Go ahead and call Don Mayben, Medicone. And report your results here. He is, as am I, a Member of the Tehachapi Hospital Foundation and you can be SURE, I will hold his feet to the fire with your report.

Jim Richards

Remember, this is not a "grudge" with the EMT's and paramedics busting thier humps every day, but the time has come for more expedient emergency services up here.  By the way, how do additional ambulances get up here when the freeway is closed due to wind and snow etc?

Everyone needs to remember just how corrupt Bakersfield, the County, and little local city politicians are in Kern County.  I guess its a nation wide thing however I don't think it will be easy to hold Halls feet to any fire in a county where he is so protected.   How can the Mayor of Bakersfield provide EMS service to that city and then like recently ask for a fee increase?  If we complain about response times all the County EMS will do is increase his allowed time this also has recently happened.  About two months ago there were public EMS meetings with the county to discuss response times but Tehachpi was left out of the forum it was in Mojave I wonder if that was by design.   Does anyone know how we can take this situation out of Kern County to a higher source?  As long as we deal with Mayben and the Board of Supervisors we will probably see nothing done or they will ask us to pay for this service with additional parcel taxes a ploy that they love to pull.   The first priority of any government, local to national should always be public safety any other programs are just a bonus.   One thing we all can do is vote out Mayben on his next term.   

How is being Mayor and the owner of a private company a conflict of interest.  It’s no different than any council member who runs their own business.  If an issue comes up that involves their business or the interests of one of their clients, the public official recluses themselves from the discussion.  Hall has owned his ambulance company a lot longer than he has been mayor.  Jim, I think a conflict of interest is you as a member of the hospital foundation trying to create a crisis over ambulance service and telling people this is why they need to pay their $10 membership fee to support the hospital.  Smells like a conflict or something else to me. 

At the suggestion of Hall’s PR guy, I looked at the county’s website and found that there are FIVE ambulance companies in KERN COUNTY!  Each one is the sole provider in their area and THEY ALL HAVE THE SAME RESPONSE TIME MANDATES.  An allowable city response is 8 minutes or less.  The further out, the more time they have to respond.  Seems reasonable to me.  If you are worried about a medical emergency than move to an area with a faster response time or closer to a hospital that provides a higher level of care than ours.

I don’t know about you, but it seems like medicone is nothing more than a disgruntled ex-employee of Halls. 

Tehbadapple

Harvey Hall being mayor of the City of Bakersfield is a conflict of interest due to the lucrative deal his company has with the City of Bakersfield.  He being the Mayor of Bakersfield a city that negotiates with his company for contracts and don't forget those fee increase request.  What part of conflict of interest don't you understand?  I don't think any of the people you listed have contracts between their business and the city they work for.

Tehbadapple

I don't agree with your further out the longer the response time.  You would be right if we were in the outskirts of nowhere.  However Stallion Springs, Alpine Forrest, Cummings Valley, and Bear Valley, populations are more than the city of Tehachapi so what does further out mean to you?  The fact is that our local Fire Services have at least attempted to grow with the population.  The full time fire station in Stallion Springs with the addition of 9 full time firefighters and three additional firefighters for Bear Valley is evidence that the County recognizes the growth in Tehachapi.  Hall ambulance refuses to recognize this growth with the same increase in level of service.  You talk about 8 minute response times, well that would be great! but people in the affected communities wait 15, 20, 25, even 35 or 45 minutes if coming from outside Tehachapi.  The one full time car in Tehachapi and the 8 hour car are often both out on calls at the same time.  This response time when you live in a community that has a hospital and 4 full time fire stations should not be accepted.   You should give a suggestion back to the Halls PR Guy that he should  officially explain why Having only one full time Ambulance in Tehachapi is such a great deal for us.   One of the 4 competitors you mention Should bring its business to Old Town or Cummings Valley.  Or maybe the county should provide Paramedic firefighters to "further out Communities" in Kern.  There are solutions for better EMS service we all as a community need to pressure our Board of Supervisors to change or vote them out.  Pointing to statistics and what is allowed by protocol has nothing to do with a person waiting 20 minutes on the floor for ALS service.  If you ever have an emergency and i truly hope you never do try not to be "further out in Tehachapi" it wont be your best chance. 

Maybe we need to start thinking "outside of the box" and consider having our OWN Ambulance Service. Frankly, I don't know what that means but maybe the City could be involved! Does anyone here have any ideas or experience in this? What would we need to do/buy and what would it cost, and where would we get the money to pay for it?

We might just end up outfoxing Mr. Hall!!!

Jim Richards

Well,

Yes, Hall needs a second ambulance in Tehachapi. I presume by what there PR guy says that their new station is going to be a real station with beds/kitchen/bathroom and even a EMT and a Paramedic (No Ambulance Driver!!!) in it!!! Sorry, but there is no street corner posting in Tehachapi. Land is not cheap and no matter how much money Harvey has it still makes good business sense to make a good business deal on land. Maybe some of the whiners on here could help Hall with their land acquisition to help expedite there station building. It'll probably be here a lot faster than the new hospital they keep promising. Am I a transplant. No!  Been in the area for over 30 years! Good Ol Boy from Kern County! I say if you don't like it, then you know the way out from where ya came from. All this talk about KCFD Paramedics is fine. Paramedic Assessment Engines are a good idea. That is what Cal City has. Bakersfield City now has Paramedics but only during things like HazMats and such do they do there Medic stuff. I'm sure KCFD is looking into it but let them build up there staffing at all the stations first. Everything takes time and Rome wasn't built in a day. I know for sure that there are days Hall crews can run 3-4-5 calls a day at CCI, but there are days when they run NOT ONE! I know there are days they can run 3-4-5 transfers out of glorious Tehachapi Hospital and days when they run NOT ONE. EMS is dictated by us the citizens and who calls 911. Not by Harvey Hall, KCFD, KCEMS, or Don Maben. I know people call 911 at 2 in the morning because they have a ingrown toenail and they want to go to the ER. What a waste!! Why don't people get educated on what ambulances are for and that way maybe we will have our ambulance more times than one from Mojave. Also it doesn't take 1.5 hours to get here from Mojave or Arvin. I'll say more later but my wife needs me.Have a nice day.

Has anyone taken the time to review the contract for the ambulance service?  I have many years experience with government contracts and you can not always blame the vendor.  What are the requirements of the contract?  What are the "acceptable levels of performance"?  If they are meeting the requirements, you need to go beat on the agency that issued the contract so changes can be negotiated and the contract amended.

When you move to an area, look into the EMS situation.  Don't move to an area that is 15 miles from the nearest responder then complain that there aren't services.  It is not as though they took the service from you, you chose to live there. 

and another thing... EMT's do not make a high wage anywhere, it is not just Hall's.  I would also bet that most of the public contracts carry a prevailing wage requirement.

Trucker 1

Having a second ambulance is not too much to ask defiantly not "building Rome", lets bring it back to reality a bit..

Land prices? have you heard of rentals thats what most business does.  Quit whining? good one!