Archive for 2023

The Salem Memorial Hospital regular board meeting was held Tuesday evening in the hospital library. In the Administrators Report, CEO Wayne Reid reported he is looking into submitting a $16,000 grant for the National Electronic Injury Surveillance system to monitor and report product injury. The Torch grant application to expand cross-collaboration with community partners has been submitted. The MHA licensing survey has been submitted, the new lab interface is now in use and the dialysis unit has achieved a 90 facility score for the ESRD Quality Incentive Program, and the CPSI upgrade for Med Surg will begin implementation on July 14th. Reid introduced the Interim CFO, Kayla Chamberlain, who attended via zoom.  James Sample with the IT Department updated the board on the EDIS implementation, LabCorp interface completion, security camera upgrade, and new phone system installation. Reid reported that the clinic architect has completed the planning document for the clinic renovation and the cost is $400,000. This will be part of the $1.6 million request to the state and USDA funding. The board approved an update to the bank signature cards adding Daylon Harrison and Kayla Chamberlain. The board discussed the fact that Phelps Health is now providing transportation to Dent County residents to their hospital without informing the hospital administration. There was a request by the board about doing a patient transportation study as well as looking into the cost of providing this type of service for SMH using grants. The board approved the purchase of a Lennox air conditioner at a cost of $16,000 and an upgrade to the ultrasound hardware and software at a cost of $23,320 for the Radiology Department.  Approval of the FY 2023-2024 Budget including Capital Budget expenditures was tabled until the next meeting to allow the board members to have a workshop and gather additional information that was requested. In the Summary of Operations for the month of May, hospital admissions were 106 which included 12 Swingbed admissions with a total of 437 patient census days. In May, there were 1,738 Outpatient Registrations, 1,439 Cardiopulmonary Procedures, 9,191 Lab Tests, 1,362 Radiology Procedures, 773 Rehabilitation Treatments, 41 Surgical Procedures, and 195 Home Health Visits. There were 691 Emergency Room visits with 60 patients being admitted. A total of 213 ambulance runs were made with 142 patients being transported and 71 dry runs. The hospital had an excess of revenues over expenses for May of $114,718 with over $98,543 being a gain from operations. Jodi Gorman gave the Chief Nursing Officer report and said the hospital is looking for a new med/surg director and Home Health Director plus seven other full-time positions. In the Hospital Foundation report, the recent golf tournament raised $13,580 and foundation board member RuthAnn Parker has resigned. The hospital board is looking to fill this vacancy. The “Dancing with the Salem Stars” is scheduled for February 2024 and they are looking for dancers. If anyone is interested, they can call the hospital administration office at 729-6626. The board then went into closed session.

Free meals are being served to children in Dent County again this summer at the Salem Nutrition Site in the Salem Senior Center at 604 North McGrath Lane. The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services says the Summer Food Service Program is designed to provide lunch and/or snacks to children living in eligible areas during the summer months. Food is provided to all children that attend the meal service location. Children do not have to register. Lunch is served starting at 11:00 and lasts until 12:30 with a snack available from 2:00 until 3:00 in the afternoon. The lunch and snack is available Monday through Friday through August 21st except for July 4th when the center will be closed. Meals will be served to children age 18 and under. They are also given to individuals age 18 to 21 that have been determined by a state or local educational agency to be mentally or physically disabled and who participate in an established school program for the mentally or physically disabled. For more information, call 729-2373. Parents can also eat lunch with their children at the Salem Nutrition Center and the cost is $7.00 for their meal.

According to a press release from the Shannon County Firest Responders, the Mercy Emergency Medical Services recently held a ten week training for new Emergency Medical Responders. Fifteen students graduated from the course on June 8th. The class was instructed by Carl Beasley of Mercy and Bethany Busby of Mountain View Fire Department. An EMR is the emergency medical certification level below EMT. The students have studied emergency medicine including how to treat a wide variety of injuries and illnesses. They are trained to work with minimal equipment in a variety of settings such as homes, the forest or river and at automobile wrecks. A few of the more experienced EMRs sat in on the course as a refresher since everyone needs to keep their skills sharp. The role of the First Responder is to arrive on the scene of the emergency before the ambulance arroves and begin care. Some first responders are members of a fire or police department, but there are also two independent first responder organizations in our area that only respond to medical emergencies: the Shannon County First Responders and the Carter County First Responders. A hard-earned congratulations goes out to all of them and our community thanks them for their commitment to step up and help their neighbors.

The Salem R-80 Board of Education held their regular meeting Tuesday night at the district administrative offices. After discussing a student issue in closed session, the board heard from Superintendent Dr. Lynne Reed as she said the Tin Gym and Locker Room Project is all but finished as some athletes are already working out at the facility. Dr. Nathan Wills will present some data at the next meeting for the board that will compare the Salem R-80 District with other schools in the area and SCA Conference schools. Dr. Herman Blau from the William Lynch Elementary School said that Mary Beth Patrick, a teacher at the elementary school, was named the Rotary Teacher of the Year. In new business, the board approved the bid by Gary Kolthoff on the surplus buses which was $1,000 each for bus #7 and #10, and $850 for the non-running bus. The board then approved the bid from the Bank of Salem for a five-year agreement as the school districts financial depository. The board declared old desks and tables as well as other items at the Salem Upper Elementary as surplus property before approving the policy SRCSP which allows the school to continue to receive ESSER funds until September of 2024. The board approved the WADA transfer from the General Operations Fund 1 to the Capital Projects Fund 4 in the amount of $506,579, and they approved participating in the State Baseline Salary Grant of giving teachers a $38,000 minimum salary. The minimum salary per the salary schedule for Salem R-80 is $32,000 and the state will pay the difference between that figure and the $38,000 salary as well as an additional 16% to cover benefits. The board approved amending the 2022-23 budget to reflect the actual expenses and revenues as of June 30th of this year. The anticipated ending balances for the four funds for June 30th, 2023, are $2,708,143 in the Operations Fund 1, no money in Fund 2 which is the Special and Teachers Fund, $271,694 in Fund 3 which is the Debt Service Fund, and $2,276,190 in the Capital Projects Fund which is Fund 4. The school is expected to have an unrestricted fund balance of 33.99%. The board then discussed the proposed 2023-2024 budget which shows anticipated total revenues in all funds of $18,989,212 and $16,169,291 in the total expenses. In the proposed budget, progress was made on salaries which include a 22.7% increase among the lowest salaries on the support staff, a raise in the base salary for teachers from $31,600 to $32,000, the district will pay an additional $2,000 to teachers making over $38,000 which is up from the $1,000 amount last year, the district added the Career Ladder allowing teachers to make an additional $1,500 to $5,000, and they also updated the extra duty contract schedule. Dr. Reed said these assumptions were also made in preparing the budget. A 5% increase was made to support staff base hourly rates, plus staff will receive their horizontal and vertical steps, and the board provided insurance will be $619.98 per employee per month, which is up from the last year when the board paid $514.60 per employee per month. She said the budget was made using an enrollment figure of 1,341 students, 120 certified staff, 74 classified staff, an operating levy of $2.75, a debt service levy of 45 cents and an assessed valuation in the district of $78,528,420. The biggest expense of the budget will be the cost of instruction which is expected to come in at $8,813,124 while the largest revenue source for the school will be the State of Missouri providing an estimated $6,245,987. The expected budgeted amounts of the four funds as of June 30, 2024, are $4,431,755 in the Operations Fund known as Fund 1, no money in Fund 2 which is the Special and Teachers Fund, $252,638 in Fund 3 which is the Debt Service Fund, and $3,546,101 in the Capital Projects Fund which is Fund 4. The school is expected to have an unrestricted fund balance of 31.44% at the end of the next fiscal year. The board approved the budget for the 2023-24 school year. The board approved the contract with Build-Tec LLC for the construction of the new Construction Trades Building after cost reducing negotiations lowered the bid price to $879,347 which is under just under the budgeted amount. This bid is just for the ground work and for the building shell. The board then accepted the resignations of Rockey Wade, Tania Wood, Sarah Russell and Jennie Brakensiek before going into closed session.

The Meramec Local Emergency Planning District, working in conjunction with Rolla Fire and Rescue, received a $74,083 grant to purchase oil absorbent pads and booms for all the fire departments in the district which includes Crawford, Dent, Gasconade, Maries, Osage, Phelps and Washington counties. Rolla Fire and Rescue Chief Jeff Breen and former chief Ron Smith worked to pull together the grant application materials, and once funded, purchased and distributed the supplies. Fire departments in Dent County receiving booms and pads were the Dent County Fire Protection District, Jadwin Volunteer Fire Department, Lenox Rural Fire Department, Quad County Fire Protection District and Montauk Rural Fire Department. Booms and pads are deployed to absorb oil during hazardous material spills. They keep chemicals from reaching waterways and environmentally sensitive areas. This opportunity was made possible through the State Emergency Management Agency and Missouri Emergency Response Commission and was only open to local emergency planning districts and committees across the state.

The Harry S. Truman Memorial Veterans’ Hospital and the Columbia Vet Center are teaming up to provide area Veterans with services that includes Veteran’s Administration health care enrollment for those who are eligible, as well as counseling for post-traumatic stress disorder and military sexual trauma through their Mobile Vet Center at the Wal-Mart Supercenter at 500 South Bishop in Rolla today. The Mobile Vet Center will be at Wal-Mart that day from 9:00 this morning until 1:00 in the afternoon. The Mobile Vet Center is a 37-foot-long mobile resource unit where veterans can receive assistance in dealing with bereavement issues with marriage and family counseling also available. Additional resources for Veterans through the MVC include VA benefits information and suicide prevention referrals. The customized MVC vehicle is equipped with confidential counseling space to extend access to VA services for Veterans, service members and their families, especially those living in rural or remote communities. The MVC also provides readjustment counseling and information resources to assist Veterans in the difficult transition between military and civilian life. For more information, call (573) 814-6206.

The Salem Finance Committee will be meeting Thursday night at the Salem Community Center@The Armory at 5:30 to discuss the proposed budget for the 2024 fiscal year. The administration is striving to reduce the transfers from the Electric Fund into the General Revenue Fund and the amount for the next fiscal year has been reduced to $600,000. It is the hope with the addition of the 1% sales tax to the General Revenue Funds that those transfers can be eliminated. The administration is determined to continue to add money to the reserve funds for all the utilities and have fund balances of at least 25% of the prior fiscal year actual expenditures. Those reserves would then be available for disasters or economic hardships with a vote of the aldermen. The budget does include a 10% increase in fuel costs and a 10% increase in utilities with increases in supply and material costs as well. The administration has made a number of assumptions on employee retention and recruitment that are included in the proposed budget that includes the adoption of a new personnel policy and leave amounts that includes the addition of two personal days per year. The administration recommends the approval of a new employee health insurance proposal that would come in around $535 per month per employee which is under the $550 per month threshold which had been set by the aldermen as well as pay schedule adjustments based on the Missouri Municipal League salary survey, and the cost of living adjustments with a 4% increase recommended for fiscal year 2024. The board has also eliminated from the budget individual budgeted amounts for non-profit entities or other civic organizations such as for SACBA beautification, the Dent County Extension, the Dent County Museum, Project Graduation and Healthy Dent County at the Salem Community Center@The Armory. The city instead has included a line in the budget called “Community Support” that can be funded with up to a $20,000 balance where these organizations can apply to the city where each year the Board of Aldermen can decide which organizations to fund based on their priorities and preferences. This “Community Support” line in the budget will only be funded after all the needs of the city operations, capital investments, reserve policies and obligations have been met. If this assumption is approved, these organizations will no longer be guaranteed funding from the city for the services they provide. For the new budget, the fireworks fund was left blank. The 2024 proposed fiscal year budget includes proposed revenues from all funds of $17,454,732 and proposed expenses from all funds of $17,212,813. The Finance Committee recommendation will be presented to the Board of Aldermen at their next meeting on June 27th at the City Hall Council Chambers. The meeting Thursday is open to the public.

The Salem Memorial District Hospital Board of Directors will conduct their June meeting this evening at 6:00 in the hospital library. Hospital Administrator Wayne Reid will give his report before the board hears a report on information technology. In old business, the board will be updated on the kitchen drain proposal, architectural work on the clinic, the strategic planning update and a legislative report. In new business, the board will discuss hospital transportation, hospital signature cards, foundation account changes, purchases and review the next fiscal year budget before it is approved. Reports will then be heard on the summary of operations and statistics for the month of May as well as the 340B program, the hospital resources update, the hospital foundation report and a report from the Chief Nursing Officer Ashley Sullins. The board will also review the marketing and community relations. The board may then vote to go into closed session if needed. The meeting tonight at 6:00 will be open to the public.

The Salem R-80 Board of Education meet this evening at 5:30 at the district administrative offices boardroom. After a closed session to discuss student issues, the board will move into the regular meeting. After approval of the consent agenda and communications, Superintendent Dr. Lynne Reed and Assistant Superintendent Nathan Wills will give their reports followed by the building principal’s reports as well as the activities and athletics report, special education report and instructional coaches report. In new business, the board will discuss the surplus bus bid, hear responses to the request for proposals for a bank depository agreement, approve the 7% WADA transfer from Fund 1 to Fund 4 for the purpose of paying off the lease purchase with Signature Bank and other capital projects and declare surplus property at the Upper Elementary School. The board will also approve policy SRCSP, discuss participating in the State Baseline Salary Grant of $38,000, approved amending the 2022-2023 budget to reflect actual expenditures and revenues before approving the new fiscal year 2023-2024 budget. The board will also discuss approving the contract with Build-Tec LLC for the construction trades building. They will hear any resignations before voting to go into executive session to discuss personnel and student issues The regular meeting of the Salem R-80 Board of Education tonight after closed session at 5:30 is open to the public.