By GLEN WERLING
Life saving measures administered by Ossian Police Officer Russ Mounsey and Police Chief Dave Rigney were lauded at Tuesday’s meeting of the Ossian Board of Metropolitan Police Commissioners.
Last Thursday, April 28, Rigney and Mounsey responded to a report of a drug overdose in an upstairs apartment of a residence on Church Street. A 31-year-old male was unresponsive, not breathing and had no pulse.
Because the Wells County EMS Ossian ambulance was already out on a run, an EMS had to respond from Bluffton. Rigney and Mounsey were the first on the scene.
“The gentleman was on the bed, the dad was trying to perform CPR on the bed, which doesn’t work because you need a hard surface,” Rigney recalled. He and Mounsey were able to move the man to the floor and started CPR. They administered a dose of Narcan, performed rescue breathing and did chest compressions for awhile.
They administered a second, then a third dose of Narcan. “Based on our efforts, this gentleman came back around,” Rigney said.
By the time he was loaded into the ambulance the man was awake and talking, Rigney said.
“Russ will be getting another lifesaving award for his efforts there,” Rigney added.
The commissioners added Rigney should also receive the award.
Both are tentatively scheduled to be presented with the awards at next Monday’s meeting of the Ossian Town Council.
The commissioners also discussed the potential retirement of Rigney.
“I have not officially given notice,” Rigney stressed, but at the chief’s recommendation, the commissioners agreed to prepare for what qualifications they want to see in a replacement.
Rigney provided the commissioners with a thick packet of materials from the International Association of Chiefs of Police as a source of information on what to look for in a chief and the replacement process. He also mentioned other resources to the commissioners.
Chichester asked his fellow commissioners to read through all of the material before making a list of the criteria for a possible new chief.
The board members also learned from Rigney that Patrick Piper, one of the department’s part-time officers, will be resigning at the end of the week. His final duty day will be Thursday.
Piper is retiring from the Adams County Sheriff’s Department, where he is a full-time officer, and moving out of the area.
Rigney informed the board members that with the departure of officer Evan Holliday, the mileage driven by officers had declined some from the previous mileage period.
Between March 16 and April 15, the department’s officers drove 3,903 miles at a cost $1,48.01 in gas. The department’s per-month budget for gasoline is $1,166.67. Again, rising fuel prices are largely to blame, Rigney observed, as gasoline costs more than twice as much as it just two years ago.
The department’s officers also logged 13.25 hours of overtime between March 20 and April 16.
Rigney recorded the most overtime at 9.25 hours, Sgt. Stephanie Tucker was next at 2.5 hours, Mounsey logged an hour and officer Brian McClish recorded a half an hour of overtime.
Conflicts in June among the board members made them decided to reschedule the next meeting of the commissioners for 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 31 instead of the usual first Tuesday of the month.
glenw@news-banner.com
