Cole County approves EMT clinical agreement with Lincoln University and will join public-safety explorer post

The Cole County Commission on Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2025, approved a memorandum of understanding that allows Lincoln University EMT students to perform clinical rotations on county ambulances and voted to participate in a regional public-safety explorer post hosted by Lincoln University.

The agreements were presented during the commission's open session by an EMS representative (unnamed). The EMS representative said the clinical MOU "allows their EMT students to perform clinicals on our ambulance" and that it would impose "no cost to us. No changes in anything that we're doing." The commission moved and voted to approve and sign the EMT clinical agreement.

The same EMS representative described the explorer post as a joint recruiting and training program for people aged 14 to 21 that would involve police, fire, EMS and emergency management. The representative said Lincoln University agreed to serve as the host agency because the university could handle insurance and other commitments the city or county were not positioned to take on. "The only real cost to us will be some staff hours," the EMS representative said. The commission voted to participate, with Lincoln University designated as the sponsoring agency.

Both items were presented as having minimal budgetary impact on the county. The EMS representative noted the city has already formalized a similar arrangement "with a resolution and some other things," but told the commission that the county's action at Tuesday's meeting was limited to granting permission to participate; the representative said no final agreement for the explorer post was presented at the meeting.

Votes at a glance

- EMT clinical agreement with Lincoln University: motion to approve and sign made by Commissioner (unnamed); second not specified in the transcript; tally recorded in the meeting audio as two "aye" responses; outcome: approved. Note: the MOU was described in the meeting as having no cost to the county and no operational changes.

- Participation in public-safety explorer post (Lincoln University as sponsoring agency): motion to participate made by Commissioner (unnamed); second not specified in the transcript; tally recorded as two "aye" responses; outcome: approved. Note: county participation described as limited to staff time; no formal explorer post agreement was entered during the meeting.

Procedural note

During the session, an unnamed speaker corrected an earlier closed-session citation, saying they had "misspoke earlier when I said 13 subsection 13, I meant to say subsection 3." The commission later moved to stand in recess until 4:30 p.m.; that motion was seconded and approved.

Why it matters

The clinical MOU will allow Lincoln University EMT students to gain supervised hands-on experience on county ambulances, which the EMS representative characterized as a training and potential recruitment benefit for local emergency services. Participation in a multiagency explorer post is intended to coordinate recruitment and training among local public-safety agencies and to spread administrative responsibilities among partners, with Lincoln University serving as host.

What the meeting did not resolve

Speakers said the explorer post lacked a final, signed interagency agreement at the meeting and that county involvement would mainly require staff time; the transcript does not specify any funding source, insurance details, or a timeline for implementation. The transcript also does not identify individual commissioners by name in the motion or roll-call confirmations, and individual vote attributions beyond the recorded "aye" responses were not specified.