CLAYTON — City council at its June 20 meeting authorized the purchase of equipment from Stryker Medical Emergency Care for the fire department involving two cardiac heart monitors at a cost of $112,403 and one power cot for $33,709.

American Rescue Plan Act funds will be utilized to make those purchases.

According to Fire Chief Brian Garver, the department’s current heart monitors are 15 years old and are usually replaced every 10 to 12 years.

The new versions were in testing phase when Covid hit and the testing took longer than anticipated and Garver said he did not want to spend that kind of money to purchase monitors with old technology.

“We waited until the new monitors came out. They just got released in June with all the new technology and we will be the first ones in Montgomery County to have these monitors,” Garver said. “They are the newest and greatest and the ones we currently have need to be replaced.”

The city’s current power cot is 10 years old. Clayton had two power cots, but as part of the Clayton-Englewood-Union Fire Collaborative the city is only required to maintain one power cot.

Garver said the power cots were purchased with a grant from the Ohio Bureau of Workers Compensation to eliminate the need for rescue personnel to lift patients, which prevents injuries.

Over the course of 10 years the power cots were used about 80,000 times, Garver stated.

Funds in the city’s Capital Improvement Plan had been designated to fund the purchases, but ARPA funds will be used instead leaving the designated funds in the CIP budget.

“So, when they last 10 years that is pretty good, but it is time to be replaced and since we had some ARPA funding we wanted to get it replaced and not use our CIP funds to do so,” Garver said.

Reach Ron Nunnari at (937) 684-9124 or email [email protected].