Budgeting for Architectural Plans

By PJ Martin

Editor

The Herald-News

 

The Barren-Metcalfe County Emergency Medical Services Board of Directors met on March 6 at the TJ Pavilion Community Center.

The first order of business was to elect the 2025 officers. Dr. Neil Thornbury’s term as a director on the Ambulance Service Corporation incorporated expired on February 26, 2025, and the board has appointed him to a new four-year term to expire on February 26, 2029.

The term of Karissa Peterson of Barren County as a director on the Ambulance Service Corporation incorporated expired on February 26, 2025, and the Barren County Judge/Executive appointed Phillip Gearlds of Barren County for a term of four years to expire on February 26, 2029.

A roll call was performed and the following were present: Barren County Judge/Executive Jamie Byrd, Metcalfe County Judge/Executive Larry Wilson, Karissa Peterson, Garland Gilliam, Ervin Sorrell, Dr. Neil Thornbury, and Phillip Gearlds. Also in attendance were Attorney Brian Pack, Executive Director Joe Middleton, and Executive Secretary/Treasurer Shawn Estes. A quorum was present.

The nominations and motion to approve a chairman for a one-year term resulted in Ervin Sorrell. Chosen as vice chair was Garland Gilliam and as secretary/treasurer was Dr. Neil Thornbury.

Appointed to the Finance Committee were Dr. Neil Thornbury as chairman and members Garland Gilliam and Judge/Executive Larry Wilson.

Appointed to the Personnel Committee were Philip Gearlds as chairman and members Ervin Sorrel and Judge/Executive Jamie Byrd.

The minutes of the December 18, 2024, meeting were reviewed and approved.

In honor of Karisa Peterson’s service on the board, Chairman Ervin Sorrell presented her with an award thanking her for her dedicated service.

A brief closed session was held to discuss personnel, and upon return, there was no action taken.

 

Finance Report

The financial report for December 2024 was presented by Estes who stated, “If you’ll turn your attention to the second column here at action, our cash receipts were $3.22 million. Our adjusted expenses were $3.19 million for an income of $27,626. We should be tracking 50% of the budget, and we are below that at 48…”.

Estes then presented the January statement. “Same review the second column, year to date, action, total cash receipts, $3.70 million total expenses, 3.712 for a loss here today of $7,526. We should be tracking 58.33% of the budget, and we’re under at 56.3%.”

The question of the significant difference between the months was answered by Middleton.

“In January, we filled a lot of CMS billing, about $70 – $75,000 in CMS billing. The reason is that in January, those patrons, those patients, have not met their deductible. So, the billing company, if the way CMS is designed is, if we bill them, they’ve not met their deductible, they’ll apply to the deductible. We cannot balance bill the patient, so we just have to write that money off. What we elected to do this time as a trial basis to see if it would work if we yield that $75 – $1,000 in billing til January, or until February the second, and then we started dropping those bills so that in January, that the deductible is met. In February, we start receiving payments from CMS for those services that we would have normally billed in January…You should see a little bit of an increase in collections from February,” Middleton said.

The financial reports for both months were approved.

 

Operations Reports

Middleton began with the daily run logs. December had a total of 940 runs while January had 956 runs. The YTD for 2024 was 11,045 with 9,372 of those in Barren County and 1,673 in Metcalfe County.

Middleton then discussed the run times, “Our average response time is 10 minutes 16 seconds. Remember that 10 minutes 16 seconds also includes that minute 24 for chute time. The average response time is the time it’s dispatched til the time they arrive on scene.”

“We’re at 15 minutes 40 seconds for the average scene time… And then the next page shows average transport time, which is 13 minutes.”

Middleton also presented the response report sorted by Fire Dept. District and volume by BMEMS Station for February 2025.

Budget

In an effort to begin budget preparation, Middleton asked if the finance committee was ready to begin the process of building on the land purchased at Highway 68/80 and at Haywood. Adding that he wanted to be sure of the direction they were going before he put those numbers into the budget.

The plans are to build smaller buildings to access the outlying communities instead of one large location. He was authorized to proceed with the construction budget. Garland Gilliam added, “Rather allocate for plans.”

Two different design plans will be needed since the buildings will be approximately 1,800 sq. ft. with living quarters, and the second plan will need to be an administration and training wing which will be added to one.

The next meeting is scheduled for April 23, 2025, at 4 p.m. at the Metcalfe County Government Center.

(L-R): J/E Jamie Byrd, the newest member Phillip Geralds, Executive Secretary/Treasurer Shawn Estes, and Executive Director Joe Middleton.  Photo | PJ Martin