Billing issues heading to resolution, commissioners hear

ORIGINALLY WRITTEN JERRY ENGLER
From ambulance bills to airplane photography-get one consideration behind you, and another will arise to take its place.

That sure seemed to be the story for the Marion County Commission Monday.

Commissioners learned from auditor Scot Loyd and department workers that billing pitfalls in Emergency Medical Services apparently are on their way to being resolved.

But a group of county department heads brought forward a new $75,000 airplane photography proposal for commissioners to consider, which they thought might be paid for from Federal Emergency Management Administration funds granted the county for expenditures in last summer’s floods and storms.

County Appraiser Dianna Carter-Frantz said photographing the entire county by air with latest technology would give greater resolution-down to being able to see fire hydrants-than the last aerial picture-taking did in 1984.

Communications and Emergency Management Director Michele Abbott-Becker said new pictures could enhance response to 911 calls from wireless phones with emergency crews actually able to see photos of the terrain.

Commission Chairman Leroy Wetta said, “So, if the guy needing help was over a hill in a gully, you could actually see how to get to him.”

Sheriff Lee Becker said the photos could help response by clarifying the new lay of improvements since 1984.

“Today there’s places where there’s houses that weren’t there then, and places where others are gone,” Becker said.

Besides that, Becker said, he and his deputies could see terrain, intersections and approaches.

Acting Road and Bridge Director Jim Herzet said his department could do the same in looking at drainage and construction problems.

Sanitarian David Brazil said he could use an improved system to keep a record of all wells and waste-water systems.

Carter-Frantz said cities could be given photos of their areas to help with the same problems there. Each office could have the photos on computer file rather than going to a central point to look through more cumbersome large-leaf pictures, she said.

Abbott-Becker said there are possibilities that 911 funds and Homeland Security grants could help with the photography.

Carter-Frantz suggested the FEMA funds are a windfall to the county that will be spent somehow anyway.

Commissioner Bob Hein acknowledged she was probably right, but the commissioners might need a little more time to consider how it will be spent.

Commissioner Howard Collett didn’t know if he liked the photography proposal.

“I’m concerned about Big Brother looking over every square inch of property,” he said. “I wonder just how much information we really need about all of our citizens. I can understand the appraisal needs and safety aspects. But it’s a privacy issue too.”

Wetta said the county “could get an elephant off its back,” too, by paying off lease-purchase agreements for $200,000 on road graders. He said it could leave the county in an improved position to pay cash for graders, and be able to better finance proposals like airplane photos.

“I’d like to see all the wish lists that will come in before we act,” he said.

Hein said the department heads should get back on the agenda with the proposal for next Monday’s meeting.

In the EMS department, Loyd said the need for his oversight in correcting the situation, as the commissioners have contracted, is drawing to a close.

He said EMS employee Deana Olsen is proceeding well with writing paper claims with approximately 60 done. Loyd said with all of the entry of medical codes, this is a job “not to get done overnight.”

Loyd said training for EMS employees on new computer programming in Indianapolis went well, particularly with EMS employee Woody Crawshaw able to come back to make more rapid progress in catching up ambulance billings.

Loyd and Crawshaw, later in the day, both described how an instructor in Indiana had uploaded the Marion program, and discovered immediately that runs weren’t adequately differentiated among those to homes, to businesses and to public places.

Crawshaw said that such differentiation is necessary for billing to entities such as Medicare.

“Our predecessors apparently knew to put the information in, but not where to put it,” he said.

Crawshaw said he is making rapid progress now, and the first income resulting from efforts to catch up on two years of billings should be coming in less than 30 days.

After talking to Loyd, the commissioners went into executive session with him for five minutes for identifiable personnel.

EMS Director Darryl Thiesen reported 70 ambulance calls in November, 25 from Hillsboro, 23 from Marion, 14 from Peabody, and eight from Tampa.

They included 11 transfers, five cardiac, 24 medical emergencies, three standby, seven vehicle accidents, five falls, 13 no-transports and two rescue truck.

There were 10 first responder calls, three from Goessel, six from Lincolnville, and one from Burns.

Thiesen reported 2004 EMT crew re-certifications completed, with HIPPA training expected to be done this week.

Brazil gave commissioners copies of planning and zoning committee minutes, and told them a conditional-use permit would be presented for approval from planning and zoning next week that concerns approval of a cattle feeding facility.

Brazil told commissioners that after conversations with conservation district personnel, he would expect more applications for animal feeding confinements of more than 1,000 head in the coming decade. His main concerns will be water purity and isolation for odor, he said.

Collett said he “hates to see” regulatory restrictions get in the way of value-added enterprises such as feeding facilities that provide additions to revenue.

The commissioners voted 3-0 to approve three encumbrances into next year presented by Brazil, $16,000 for masonry repair and painting at the transfer station, $900 for an air jack at the transfer station, and $1,500 for printing zoning regulations and subdivision regulations.

County Lake Park Superintendent Dale Snelling projected that his park receipts for the year will be off 2 percent from the projected $105,000 to just more than $102,000.

Wetta said it was a very good projection, and nearly on the mark, considering the year.

Hein said that all area lakes have been down on receipts with the high price of gasoline and reduced public travel for recreation receiving the blame.

Abbott-Becker said Homeland Security funds have provided a Wells Fargo trailer to the Marion County Fire Chiefs Association that has been turned over to her department because of tax and insurance considerations.

The commissioners voted 2-1, with Collett the dissenting vote, to award The County Seat of Marion a bid of $1,051.60 over a bid of $950 from Baker Furniture of Peabody to replace carpet, deteriorated from rainwater leakage, with plastic floor cover by the east window of the communications center in the jail building.

The commissioners awarded Cardie Oil of Tampa a road and bridge transport fuel bid for $11,267.20 over a bid of $11,556 from Cooperative Grain at Hillsboro.

The Cardie bid included 4,000 gallons of clear diesel at $1.5187 a gallon for $6,074.80, 1,000 gallons of dyed diesel at $1.2627 a gallon for $1,262.70, and 3,000 gallons of unleaded gasoline at $1.2099 a gallon for $3,929.70.

The bids from Cooperative Grain for the same quantities respectively at per gallon and total prices were $1.549 for $6,196, $1.295 for $1,295, and 1.2355 for $4,065.

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