March 29, 2024

Board approves new AED for Annex building

The Jasper County Board of Supervisors approved the purchase of a new Philips Heartstart Automated External Defibrillator for the Jasper County Annex building at its regular Tuesday meeting.

“A while back we purchased the Philips Heartstart AEDs for all the county facilities. The one in the Annex has died. It is more effective to purchase a new one with a warranty than to send ours in and spend money to potentially get it rebuilt,” Human Resource Director Dennis Simon said. “Currently, we do not have one in the Annex working.”

He requested the board put an additional $1,925 in the county safety account to purchase the AED. In doing so, the budgeted $1,300 for the account will remain available for CPR and First Aid classes.

With the retirement of Dave Gilchrist, a longtime transport officer for the Jasper County Sheriff’s Office, John McMahon was approved for hire as a part-time transport officer by the board. His start date is Monday at a pay rate of $12.64 per hour.

“Dave’s been our mainstay for transports with mental health and substance abuse. The guys are worth their weight in gold on their transports, the time they sit with these people. I appreciate his service and we are going to miss him but he wants to spend time with the wife and the grandkids,” Jasper County Sheriff John Halferty.

Gilchrist previously worked at Maytag before joining the sheriff’s office about 12 years ago.

In other business:

• Veterans Affairs quarterly and yearly reports which both ended in June were approved.

Contact Jamee A. Pierson at 641-792-3121 ext. 6534 or jpierson@newtondailynews.com