Meadows Valley EMS Donates Ambulance to County Coroner
For 30 years Susan Warner has covered the 1,370 square mile area that is Adams County as County Coroner. The service area includes Bear, out toward Pollock, Indian Valley, New Meadows, Council, and all the wilderness areas in between. Warner was appointed to the position when the prior coroner retired and was officially voted in a few months later all in 1994. Meadows Valley Fire Chief Doug Buys says Warner “has one of the hardest jobs in the county” and just this month, the Meadows Valley Fire District chose to donate their old ambulance to Warner.
Chief Buys said the fire district saw the need and wanted to make Warner’s life a little easier since she has been using a short bed pickup for quite some time. He said they “thought the family of the departed deserved a little better as well so we…offered her a donation of the old ambulance.” The ambulance was New Meadows’ very first new ambulance in 1999 and was the district’s first four wheel drive ambulance.
Warner said she is very excited to have the new vehicle. She noted that when she started out as the coroner she had to wait for EMS to arrive for transport. Later on she got a pickup truck that worked pretty well and then got her current truck, a 2005 Dodge four wheel drive pickup, from the Sheriff’s department. The ambulance has a much easier loading system as well as more room in case of needing to transport more than one deceased person, plus extra storage and emergency lights. Warner also noted that the ambulance “will be a more substantial vehicle for what I do…and will last a long time”. Chief Buys noted they are looking to acquire a power load unit to put in her ambulance to make loading even easier.
Warner is also a Registered Nurse and Nurse Practitioner and still works at the Adams County Health Center in Council teaching diabetes education and seeing hospital transition of care patients. She has been there for 43 years. Her nursing background helped when she began as coroner, but she also had lots to learn on the job case by case. Warner shared that forensics cases are “kind of like a puzzle, you have to start at the end and go back to the beginning to figure out what happened to somebody”. Thankfully, Warner said, she has had lots of education since her early days. She has been to a Masters Class in Medicolegal Death Investigation as well as become a Fellow on the American Board of Medicolegal Death Investigators. At the state level, there is now a Coroners Association that meets twice a year to do some required continuing education. Warner hopes to retire when her term is up after the next election two years from now.
Warner picked up the new to her ambulance in New Meadows on Friday, December 6. EMT/Fire Fighters Johnny Brown and LeAndra Smith, Lieutenant Lucas Nicholson, and Fire Chief Doug Buys were present.
Meadows Valley Fire was also the recent recipient of some good news by way of an American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) grant of $208,333 through the State of Idaho Department of Health & Welfare. This allowed the department to purchase a new 2024 Osage ambulance. The remaining balance of just under $53,000 was paid in full by the fire district after budget discussions and utilization of grant money. The new ambulance went into service the first week of December and EMTs were excited to put the new vehicle to good use. The district could have sold the old ambulance for likely $25-30,000, but thought the donation was more beneficial all things considered. Chief Buys said the new ambulance has a couple advanced features compared to their 2019 ambulance, but they “did their best to make the inside as identical as possible to the current ambulance to do the best for our patients as well as our volunteers.”
Meadows Valley Emergency Services has a staff of about 30 people. All but two staff members are volunteers. Two full time medics work 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Monday through Friday and all other times and positions are filled by volunteers. Meadows Valley is fortunate to have so many incredible first responders.
