Johnson, Nelson resign from ambulance committee

By Chad Koenen

Publisher

For the second time in three years, the Henning Ambulance Service was put in the spotlight after a member of the Henning City Council as the council to consider allegations or charges against the local service. After a lengthy discussion and open meeting, the allegations were once again dismissed by a majority of the city council. 

During its regularly scheduled meeting last week, which was held at the Henning Community Center due to an overflow of people in attendance, the city council heard from at least 10 people who spoke in favor of the job Henning Ambulance Director Chelsey Waskosky has done since assuming the role of director just two years ago. 

As part of the hearing, Waskosky presented the city council with a nearly 40 page packet of information debunking many of the past anonymous allegations against the department, as well as the current allegations before the city council. The packet included a narrative of the past two years as director, text messages, emails and letters from individuals from the state, county and local government level. 

“I want to work together and I want to work through this, because in the end, it is the  community that will suffer if the Henning Ambulance would diminish. I don’t want to see that,” said Waskosky of why she wanted to continue as ambulance director. 

One of the most recent anonymous complaints came in January of 2024 that stated Henning Ambulance was lying about the ambulance staff coverage and that “Henning Ambulance never has coverage,” according to the complaint. With any complaint made to the state, Waskosky said the state must do an investigation in which she had to provide one year of the Henning Ambulance schedule. She said it took approximately 6-8 weeks of her personal time to review the yearly logbook to clear up the anonymous complaint.

Waskosky said another concern that has been brought up revolves around getting Henning Fire/Rescue dispatched to a 911 call when Henning Ambulance does not have coverage. According to Waskosky, Otter Tail County Sheriff Barry Fitzgibbons was concerned about changes being requested by the City of Henning to dispatch the Henning Fire and Rescue only to specific calls when the Henning Ambulance Service did not have coverage. 

Waskosky said she was informed by Fitzgibbons that if Henning Fire and Rescue wanted to be a rescue squad, they needed to be paged out to every call, or no calls like other rescue squads in the county, despite a request from the city to page only when the ambulance was not available. Waskosky also said the Henning Ambulance Service does not inform Vining Rescue, Battle Lake Rescue and Ottertail Rescue when they are not in service, yet those rescue squads are dispatched only if they are needed following the initial call to the local ambulance service.

Waskosky said there have been numerous attempts over the past few months to get members of the fire department, ambulance service, county and ambulance committee together and on the same page. A meeting was eventually held in mid July in which Waskosky said Fitzgibbons said he would do his best to get the county protocol changed so that when Henning Ambulance didn’t have coverage, the fire/rescue department would be paged to the call to render first aid until a mutual aid ambulance could respond. 

It was then made the responsibility of the Henning Ambulance Service to notify Henning Fire and Rescue and the county when there would be no coverage, which did not occur for a four hour period on Sunday, July 21. As a result, the Henning Ambulance Committee held a meeting on July 26 to once again discuss the issue of having Henning Fire and Rescue paged to calls when the ambulance service was not staffed. 

According to her written report, Waskosky said Henning Mayor Robert Johnson was upset that she contacted Fitzgibbons prior to the committee meeting to express her concern over the continual anonymous complaints and how to move forward. She said Johnson told her that he wanted her resignation as ambulance director, something Waskosky told him could only be approved by the city council and not just the mayor. 

In all, Waskosky addressed and provided documentation against all 13 charges/allegations made against the ambulance that have occurred in the last year. 

Henning City Councilman Scott Hart said it was sad to see the fighting between the ambulance and fire department.

“I think we have great people on all three staffs (ambulance, fire and police) and we need to keep moving forward. Do we need to make some changes to move forward, I think so. We need to look at our policies. A minor change would probably save a lot of our problems.”

Henning City Councilman Jesse Hermanson said it makes sense to follow the protocols already put in place by Otter Tail County for responding to medical calls.

“It makes sense they are following Otter Tail County protocol and what the sheriff wants. Human error is going to happen if (they) forget to inform someone there is no coverage,” he said. “It seems like we are trying to make this overly complicated.”

After a continual back and forth between council members and Waskosky, both Hermanson and Hart said they were disappointed that the city council and ambulance service were once again debating charges against the ambulance department.

“I am sad, like the one text I got. I don’t want the departments dissing each other. To me it is wrong. We are all good people. I don’t know why we can’t just step back and take care of our business within our departments,” said Hart.

Hermanson said he felt bad for Waskosky to have to spend countless hours out of her personal time to chase down and address anonymous complaints made against the ambulance service. 

“The hours she has been putting in chasing down those anonymous complaints. I feel bad she had to go through all of that,” he said.

City councilwoman Mallory Loock said everyone involved needs to put their feelings aside and begin working together for the betterment of the community. She then asked city clerk/treasurer Jenna Kovarik about the issue of communication and need of policies. 

“There is just a lot that goes back before Chelsey. There is just a lot of divide,” said Kovarik.

Johnson and city councilman Travis Nelson, who are both on the ambulance committee, said the biggest issue revolved around not informing the fire department when there was no coverage in place by the ambulance service. Nelson questioned Waskosky why she didn’t bring her concerns to the ambulance committee meeting, immediately during some of the recent committee meetings, to which Waskosky said her concerns came up after the committee meetings. 

Throughout the meeting, Waskosky and several members of the city council stated there needed to be policies put in place so department heads knew what was expected of them, and how to address concerns moving forward. The city has been working on policies for quite some time with its attorney, but no finalized policy book has been approved by the city council.

Hart made a motion to dismiss the charges against Waskosky and follow Otter Tail County protocol for responding to emergencies moving forward. He also said the city needs to get additional policies in place and if mediation is needed to bridge the divide within the city’s various entities then he would be in favor of that as well. The motion was later approved.

Following the dismissal of the charges, Johnson and Nelson resigned from their positions on the ambulance committee. Hermanson and Loock were appointed to their positions. 

In other news

• Heard a storm update damage from Mike Helle who stated there were approximately 50 trees that were down in a recent storm. There was also damage done to the baseball field, the irrigator and roof damages in the community. 

• Approved allowing the Henning Community Association, formerly the Henning Chamber of Commerce, to have a tab on the City of Henning website to promote the local organization.

• Discussed necessary repairs on Airport Road. The city and Henning Township have been exploring a joint project on the township and city road to make necessary repairs to the aging roadway. The city is responsible for half the costs to repair the road, which is estimated at $250,000. The city said it will give Henning Township the green light to take the lead on the project, depending on a recommendation from the financial committee. 

• Approved developing a developer agreement for a potential development on vacant lots on Old Highway 67. The agreement would spell out who is responsible for what costs should a housing or development project take place on the properties. 

• Heard a concern that one of the wells is not working at optimal capacity. The public works department will check into potential funding sources and bring a recommendation on how to move forward to the financial committee.