Wednesday, Jan 9, 2020, 12:00 p.m.
Minutes of the Special Meeting of the Governing Body for the Village of Cloudcroft, held on Thursday, January 9, 2020, at 6:00 p.m., in the Village Council Chambers, 201 Burro Avenue, Cloudcroft, NM.
Mayor David C. Venable called the meeting to order at 6:00 p.m. with the following Council members providing a full Quorum: PresenVabsent:
Trustee/ Mayor Pro Tern William Denney- present Trustee -Cynthia Voight- present (arrival 6:10pm) Trustee -George Mitchell – present
Trustee – John Tieman – present
The following Village staff and guests were present: Jini Turri, Administrator; Barbara K. Garcia, Village Clerk/Treasurer; Jubal Hall; voe, Erich Wuersching; voe, Gilbert Garcia, Jim Dowding (Item #1)
The pledge of allegiance to the US and NM flags was led by Mayor David C. Venable. (Item #2)
APPROVAL OF AGENDA:
Mayor Venable entertained a motion to approve the Agenda for the Special Meeting of January 9, 2020. Trustee Mitchell made such motion to approve as written, Trustee Tieman seconded the motion and upon vote of Trustees Denney, Mitchell, and Tieman all voting “aye” the motion carried unanimously. (Item #3)
APPROVAL OF MINUTES:
Mayor Venable entertained a motion to approve the Minutes of the Special Meeting of December 19, 2019. Trustee Denney made such motion lo approve as written, Trustee Mitchell seconded the motion and upon vote of Trustees Denney, Mitchell, and Tieman all voting “aye” the motion carried unanimously. (Item #4)
ANNOUNCEMENT:
Mayor Venable announced that the Village has two (2) employees that have announced their retirement, Joyce Kromaus; Librarian for the Village and Officer Mark Tarantino. Both will be recognized at the regular council meeting on the 14th of January but asked that if you see them in town please thank them for their service.
NEW BUSINESS:
Cloudcroft Ambulance Services – Erich Wuersching
Erich Wuerschfng; Cloudcroft Fire Chief provided current information on the status of the Ambulance Service in the Village of Cloudcroft. As it is now we are a village that is reliant on volunteers and that we are currently extremely short on volunteers. The Village currently only has two (2) EMTs with Basic level service to be able to provide Ambulance Service and those two (2) volunteers are currently full time employees with obligations that at times do not allow them to respond. Mr. Wuersching went through the levels of training and what can be provided from each level. He explained to the governing body that he is currently looking for guidance on how the Village would like the service to continue or not continue.
Following explanations and discussions between the Chief and the Governing Body it was determined
that the Governing Body would like to have further detailed information with a contact being made to AMR for an estimate to provide 1) a fully contracted ambulance (1) service, staged in Cloudcroft and 2) AMR staffing our existing ambulance (1) service, staged in Cloudcroft. Chief Wuersching was also asked to provide estimates of costs for 1) paid per call of our existing volunteer staff. 2.) Staffing ambulance (1) with Village Firefighter/EMTB’s as new, regular employees of the Village. 3.) Having drivers as a mixture of volunteer, paid per call and existing Village staff
Chief Wuersching and Jini Turri; Administrator will be searching out any additional funding sources other than Ambulance billing, which might help to sustain long term costs of operating and ambulance service.
Consideration of resuming service to the entire Eastern half of Otero County to increase the billable run volume to assist in closing the breakeven point of operating the service.
The Governing Body will set another meeting after receipt of this information to prepare to make a decision on how or if the Village will continue to provide Ambulance Service. (Item #5)
Adjournment: Mayor Venable adjourned the meeting of January 9, 2020, at 7:21 pm. (Item #6)
