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Episode #51 "Franklin County EMS: Are Two Ambulances Enough?" · The Kevin Stone Podcast

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Some podcasts have experts. This is not one of those podcasts.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: This is one guy, a microphone, a cup of coffee,
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: and absolutely no guarantee where any of this is going.
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  Speaker 1: From small town Arkansas to Washington, D.C. From politics and
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  Speaker 1: current events to history, space, faith, and whatever else happens
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  Speaker 1: to get under his skin. He'll ask the questions. He'll
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  Speaker 1: give you his opinion. And every once in a while,
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  Speaker 1: he might even know what he's talking about. No fancy degree,
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: no corporate talking points, just an ordinary guy trying to
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  Speaker 1: make sense of an increasingly strange world. Ladies and gentlemen,
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  Speaker 1: this is The Kevin Stone Podcast.
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  Speaker 2: All right, we're broadcasting to you from Studio A of
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  Speaker 2: the Kevin Stone Podcast, headquarters right here in Ozark, Arkansas. That,
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: of course, means that I am Kevin Stone. We made
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  Speaker 2: it through the weekend, made it through Halloween. We've apparently
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: made it through the time change. However, my body is
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: still adjusting, as is a lot of people, I'm sure,
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  Speaker 2: the difference in the times. Really messed me up. Had
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  Speaker 2: to get used to it. That very morning, Sunday morning,
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  Speaker 2: I had to get up and go to work. Of course,
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  Speaker 2: my phone and the Alexa app and all that good
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  Speaker 2: stuff had already automatically changed. But the clock on the
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  Speaker 2: stove was not right. I had prepared the night before.
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  Speaker 2: I had already changed the coffee pot because that is
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  Speaker 2: an extremely important requirement here in this house, is that
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  Speaker 2: coffee has to be ready when I get up. So
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  Speaker 2: the time on the coffee pot had already been fixed,
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  Speaker 2: but the stove messed me up because it was still
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  Speaker 2: an hour ahead. For a brief second, I thought I
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  Speaker 2: was going to be late for work, but I was not. Anyway,
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  Speaker 2: we will get through that. It might take some time.
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  Speaker 2: We'll get through it, though. Today, we're going to be
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  Speaker 2: talking a little bit about the... Franklin County EMS situation,
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  Speaker 2: because there's something I want to make clear about this
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  Speaker 2: whole issue. So don't go anywhere. The Kevin Stone Podcast
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  Speaker 2: will be right back. Okay, we're back. Now I want
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  Speaker 2: to talk a little bit about while we're digging into
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  Speaker 2: issues with the Franklin County EMS. There's some concerns now,
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  Speaker 2: and these concerns were brought to me by citizens of
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  Speaker 2: Franklin County, and it was something I was completely unaware of.
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  Speaker 2: I've lived here in Franklin County now for about eight years.
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  Speaker 2: And had no idea, had no understanding at all that
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  Speaker 2: there was even a situation here, something to be worried about.
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  Speaker 2: But apparently, during the overnight hours, Franklin County only has
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  Speaker 2: two staffed ambulances responding to medical concerns and such. That
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  Speaker 2: would include car accidents and everything else. Anytime you need
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  Speaker 2: an ambulance for someone here in Franklin County, if it's
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  Speaker 2: overnight hours, there's only two staffed ambulances. Now, during the daytime,
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  Speaker 2: we have three staffed ambulances. Two of them are 24-7.
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  Speaker 2: One of them's only 12 hours a day. Now, Franklin
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  Speaker 2: County has over 18,000 people in its population. That's a
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  Speaker 2: lot of people. to only be serviced by two ambulances.
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  Speaker 2: And you've got a river, the Arkansas River, cuts right
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  Speaker 2: through Franklin County. There's one bridge in Franklin County that
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  Speaker 2: goes across. You have two major cities, Ozark and Charleston.
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  Speaker 2: I guess I should clarify that because when I say
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  Speaker 2: major city, we're not talking about a city like Dallas
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  Speaker 2: or Houston or Little Rock. But these are two big cities,
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  Speaker 2: and there's all kinds of outlying communities around these cities.
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  Speaker 2: And they're all serviced by the Franklin County EMS. Now,
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  Speaker 2: I know that other places that I have lived, and
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  Speaker 2: I served in two Texas communities as a volunteer firefighter,
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  Speaker 2: and both those communities had mutual aid agreements with communities
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  Speaker 2: around them. Now, I don't know for sure. It's not verified.
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  Speaker 2: But I am very hopeful that we have mutual agreements,
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  Speaker 2: mutual aid agreements with communities around Franklin County as well.
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  Speaker 2: Because if something happens, and there's a pretty good distance
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  Speaker 2: between Ozark and Charleston, It's well over a 30-minute drive,
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  Speaker 2: we'll put it that way, between these two cities. And
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  Speaker 2: I'm being led to believe that one of the ambulances
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  Speaker 2: is stationed in Charleston and one and the other is
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  Speaker 2: stationed in Ozark. But just the simple fact that we
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  Speaker 2: only have two staffed ambulances during the overnight hours for
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  Speaker 2: a coverage area the size of Franklin County and the
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  Speaker 2: population size of Franklin County is extremely concerning to me.
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  Speaker 2: And I think it should be concerning for quite a
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  Speaker 2: few people. I lived here quite a while without even realizing,
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  Speaker 2: without even thinking to look and see what kind of
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  Speaker 2: emergency medical coverage that we have here in the area.
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  Speaker 2: You know, people are talking about wanting to bring businesses
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  Speaker 2: and economic boom to the Ozark area. Well, I'm sure
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  Speaker 2: that these businesses and the creators of economic boom are
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  Speaker 2: going to be looking at what kind of emergency medical
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  Speaker 2: or emergency coverage coverage we have here, not just with EMS,
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  Speaker 2: but with public safety and everything else. And if our
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  Speaker 2: coverage is lacking, well, we're not very enticing for these
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  Speaker 2: companies and businesses to move into our area. I have
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  Speaker 2: sent out some information requests to county officials to try
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  Speaker 2: to get some information on this so that I can
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  Speaker 2: present this information to the public. I think that the
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  Speaker 2: public needs to be aware of the situation that we're
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  Speaker 2: facing here in Franklin County. Not as a way of
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  Speaker 2: trying to point blame and call people out, but as
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  Speaker 2: a way of being able to realize, first of all,
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  Speaker 2: that there's a problem. And second of all, maybe do
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  Speaker 2: some brainstorming and try to figure out how we can
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  Speaker 2: address this problem. Now, I understand there's budget issues. Every county,
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  Speaker 2: every city, every community deals with budget issues. But the
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  Speaker 2: public needs to be made aware of what issues we're
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  Speaker 2: facing because there could be good ideas that come up
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  Speaker 2: from the community. Now, I don't have the answers. I
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  Speaker 2: don't know the first thing about what we should do
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  Speaker 2: to fix the problem. But I know that there is
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  Speaker 2: a problem. And our elected officials are here to, first
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  Speaker 2: of all, represent us and to govern the county. But
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  Speaker 2: that doesn't have to be done without public input. It
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  Speaker 2: doesn't have to be done without the general population being
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  Speaker 2: aware of what's going on. So my promise is that
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  Speaker 2: as soon as I get the information from the county officials,
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  Speaker 2: then I will be sharing it. We will be talking
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  Speaker 2: about it. And I'll be asking questions. And I'll take
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  Speaker 2: public input. We've got an email here. It's thekevinstonepodcast at gmail.com.
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  Speaker 2: If you have ideas or concerns or information about the
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  Speaker 2: issues with the Franklin County EMS, the two ambulance situation,
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  Speaker 2: the budget situation, feel free to send it to us.
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  Speaker 2: And if you have any suggestions or ideas, feel free
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  Speaker 2: to send that too. Because I think that's the best
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  Speaker 2: way of trying to figure out how to solve a
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  Speaker 2: problem is to bring people together and brainstorm and come
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  Speaker 2: up with ideas. Now, to jump up and down and
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  Speaker 2: call people out and point the blame at this person
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  Speaker 2: or that person, that's no way of actually fixing the problems.
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  Speaker 2: Once you get the problem fixed, then sure, go back.
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  Speaker 2: Accountability is very important. But I think when you have
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  Speaker 2: to put priorities out, I think the priority should be
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  Speaker 2: to fix the problem and then we address the accountability issue.
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  Speaker 2: At least that's the way I look at it. That's
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  Speaker 2: the way my mindset goes at it. Now, I'm not
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  Speaker 2: saying that my way is always right. Don't get me wrong.
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  Speaker 2: I've got plenty of proof showing that my way isn't
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  Speaker 2: always the best way, and I think everybody does. But
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  Speaker 2: I'm concerned about the area that I live in, and
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  Speaker 2: I hope everybody else is too. But I do know
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  Speaker 2: that if we come together in a civilized manner and
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  Speaker 2: act like adults, which we are, then we can come
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  Speaker 2: up with solutions to the problems. And I hope that
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  Speaker 2: the officials in Franklin County are willing to give the
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  Speaker 2: information out, which is rightly ours to begin with, so
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  Speaker 2: that we can see what's actually going on here. Okay,
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  Speaker 2: for now though, that's it. That's all I got. I've
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  Speaker 2: got to go to work today as do a lot
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  Speaker 2: of other people. Hope you had a fun weekend. I
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: know that here in Ozark area, it rained Halloween night.
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  Speaker 2: So I'm not sure what kind of scores the kiddos
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  Speaker 2: got with the candy and everything. But I hope they
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: had fun. I hope they enjoyed it. And remember, kiddos,
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  Speaker 2: those parents are going to try to charge you a
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  Speaker 2: parent tax and take some of that candy. Make sure
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  Speaker 2: you stand up for your rights there too. All right, folks,
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: remember that God is real. The earth is round. And
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: we did go to the moon. I'm Kevin Stone. This
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  Speaker 2: has been the Kevin Stone Podcast, and I'll talk to
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  Speaker 2: you next time. Oh yeah, one last thing, folks. Charlie,
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  Speaker 2: my podcast chief of staff, has informed me that Franklin
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  Speaker 2: County's population is actually just shy of 18,000 people. Not
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  Speaker 2: over 18,000, like I said earlier. Apparently, Charlie's keeping me
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  Speaker 2: honest around here, and somebody's got to do it. Thank you.