Commissioners mull AED purchase for county buildings

Initial talks regarding new automated external defibrillator (AED) devices for Highland County buildings were held Wednesday, July 10, as county commissioners David Daniels, Brad Roades and Terry Britton met with EMA Director David Bushelman and Cintas sales representative Natasha Mallery.

The conversation started with Bushelman, and Mallery arrived partway through the discussion. According to Daniels, most county offices do not currently have AEDs, and Bushelman said that Britton asked him to draft a recommendation.

Bushelman told commissioners he determined that “16 AEDs would be needed to outfit all the county buildings,” including for the Administration Building, the Highland County Courthouse, the probation office, the sheriff’s office, the engineer’s office, the Soil and Water Conservation District office, the county courtroom in Greenfield and the Hi-TEC building. Later in the meeting, however, Daniels noted that they “might consider” also adding AEDs at the county dog pound and sewer plant, as well as the records storage building currently under construction.

The estimate Bushelman received from Cintas was $39,597.01, which he said is “a very good price with a lot of perks,” including alarmed cabinets for most of the AEDs. He said he looked into a grant that would not include the cabinets or service agreements, so “to me, the grant really isn’t worth it, in my personal opinion,” he told commissioners.

“The AED itself is $1,950, and that’s for 16 of them,” Bushelman said. “Between my talking to Cintas and Sheriff Sanders talking to Cintas, we got Hamilton County Sheriff's Office pricing, which saved a considerable amount from what they had originally quoted me. I mean, the cabinets are like $360 each.”

Daniels asked why some of the AEDs would not include cabinets, and Bushelman said that some would be going in vehicles (two for the engineer’s office, one for the health department Care-A-Van) and would not need a cabinet.

Roades asked Bushelman about the cost of maintenance, and he said that “three years through Cintas” is included in the price.

“Can they do training, too?” Britton asked.

“They can,” Bushelman said. “Paint Creek Fire can also do the training.”

According to Mallery, Cintas can “offer training as far as first aid, CPR, AED, blood-borne pathogen” and NARCAN options — any or all — with online and in-person class options.

“There's a cost for the training,” she said. “If you get an AED, that does give you a percentage off the training, but we have a lot of different programs, and you can slice it up however you want.

“Outside of that, we offer a free overview of the AED.”

Daniels then asked if the cabinets could also include NARCAN or other items.

“We can,” Bushelman said. “We can put a STOP THE BLEED kit. Through Cintas, for 12 cabinets, it’s another $120 each.”

Later, Mallery also confirmed that those options were possible.

“The cabinet’s pretty large,” she said. “I've seen people put oxygen or masks in there. A lot of times, we have bleed control kits as well. We hang them next to it, but you can toss anything in there that you want, and we provide NARCAN, and NARCAN training.”

Britton asked if Bushelman had spoken to any of the departments “not in the general fund” about contributing to the cost.

“No,” Bushelman said. “You had just asked me to do a survey of all county offices.”

Mallery brought in a ZOLL AED for commissioners to view and explained its features. She noted that the Highland County Sheriff’s Office just received this model for their vehicles, thanks to a donation from the VFW.

Mallery said it is “the best AED” that includes pediatric settings; instructions on giving compressions; WiFi that will give the AED updates with the latest guidance; and pads and batteries that last five to seven years.

“The AED is literally foolproof,” Mallery said. “We handed this to 5- and 6-year-olds with zero training, and they were able to walk through everything.”

Mallery said that the county had the option to either lease or buy the AEDs. If they are leased, Cintas “takes care of the entire program,” she said, with maintenance and checks; replacements if needed; and access to LifeREADY 360, which provides fire and EMS with information on where the county’s AEDs are located. That way, Mallery said, if someone is having a medical emergency, another person “can call [911] and they'll let me know where your AED is, and also they'll be on their way.”

A lease agreement would be for 36 months at a cost of “$120 per AED, per month,” Mallery said, or $69,120 for three years. In response to a question from Daniels, Mallery said it would be up to the county if they wanted to own the AEDs or upgrade them at the end of that three years.

If the county chooses to purchase the AEDs outright, Mallery said the maintenance and upkeep “is on you,” although Cintas “can help you with pads and batteries.”

To purchase the AEDs, it would be the aforementioned $39,597.01, while a maintenance agreement would be another $59 per unit, per month. However, Bushelman could also be in charge with maintaining the units and doing the monthly checks on them, Mallery said.

“It would appear, if my math is correct, that leasing is double the amount of a purchase for that, over the 36-month period,” Daniels said.

Daniels said they would have to discuss how they want to proceed, including with purchasing versus leasing the equipment and with training. He and the other commissioners thanked Mallery and Bushelman for the information.

In other discussion:

• Roades introduced commissioners to Carl Rayburn, the new Highland County Mobility Manager. Rayburn has replaced Chris Hetzel, whom Rayburn said has taken a new position as a supervisor over FRS drivers and dispatchers.

Rayburn said he has been with FRS for approximately four years. He invited the community to attend his first meeting with the Highland County Transportation Advisory Committee on Tuesday, July 16 at 3 p.m. for updates on transportation in the community.

Among the topics that will be discussed, according to Rayburn, is the addition of “Saturday coverage,” which he said has been successful thus far for both individuals needing rides to work or for shopping and other errands.

“It’s been a long time in the making, and it's been running for about three months,” Rayburn said. “It runs just like every other day. We start early mornings — the first driver pulls out around 4:35 — and we run all the way to around 11 o'clock at night.”

In response to questions from Daniels, Rayburn said there were over 30 drivers in Highland County, with an average of 26-28 vehicles out during the week and five on Saturdays.

“It keeps pretty busy,” Rayburn said. “We do have one route that’s just dedicated to staying within the city limits of the city of Hillsboro, to help out folks with a quicker response getting back and forth to places locally.”

Rayburn told commissioners that they are also working on plans to transport voters to/from polling locations for either early voting or to vote on Nov. 5.

“I hope you get settled in and hope everything goes well,” Daniels said. “I’ve never heard complaint one about the services you’re offering and providing.”

For more information on transportation services, go to https://www.frstransportation.org.

• Daniels said that as of this week, the Ohio State University Extension office “has moved out” of their previous home in the Highland County Administration Building and is in the process of “moving into their new facility” at the Highland County Fairgrounds.

• Via resolution, commissioners authorized the reallocation of the City of Hillsboro's Coronavirus Local Fiscal Recovery Funds as established under the American Rescue Plan Act.

As previously reported, commissioners voted in April 2023 to commit $750,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funds toward the City of Hillsboro’s planned Roberts Lane extension. The city had previously made a $3.1 million funding request from the county.

Daniels said Wednesday that the city has asked to instead use the money for their Beech Street improvement project. As of June 2023, that project had been estimated to cost close to $4 million for water, sewer, storm and streets (curbs, gutters and sidewalks) for the area of Beech, Railroad and McDowell streets.

“They've got a need for the Beech Street project that's not being met, and they asked if they could reallocate that money that will do storm sewer work going down Beech Street,” Daniels said. “It meets the qualifications of the American Recovery Act. It ties in with the grant that the City of Hillsboro got to make improvements down at the [Crossroads] park, so this is the resolution that will allow for that reauthorization.”
 
• Commissioners authorized a budget modification within the 2000 Dog and Kennel fund in the amount of $2,000.

• Commissioners awarded the HIG-CR 5 New Market Road Reconstruction and Resurfacing bid to Miller-Mason Paving Co., in the amount of $983,516.

• Commissioners agreed to enter a subdivision participation and release form for a new national opioid settlement with Kroger.

• Commissioners voted 3-0 to authorize a release of funds from the U.S. Department of Transportation and Federal Aviation Administration.

“We had some FAA grant funds for 2021 that we were not able to use, and this is what's needed to transfer these funds to another airport that's got needs,” Daniels said.

• Commissioners authorized the commission president to execute an application for payment from Doll Layman, Ltd. in the amount of $98,302.55 for their ongoing work at the Rocky Fork Lake Wastewater Treatment Plant.

• Commissioners amended their agenda Wednesday afternoon to accept a contract between the Highland County and Pike County sheriff’s offices for the HCSO to house Pike County inmates. According to Highland County Sheriff Randy Sanders, they are “looking at 10 [beds] right now,” at a cost of $65 per bed, per day.

• Commissioners hosted the Ohio Valley Regional Development Commission’s second-round caucus at 10 a.m.

• At 1 p.m., commissioners held a work session on the county’s policy and procedure manual with human resources director Amy Bradley. The discussion is scheduled to resume in open session Monday, July 15 at 9:30 a.m., according to commission clerk Ashleigh Willey.

Check back to highlandcountypress.com for more from Wednesday's meeting.

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