County OKs $65K for Tracy Ambulance, $1.8M for Center St.

Tracy Ambulance Director Charlie DeSchepper (left) and Tracy Ambulance EMT Dustin DeMuth present to the Lyon County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday, prior to the board approving monies for the Tracy Ambulance Service. Photos / Tara Brandl

By Tara Brandl

The Tracy Ambulance Service will see important equipment upgrades thanks to the Lyon County Board of Commissioners.

The board approved $65,000 in funds for Tracy Ambulance during its regular meeting Tuesday. The funds will be used for two X Series Monitor/Defibrillators for the ambulances and one LUCAS CPR device.

“The current monitors are 15 years old,” Dustin DeMuth, EMT with Tracy Ambulance said. “Every truck has one in it and we’re requesting to replace two of them. As of late, we’ve had to send a couple in to get repaired, and they are very expensive to get repaired. They are starting to come to the end of their life.”

Currently, Tracy Ambulance has two LUCAS devices and three trucks. The request for the LUCAS device would allow all three trucks to have the CPR device.

Last year, Tracy Ambulance Service responded to 425 calls in the area. They have three ambulances and 25 personnel as part of the service. They are also a licensed ALS service and provide transports for the Tracy hospital as well as helping with transports from Murray County Medical Center, Avera Tyler and Avera Marshall.

“This equipment is used for medical transport, over 400 calls a year,” County Board Chair Steve Ritter said when talking about the importance of funding the equipment. “And thank you for your service for that.”

In addition to the money for ambulance equipment, the board approved entering into an agreement with the City of Tracy for the reconstruction of Lyon CSAH 29 (Center Street) and approved $1,800,000 from the county to be used toward the City’s $4.1 million project.

The county had planned a mill and overlay several years ago and the City of Tracy had asked it to hold off on that project as it was working on its city-wide sewer upgrade. Instead, the City has asked for a full reconstruction of the street to go along with other projects.

“Looking closer at the age of that street, it’s over 75 years old,” County Highway Engineer Aaron VanMoer said. “There is worn-out curb, gutter, sidewalks. It’s got old concrete under it in some sections and very minimal base in others. We agreed to bring this into a full reconstruction project.”

See this week’s Headlight Herald for more on this article.