“Meeting held to ponder north ambulance service” from the October 1, 1974 Door County Advocate
Meeting held to ponder north ambulance service
It’s been on call 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, for the past 45 years but now that state regulations concerning ambalance operations are becoming increasingly stringent, the Casperson Ambulance Service of Sister Bay is going out of business.
This was the substance of a letter sent by owner Clyde Casperson to the county board at its September meeting and Northern Door are now faced with the problem of providing residents with an approved ambulance, trained personnel and ’round the clock service within the next few months.
Casperson set his deadline for discontinuing service as of Jan. 1, 1975, but indicated at a meeting held in Sister Bay Friday night that he “would be willing to help out” during the transitional period, not to exceed six months from the January deadline.
Sheriff Hollis Bridenhagen has already applied for a van-type ambulance (which complies with both state and federal standards) from the Fort Howard Paper Company in Green Bay, a company which has provided Door county with its newest ambulance and which is well known in the area for its generous “Valor Awards” for bravery. The sheriff said he should know by December if another ambulance will be contributed but the outlook is “hopeful.”
Supervisor Percy Johnson of Washington Island will submit a resolution to the county board in October asking for a minimum of $40,000 for operating expenses. This amount is expected to cover housing, service and manpower. Because the state requires all ambulance attendants to pass emergency medical training courses, a school specializing in required subjects is expected to be set up in either Door or Kewaunee counties around the first of the year.
According to Patrick Ryan, coordinator with the Health Planning Council in Green Bay, there is a good chance of having a school in Sturgeon Bay. The course would run for 26 weeks and would require three hours of classroom study one night a week. Sturgeon Bay ambulance attendants Fritz Brunswick, John Brunswick and George Savage completed the course earlier this year.
Saying he would like to someday divorce the sheriff’s department from the county ambulance system, Bridenhagen said his office would still be willing to accept calls and act as a dispatch center. Ryan was asked that if an ambulance is county-owned could a private individual be subsidized for its operation and answered yes. Ryan also noted that in some communities women serve as attendants and are “doing as well as men.”
Bridenhagen said a county wide plan should be under a qualified coordinator and said Fritz Brunswick (due now for advanced EMT training) could adequately serve in that capacity.
Greg Diltz and Lee Telfer, members of the Sister Bay-Liberty Grove fire department, brought out the fact that most volunteer firemen in their area have completed Red Cross advanced first aid courses and many would be willing to continue their training under the EMT program. Sister Bay Village President Dave Anderson concurred and said that if the department was willing to house its latest (and smallest) emergency vehicle in a private, heated garage, there would be room for an ambulance in the Sister Bay fire station, a location judged as most practical by all the supervisors present.
Casperson pointed out that the service can not operate on a haphazard part time basis but requires professional, full time personnel. The state requires that a minimum of two trained attendants (plus a driver) are necessary and Ryan warned that for approved maintenance the law may soon be changed to require an EMT trained driver.
Casperson said he had received 125 calls so far this year and 80 percent were of an emergency nature. Bridenhagen noted that his department had answered more than 500 calls and the number increased yearly. “It’s never going to get any better,” he told the group. “This type of service is something you can’t scale down or try to chintz on. When people are sick or hurt they need help in a hurry.”
The county board accepted a Robert Wood Johnson grant last month which will provide residents with a free emergency line for a two year period. The sheriff said his department is in the process of getting needed “hardware” at this time and will announce when the system goes into effect.
Also attending Friday’s meeting, were Orville Voeks and Kenneth Zak, supervisor and chairman of the town of Baileys Harbor respectively, Harvey Malzahn, chairman and supervisor of the town of Gibraltar, and Harold Larson, Liberty Grove supervisor.
The entire group gave Casperson a vote of appreciation for his years of service.
Courtesy of the Door County Library Newspaper Archive
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