A Message from Chief Sickels

I write this message to all to lay out some facts! 

First I would like to wish all a VERY Merry Christmas and a VERY prosperous New Year!

I share all of this with you as it is a very sad scenario when you have city leadership that feels they can ignore thoughts and plans about the department and its operations, and instead consistently tell us and other community members that we don’t know what we are doing! Yet they still expect a bunch of Fire and EMS Volunteers to give freely of their time and risk their lives, to protect this community. For several months now, since the City made the decision to renege on their agreement, has not said “boo” to their Volunteers, unless of course, you consider the “Mayor’s Corner” where he despicably attempts to explain away their actions as being in “good faith” and for the betterment of the community an attempt to converse with us. The status and the position of readiness that the Fire and EMS Department is in, is solely due to the responsible and futuristic thought processes that the people involved in the work every day, very committedly do. For more than 20 years now since I have been on the department, no one from the city has been involved in the planning processes and all advances with our Ambulance Department, and what it has become has been due to the efforts of the volunteers on the department and the true partners in continual improvement of your Fire and EMS services, the Rural Trustees. The city has basically not involved themselves in the planning and in the rare circumstances in which they did participate in planning, they (council members) agreed with us during our meetings, then voted it down during city council meetings, as if they never had agreed to them in the first place, essentially kicking all efforts to the proverbial curb!

To give you some examples of what we have been able to accomplish over the years, let’s lay out some of what this leadership has been able to accomplish without the full support of all the parties:

• Getting the whole department trained so the Volunteer could respond as a First Responder response team. This was done accomplished in the early 1970’s in an effort to provide EMS services to our growing community.

• Upgraded the department through state via training and other required efforts to an Emergency Medical Service at a “basic life support” level. This included a fully equipped ambulance per state regulations. Also part of state regulatory requirements, we worked to establish a Medical Director through Muscatine Trinity Medical Center to oversee essential medical protocols and medical practices through emergency response. 

• A fulltime “coordinator” was hired in approximately 2014 to help maintain all the services and state statutes required to have the essential transport system. We also adopted a billing system to help bring resources back to the department so we could continue to serve the community and its surrounding townships.

• We then added additional full and part-time personnel to the department to help provide EMS coverage to the community 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This coverage helped support the volunteer efforts in serving the community.

• In 2018, we expanded our EMS capabilities once again, by establishing the department as an Advanced Life Support response service. This upgrade again was done all through the efforts of the department. This took serious effort and achievement to get to this level. The state certifies this level and the past two inspections the department passed with flying colors.  

• GEMT Program – we became aware of a government program that helped recover unreimbursed costs associated with transport services for those with Medicare/Medicaid insurance. There was a limit to what we could bill for each transport, which we lost money on and was due to the poor financial reporting conducted by city administration. We only received a little over $200 for each transport no matter what was done as far as interventions in the back of the ambulance the first year we were enrolled in the program. Our departmental paid and volunteer staff took over the reporting after this first year and despite the endless government paperwork, we will now be collecting over $1400 per call in unreimbursed expenses, which really helps cover the cost for those ambulance runs.

• We have also secured funds through fund raising and Grant efforts to buy at least 2 new fire trucks and 4 new ambulances in the last 20 years, with little to no cost at purchase to all. That would include saving more than a couple million dollars, which is incredible for such a small community.

These are just a few examples above that has been shown but, many more could indeed be included to show the dedication this group of volunteers have for the community. All of which would never have happened if we the volunteers, had not had the foresight to evolve with the needs of the department and community/township it supports. This, coming from a group of lowly volunteers that allegedly do not have the ability to govern ourselves or handle running the department, according to City administration and Council Leadership.

One more very important point – should not all parties, City, Rural Trustees and the Volunteers that do the work have a say in what and how the department supports the community? Ask yourselves: why is this not happening? Ask yourselves: why hasn’t the City engaged with anyone on the Department for months now? Ask yourselves: why since the Task Force was dissolved there has been no interactions with the department? Ask why our Mayor, who came to us to support him and vote for him as Mayor has not talked directly to the department for several months?

I again thank you all for your continued support! Happy Holidays once again! My last thought to you all is that we all want resolution to all this silliness. There is really no reason that the City needs to expend more in lawyer fees enriching them with now well over $100,000.00. Just think where we could have spent that money on our community! We all want a prosperous community and all the things that help make it strong. Fire and EMS coverage is a big part of this and the continued frictions between all only hurts the community. 

The Volunteer Fire Department has a long history of doing what is best for the community and its people…..the City needs to come back to the table and resolve this conflict with all its partners. Let’s start the New Year with a “new” partnership that collectively does what is best for the community, NOT disregarding those who support the department and those that volunteer their services. We especially do not need supposed leaders of this City government just giving wordsmith verbiage to the community that they know best, when they have had no part of any of the planning, future or past. This needs to be a joint effort from all not pushing all blame in any way, but thinking of how we can collectively have the best example of a department that jointly serves all!

Thanks for your time and again, your continued support!

Chief Kirt Sickels