By Rich Palzewic
Staff Writer

SEYMOUR – At its Monday, Oct. 26, meeting, the Seymour city council unanimously approved Seymour Rescue’s move to EMT (emergency medical technician) status.

The department was previously classified as AEMT (advanced emergency medical technician).

Seymour Rescue Director Mary Greuel explained what the move to EMT status means for the city.

“An AEMT has a few more skills, like doing an IV (intravenous therapy),” she said. “There are also a few medications AEMTs can give that EMTs can’t. Essentially, there’s not a huge difference between the two skill levels. Mainly, there are slight differences between class hours and training.”

Greuel said over the years, the gap between the skill levels has decreased.

“We have lots of calls that don’t require giving an IV or those extra medications that AEMTs need to administer,” she said. “Especially with COVID-19, we feel this will give us more opportunity to make sure we’re always staffed. There are many times, like during basic transport, we don’t have an AEMT aboard the rescue squad. We’ll always try to go out with an AEMT aboard as needed, but this gives us more flexibility.”

She said the COVID-19 pandemic made the department rethink its status.

“We are volunteers, and there are only so many of us,” said Greuel. “If our AEMTs would start going down (with COVID) and we wouldn’t have enough, we’d still like to do the basic things that EMTs can do. Our main focus is on getting someone to the hospital. Again, the skill levels are becoming closer and closer. This move will ensure we can always get to calls. We get a fair number of calls from elderly patients who have fallen, so there’s no reason you need a rescue worker with a higher level of skill on most of those transports.”

At the start of the meeting, Mayor Ryan Kraft took a few minutes to thank those helping with the Nov. 3 election.

“Our city clerk, Lori Thiel, has put in tons of time in preparation for the election,” Kraft said. “The clerk has also done a great job setting up how people will be funneled in and out on Election Day once they have cast their ballot. I also want to thank Council President Roger Behnke and Alderman Ryan Kinney, who will spend a fair amount of time working the election.”

In other news, the city sold a parking lot located by the Seymour Flour Mill.

“The parking lot required repair and would cost approximately $50,000 to fix,” said Alder Steve Hurkman. “A certified survey map was completed, dividing the parking lot between the flour mill and some business owners on Main Street, who received part of the lot for parking, while the other part was sold to the flour mill.”

The cost of completing the survey map was approximately $2,500.

“The lot was sold for $2,500, just to cover the cost of the survey map,” said Kraft. “It’s a good move for the city. No other businesses were interested in the property, and we had no other utilizations for the lot.”