 12th with fire and police,” Trenda wrote in an email. “Some of the pay and funding is still being tweaked, but job descriptions and posting were approved. Preliminary Budget will be approved at (the) September 19 council meeting.”
Initially Trenda said funding will come from the 2024 budget that hasn’t been spent on two full-time EMTS the city was looking to hire, but were unsuccessful. In addition the city hopes to get one time state aid, and are applying for some grants.
“This year we don’t plan to increase the levy to cover the position (s), but we will see how things fall into place with all of our other expenses,” Trenda wrote. “ We will know by early September.”