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Ashley Biles

Associate Editor

Upson County EMS is keeping track of patients after they are discharged from the hospital. EMS Director Richard Lee explained the new program, called Community Paramedicine, to the Upson County Board of Commissioners at a recent meeting.

Lee explained that this is a service to the community in which the EMS will be visiting patients in the field after they have been discharged from the hospital. They will be checking on those who have on-going problems and are likely to end up back in the hospital quickly or have trouble getting their medicine or to a doctor’s office. One example he gave would be those suffering from congestive heart failure. They are doing this to try to keep the number of patients in the Emergency Room down and started the program in July.

Lee also noted that Upson Regional is the first hospital and EMS service in the state to offer this service and so far it has been going well.

Also during the meeting, the board amended a contract with Akins North America, which is overseeing the closing of the Zorn Street Landfill, for $40,000 more. Commissioner Frank Spraggins told the board that he is recommending the board make the change to cover the cost of the requirements by the EPD and Georgia DNR to close the landfill. Spraggins also noted that the county has 30 years to close the site and will be paying for the landfill for roughly 12-13 more years.

“Every year the state will change some of the requirements of things we need to do like reports, studies, wells to put in and water monitoring, but we have to pay it, it has to be done,” said Spraggins. “What really hurts us is the fines if we don’t do it. It is really cheaper to just go ahead with it. We have good engineers on this project and they are not going to ask for something that we don’t need to do.”

In other business, the board unanimously voted to repave North Maple Street. Chairman Maurice Raines told the board the road has been listed as number 50 on the priority list, but he has personally been out on the road and it is in need of repair. He also noted that Road Superintendent James Melton had done a study to see what the cost would be and it is estimated to cost around $19,680 for the project. Commissioner Steve Hudson told Raines and the board that many of the roads listed numbers 0-49 have already been paved and made a motion to go ahead with the repaving. The rest of the board agreed.