During Monday’s meeting of the Ellsworth County commissioners, EMS supervisor Jeremiah Brown said he talked to Andrew Bair, chief executive officer of the Ellsworth County Medical Center, about storing the Ellsworth VFW wreaths in the hospital administration building. Brown said Bair was open to the idea, but first had to get permission from the Ellsworth County Health Care Foundation. The VFW hopes to place wreaths during the holidays on veteran’s graves in Ellsworth County.

In other business:

• Approval was given to 2019 EMS write-offs in the amount of $21,009.88. Brown said these EMS run charges were for patients who were either deceased or for charges that were past the statute of limitations and uncollected.

• Commissioner Steve Dlabal said a local physician asked him why EMS was recently unable to transport two patients to another hospital, so another EMS ambulance was called to do the transfer.

“It’s a staffing issue,” Brown said, noting he has three ambulances, but unless he has a crew and a back up crew available, he can’t take that transfer call.

“We are dedicated to 911,” he said. “We are a service provided to their (ECMC’s) use. We don’t work for them. We have to make sure the county is covered.”

• Approval was given to a request by Sheriff Murray Marston to have the sheriff office and EMS personnel receive eight hours holiday pay if they work the Saturday, July 4, holiday. All other county employees will be receive eight hours holiday pay on Friday July

3. The Ellsworth County Courthouse will be closed July 3.

“I think that’s fair,” Commissioner Dennis Rolfs said.

• Doug McKinney of the North Central Regional Planning Commission in Beloit visited with commissioners again regarding support for the Joint Land Use Study for Unmanned Aircraft being developed by the NCRPC, Fort Riley and the Department of Defense. McKinney said in early December the planning commission gave approval to apply for grant funding from the Department of Defense so every county with land located in the unmanned aircraft corridor described in the land use study would receive funding to develop a comprehensive plan. The proposed four-mile-wide corridor would run through a small portion of northeastern Ellsworth County.

Ellsworth County currently has no such plan.

Exactly how much the county would receive from the Department of Defense won’t be known until at least April.

From Dec. 30:

• Commissioners discussed a proposed re-power of wind turbines of the Smoky Hills Wind Farm during a conference call with Jeremy Price of Enel North America. Enel plans to replace turbine blades and gear boxes at the wind farm. Work will begin in late February in the portion of the wind farm in Lincoln County, and this summer on that portion in Ellsworth County. Price will attend the Jan. 13 commission meeting to discuss the work further. Commissioners requested that Kirkham Michael and Associates be added to a proposed road use agreement so they can record the condition of the roads to be used during the project before and after completion.