Ambulance heads to negotiations

Members of the Chickasaw County Ambulance Council Tuesday night, after hearing about ways to fund the lone bid received from Chickasaw Ambulance Service, all favored in a voice vote forming a committee to negotiate with service owner Jeremy McGrath.The committee consists of Ambulance Council members Scott Cerwinske representing Nashua, Shain Kroenecke for Fredericksburg and Amy Laures for Alta Vista — which is less than a quorum at just one-third of the nine-member council — and MercyOne New Hampton Chief Executive Aaron Flugum, who volunteered. The first meeting was Wednesday.The Ambulance Council met in joint session with the County Board of Supervisors, which held a discussion-only “work session” to lay out the payment options for the CAS bid, or a reduced version if the committee so determines. McGrath gave two bid options which include four and a half full-time equivalent staff, which scale up over three years. While the year-two ballpark figure was taken for last week’s news story ($360,000), McGrath used the year-one figures at the meeting, $350,000 exactly for option one or over $357,000 for option two.— For more on this story, see the April 26 New Hampton Tribune.