[10/15/2004] Reinstating “medical first responders” will be on the agenda for Monday’s meeting of the Warren County Board of Supervisors.

The system involves the Dispatch Center using a pager or other means to assign a trained volunteer in a rural community to a nearby address to which an ambulance has been summoned.

During supervisors’ weekly informal discussion meeting, Volunteer Fire Coordinator Kelly Worthy brought up the matter and was asked to return Monday for a formal vote to be taken.

Worthy said the county had a system of responders several years ago, but discontinued it due to liability questions. In its 2004 session, he said, the Mississippi Legislature passed a law allowing medical first responders and shielding them from lawsuits.

He told the board it is a matter of timing. In the event of a heart attack or other medical emergency, a person responding from near the call location may be able to help until a Vicksburg Fire Department-based medical crew with equipment can arrive.

Warren County shares the cost of the ambulance service with city taxpayers, but all ambulances are based inside the city limits. Vicksburg is 33 square miles in area. Warren County is 597 square miles.

Supervisors told Worthy they wanted requests for the program signed by all six of the chiefs of the volunteer fire departments presented Monday. The departments respond to fire calls outside the city limits.

“I’ll make the motion,” said David McDonald, District 1 supervisor.

District 5 Supervisor Richard George said he’d second it. That would leave only one more supervisor having to vote for the proposal for it to pass.

George said if the medical first responders were only able to offer a sick or injured person reassurance, the program would be worth it.

“The bottom line to me is that it is legal,” said District 2 Supervisor Michael Mayfield.

Charles Selmon, board president and District 3 supervisor, asked if having medical first responders would take anything away from the City of Vicksburg, because the county has an agreement for the city to supply ambulance and rescue staff outside the city limits.

“First responders can’t cancel an ambulance,” Worthy said, noting the county is obligated to pay whenever an ambulance is dispatched even if the call is canceled while the ambulance is en route.

Undersheriff Jeff Riggs also appeared before the board to discuss salaries of jailers.

He said he is having a problem retaining Warren County Jail staff, noting that two of the nine jailers will be leaving soon. The problem is that once certified, the jailers can get higher salaries at neighboring counties such as Hinds, which has a starting pay of $9.27 per hour. Issaquena pays a starting salary of $7.60 and Claiborne pays $8.41, he said, and Warren County jailers start at $6.60.

One solution, Riggs told the board, would be to raise the starting pay to $8 per hour for uncertified employees and to $9 once they are certified.

The change would cost the jail budget about $15,000 more a year.

The board told Riggs to confer with County Administrator Rick Polk to see if the jail’s budget could be rearranged to make the changes.

Riggs said an alternative would be to bring in patrol deputies, but that would cost more than $17 per hour.