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Woodbury County board reviews EMS staffing and hiring requests, including three new medics
Summary
Emergency services director Drew asked supervisors to reclassify part‑time medic FTEs, hire three daytime medics to improve rural coverage and consider an extra 1.5% pay bump above the proposed 2% COLA to remain competitive; the board received the requests for later action.
Emergency services director Drew told the board he has submitted several improvement requests aimed at matching budgeted FTEs to actual part‑time medic staffing and at increasing daytime coverage in the county's rural east. "It's gonna be the request to change our medics from the part time medics from 0.05 to 0.25," Drew said, describing that the current $19,488 line item does not reflect real expenditures when employees deploy or require backfill.
Drew also asked for authorization to hire three additional medics as daytime positions and presented an all‑in cost for those hires. "I'm asking to get approval to hire 3 additional medics to the service," he said, noting an all‑in price of about $359,613.54 for three positions but offering options to scale or change shift length if funding falls short. He told supervisors the hires would be phased to meet coverage needs and that the board could consider Monday‑through‑Friday, shorter shifts as an initial step. Supervisors agreed to receive the improvement requests for further review and to discuss details, including public outreach in an upcoming town hall.
