Vote McKay

Kimberly McKay

Candidate for
1st District Commissioner,
St. Louis County, MN

Emergency Services

As a youngster in rural St. Louis County I remember if there was accident you loaded the person in the car, turned on your flashers and headed as quickly as possible for the nearest hospital. If a woman was in labor you tied a diaper to the antenna of the car and took off for the hospital. Sounds ancient now but that's because we have come along way in the last thirty years. When you live in Duluth your average time from calling 9-1-1 to them getting to you is about five to seven minutes. If you live in the rural areas you're talking about a half hour or more for ambulances and fire because of the fact that they rely on volunteers from the community to do the responding.

I want to give you a scenario so you might be able to understand some of the reasons for the services such as snowplowing for people out there. Keep in mind that any private driveways that are snowplowed out there the people pay to have it done. It is not free.

Let's say the county stopped offering the snowplowing service due to budget cutbacks. And that the 9-1-1 operators no longer are trained to give emergency first aid and CPR information over the phone because it isn't a "core service". Grandpa Jones goes out to shovel the driveway so he can take grandma to town. All that strenuous activity gives him a cardiac episode. Grandma sees him out there on the ground and calls 9-1-1. All the dispatcher can do is say that help is on the way. Grandma isn't going to leave grandpa so back outside she goes. The call goes out to the local responders and they're on their way. The ambulance gets to the end of the driveway but they can't get in because there's too much snow and the driveway is a couple of city blocks long. By the time they get to grandpa it's too late to save him, and grandma is now suffering from hypothermia. So what should have been a rescue mission is now both a recovery mission and a rescue mission. As you can see in this scenario a lot of things work together in order for things to go right. One cog in that wheel taken away and it all falls apart. Keep in mind that any of you that enjoy going out into the rural areas of St. Louis County to hike, fish, canoe, camping or anything else you may like to do could end up like Grandma or Grandpa Jones.

St. Louis County Jail is another thing I would like to address. Right now we are paying out a lot of money every year to house our inmates in other jails because we don't have the room. However the other thing about this is people know that we have a revolving door situation going on. What I mean by that is this you do the crime and if it isn't something major you're back on the streets in 24 hours. Our judicial system isn't making our criminals do the time anymore because we don't have the space. I have to feel sorry for our law enforcement personnel. They are dealing with the same people over and over again because some of our criminals know how to work the system and they do it quite well. You should hear them brag about it.

My father was a constable up in Cotton when I was growing up, I took my EMT basics with Gold Cross, and my brother is a fire fighter and paramedic for the state of California. I have a great respect for the people that are out there doing their jobs for the protection and well being of all of us. I just wish that when you do the crime you did the time like it should be because I know it has to be frustrating to them when they keep hitting their heads against brick walls.

Paid for by the McKay for County Commissioner Campaign Fund.