Sheldon, Iowa — Sheldon needs more volunteers to help the Sheldon Community Ambulance Team meet the demands for their services.
In 2015 SCAT answered over four hundred calls. Several options were discussed at the City Council meeting Wednesday, one of those was to hire a full-time person who would be available for calls as well as some other duties. Another suggestion was to offer a nominal pay to volunteers when they are on call. SCAT volunteers are currently only paid for the time they spend when on an actual ambulance call. City Manager Scott Wynja made the suggestion that in addition to this, the City could pay the volunteers a dollar per hour during the hours they were on call. He said this would not make much difference to some volunteers because the time they could be available was limited. But, to others, it might be an incentive to be on call more often.
There is a new private ambulance service that is planning to be head-quartered in Sheldon, and the question was asked how this would affect the need for SCAT. The Council was told that the new company would focus on transfers for a 45 mile radius. Sanford Sheldon would still use SCAT as the primary transfer service, but if the Sheldon Ambulances were busy the new firm would fill the void. Council member Randy Fonkert suggested that final action on this topic be delayed until the next meeting to give him and other council members time to talk to people about it. This subject will be revisited at the council’s January 20th meeting.
In other business the council approved the Final Plat for the Nest Haven Subdivision. This subdivision is located north of Sheldon on Nest Avenue, outside the City Limits. Since O’Brien County is not zoned, State Law requires any subdivision within a mile of the City Limits to be approved by the city.
The council also discussed possibilities for funding the improvement of 16th Street. The plans are to remove the seven inch thick concrete and replace it with nine inches of concrete, as well as widening the shoulders.
