James McKenzie Quotations

We are here to serve the people of Vernon County. We respond to an emergency call immediately and a crew is called to come in as backup. We don't wait because taking that call is our primary purpose. A transfer is different, it takes us out of our area.

My dad had a heart attack recently and we had to have an ambulance for him, I had to call for my wife too. We rely on the district just like everyone else.

We do not feel on-site training is sufficient for our employees to avoid unnecessary accidents and potential loss of limb or life.

We have the best support from patrons. At Christmas we have people bring stuff in here all the time and express their gratitude, and we really appreciate their support.

We don't leave the district without a crew. Cedar County does, but we don't. We won't take a transfer unless there is a crew ready to answer the call if someone needs an ambulance here in Vernon County. These are the people we serve and we won't leave them without protection.

You can't buy the same pair of jeans at the same price you could five years ago. Why would you expect our cost to stay the same?

People have a lot of misconceptions about the district. I just want to get the information out there so they know what is going on.

Alex never asked that. He never, ever actually asked what I did. It was, 'What was I going to do? Was I going to be better?' He just kept it very positive for me.

They do driver training. If you're driving a $165,000 piece of equipment you need to know how to handle it.

Taxes bring in about $300,000 a year. Even with only one ambulance and the staff to man it 24 hours a day it would stretch that $300,000. Then, of course, there's rent and utilities and all the other expenses. The district was formed 28 years ago. How many times have we asked for an increase since then? I think it's been one time. We are trying to provide the best service we can for the area and do it as efficiently as we can.

I've heard that people are saying it cost $300,000. That's way more than it cost. We paid $165,000 for it and there were good reasons to buy it. It's larger than previous units we've had. Our fleet was aging, our first out ambulance is more than eight years old and we were spending a lot of maintenance on it.

If you don't have reliable transportation you can have the best medics in the world but if you can't go out there and turn the key and go you're no good to your patients. Our patrons have a right to expect us to be there for them.

I can assure this court there isn't a day that goes by, from now until Matthew dies, that he won't think of this, that he won't know about this,

...All that combined is a greater burden on him than we, as a state and society, can impose.