Medical Lake’s City Council voted unanimously at their Feb. 2 meeting to renew two contracts that help maintain firefighting and medical service readiness in the community.
The council renewed a contract with Providence Sacred Heart Engineering Services for periodic maintenance of selected medical equipment used by the city: specialty equipment listed as anesthesia, ventilators, tissue processors and open-heart consoles along with general equipment biomedical, laboratory and physical therapy equipment.
Periodic maintenance ranges from performance testing, calibration to cleanings and electrical safety inspections. Assistant Fire Chief Corey Stevens told the council the contract is based on a charge per visit basis instead of a monthly fee.
According to the terms, Sacred Heart Engineering Services will charge $105 per hour for maintenance services on specialty equipment, and $90 per hour for general equipment during normal business hours of 7 a.m. – 3:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. Weekend and after hours services run $157.50 per hour for specialty equipment, $135 per hour for general equipment, with holiday services at $210 per hour for specialty, $180 per hour for general.
The contract also includes travel expenses to the client’s site, but Stevens said Sacred Heart has worked with the department to allow the city to bring equipment in to Spokane and thus avoid travel expenses.
Council also approved renewing an agreement with the West Plains Recruit Structural Academy for firefighting training services. In written report to council, Fire Chief Jason Mayfield said the costs will vary from class to class based upon total enrollment, but have averaged $409 per recruit for the academy and $160 per person for crew leader training.
“This is a very cost effective approach to training our members,” Mayfield wrote. “They receive over 1,300 hours of instruction and obtain several nationally recognized certifications.”
In reports to council, Mayor John Higgins said the city had received a couple of inquiries to letters it sent to legislators in Olympia regarding compensation for providing police services to Department of Social and Health Services facilities in the city, including Eastern State Hospital. Higgins said an aide to Senate Majority Leader and 9th District Sen. Mark Schoesler (R-Ritzville) emailed him regarding the city’s request for $250,000 to help offset calls to the state facilities.
City Administrator Doug Ross said a DSHS staff member also contacted him, saying that while the current legislative session was not a budget-making session, there may be a fund that could be tapped into to provide some financial assistance.
Ross also told the council the city was looking at “legal but creative ways” to finance purchase of a used road grader. The ability to maintain the city’s current grader is becoming more difficult, and a 10-year-old grader runs about $150,000.
“It’s time,” Ross said of the need to replace the current grader.
John McCallum can be reached at jmac@cheneyfreepress.com.
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