CELINA-A mutual aid agreement between Clay County and Macon County EMS has been signed by the neighboring counties and is now in place, Clay County Mayor Dale Reagan announced at the January Clay County Commission Meeting held here last week.

“They’ve come up with a memorandum of understanding between Clay County and Macon County,” Reagan said.  “We want everyone to understand we are trying to do our very best to make sure whenever the call comes in we are trying to get the people that can get there the quickest.

“We have never had anything like this before, where they have something to go by… we’ve always had a somewhat semi-agreement, but this here is something in writing saying they are going to do everything they can.”

Local EMS director Andy Hall was on hand to present the agreement to commissioners, and he explained it was executed in response to a citizen request for additional resources to be stationed in the western portion of the county.

“This is the next best thing, with the Red Boiling unit being right there to help us, and we are trying to cover it as much as possible,” Hall told the HORIZON after the meeting.  “Citizens had requested we station a truck in Hermitage Springs, but it’s not feasible due to our manpower, plus the run volume wouldn’t support it.

“That would be three trucks we would have to run and six more people.  It’s just not feasible, not to mention the employee shortage we have now.”

Hall said Clay County EMS has had longtime verbal agreements with Macon and other neighboring counties for mutual aid.

“There’s standing agreements, this is just something in writing to help streamline the process,” he said.  “We’ve always had mutual aid, this is just saying that we are taking the next step.

“Overton County has always covered the Willow Grove area and Macon County has always helped when they could, this is just a step up above and beyond what we had with Macon County, because the family asked and we wanted to let them know that we are doing everything that we can do.”

Hall, Reagan, Macon County Mayor Steve Jones, and Macon County EMS Director Spencer Tuck all signed the agreement.

The agreement outlined its purpose as an effort “to establish the terms under which Clay County EMS and Macon County EMS will provide mutual aid emergency medical services to one another upon request, in order to ensure continuity of emergency medical care and the protection of public health and safety.”

“In the case of an emergency, this is supposed to cut down on response time,” Hall said.  “If it is general flu-like symptoms or something like that, we are not going to call Macon County to take care of our calls like that, but if it is something serious, then, yes, we will.”

Besides Macon and Overton County, mutual aid with Jackson County was also discussed, including the potential implications of an upcoming closure of Highway 53 for repairs.

Other business

In other business, commissioners unanimously approved Amy Christine Reagan as a notary, passed three budget amendments, and authorized a sale of surplus property.

The budget amendments included one for the highway department, one for the general school fund, and one for the general fund.

The surplus property sale will include four sanitation department vehicles and two EMS vehicles, which will be sold online by the sheriff’s office on govdeals.com.