School to get first-aid device

The fire department has donated the portable device.
By ANTHONY NICK
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
MCDONALD -- Thanks to a donation by the village fire department, the high school will soon have a new piece of emergency medical equipment on site.
During a report to council Wednesday, Fire Chief Michael Badila Jr. announced the department will donate an Automatic Electronic Defibrillator to the school later this week.
An AED is a portable device that can be used by anyone who has been trained with the equipment to help stabilize a heart attack victim until emergency medical personnel can arrive.
State grant
Badila said the AED costs $1,900, and a separate battery pack to be used during training sessions will cost an additional $200. The entire cost is being funded by a state grant, said Badila.
The chief said he was prompted to apply for the grant after having discussions with school nurse Carol Augustine at the end of last school year about the need for an AED.
Badila said once the AED is donated, fire department personnel will train school employees on how to use the device. School officials are now getting a list of employees who want to be trained. Once the training is completed the AED will be placed in the high school gym, said Badila. The chief added he will be working on another EMS grant for next year to pay for an AED to be placed at Roosevelt Elementary School.
This is the first time the fire department has donated anything to the schools, said Badila, who added after this year he will continue to apply annually for grants to provide the schools with other types of first-aid equipment.
Voted on bill
In other action Wednesday, council voted 4-2 to approve the village clerk's report for the month of August.
Councilmen Michael O'Brien and Robert Farr Jr. voted against accepting clerk Rocco Tondo's report because of certain payments included in the more than $98,000 in bills the village incurred last month.
Both Farr and O'Brien objected to a $7,556 bill included in the report submitted by the Ohio State Auditor's office for work done during an audit of the village's 2000-01 financial transactions.
O'Brien, who did not comment on his no vote Wednesday night, voted against a similar payment to the state auditor's office at council's last meeting earlier this month.
O'Brien said at that time he objected to paying the bills because they were for additional audit work that had been authorized by former clerk Wendy Kosovec, and not council.
Not enough detail
Farr, who also voted against paying the state auditor at the last council meeting, again objected to the fact that the invoices submitted were not detailed enough. Farr said the invoices submitted by the state for work done on the 2000-01 and 2002-03 audits did not include enough supporting detail beyond the total number of hours worked.
After the meeting Tondo produced an invoice from the state for the 2000-01 audit that included names of auditors, hours worked, and where the work was done.
The clerk added the $7,556 bill is the final one owed to the state for the 2000-01 audit. The audit of the village's 2003-03 financial records is under way now, said Tondo.
The state audits are done every two years.