BK council appoints new ambulance committee

BALD KNOB - The city council voted unanimously to replace the board of the city's volunteer ambulance service with its own committee and to fire one volunteer for misconduct.

“We have had some discrepancies and problems in our ambulance service for about six weeks,” said Alderman Johnny Hodges, chairman of the council's ambulance committee, at the council's regular monthly meeting Monday.

The volunteer board, which has guided the service's operations, will be replaced by the committee, consisting of Hodges, Mayor Bob Carpenter and Alderman Dennis Hearyman.

After 13 minutes of regular business, the council entered into an executive session to consider a personnel issue, and after 40 minutes emerged from a back room for a public vote.

The council voted to retain Bertie Yates as the clerk for the ambulance service and to terminate the employment of Barbara Frye, a volunteer emergency medical technician.

“I'm tired of the bickering,” Hodges said in making the motion to terminate Frye's employment.

The service made 51 runs in February, with volunteers paid for each time they participate.

Frye said she resigned before she was terminated.

“There's been some issues that have been going on,” Frye said Tuesday. “I turned in my resignation yesterday because pretty much I knew that's what the mayor wanted and what he wants, he gets. They didn't come and talk to me about it last night. They had originally set up a meeting for them to talk to me Tuesday night but the next thing I know that was canceled and they were going into executive session.”

Frye spoke about what issues had been ongoing.

“I'm not really even sure about everything,” Frye said. “I think there was a lot of biased opinions. There was a discrepancy between me and an officer on a medical call.”

Because of laws governing patient privacy, Frye was unable to say which patient was involved in the controversy but said the incident happened in January.

According to a report by a Bald Knob police dispatcher, Frye came to the station after being paged out to a scene Jan. 11. Frye used profanity in referring to the patient and refused to transport the patient, the dispatcher said.

Frye said that report is not true.

“I went on the scene,” Frye said. “The patient had some problems. She did refuse to go. I tried to follow her into her home. She got to her door and told me to stay out. I did not use any profanity.”

Another witness, whom Frye declined to name, has signed a statement backing up Frye's version, Frye said.

“I've served on the ambulance service for eight years with no complaints,” Frye said. “I served professionally.”

Carpenter did not participate in the executive session.

“I stayed out of the meeting because of a suggestion that I might be biased,” Carpenter said.

There was no further reference to the future of the ambulance service at the meeting.