Workers and visitors will feel a little more secure at the Security Bank Building now that the city of Perry has installed an automated external defibrillator (AED), bought with grant funds from the Iowa Communities Assurance Pool (ICAP), the city’s self-insurance cooperative.
Josh Wuebker, deputy director of the Perry Public Works Department, said ICAP gives up to $1,000 yearly to members for safety enhancement equipment.
“Last year we put in for one, and we got about 65 high-vis vests,” Wuebker said Tuesday in the Security Bank Building. “This year we put in for it and got an AED for here” in the city hall building at 1102 Willis Ave.
An AED is a portable electronic device that automatically diagnoses life-threatening cardiac arrhythmias and treats them with electricity, stopping the arrhythmia and letting the heart reestablish an effective rhythm.
“With ICAP, this is something they’ve been doing year over year,” said Brad Bengtson, risk management specialist at RHC TrueNorth Companies, which acts as Perry’s property and casualty insurance agent with ICAP. “Pretty much anything that’s safety related that will help mitigate risk and loss for the entities and members are what they utilize it for.”
Wuebker said all staff members working in the Security Bank Building — from Perry Chamber of Commerce staff on the first floor to Perry Community School District staff on the second floor and city administration on the third floor and in the basement — have been trained in using the AED by Dallas County EMS.
Mike Tomason, Dallas County EMS director, set up the city with the preferred brand — the Zoll AED Plus — and Paramedic Lee Coons trained Security Bank Building staff in using the heart restarter.
Wuebker applied for the grant, and the check for $1,000 was sent to Bengtson at TrueNorth, who handed it over to the city of Perry for the purchase.
“We’re glad to be partnering with Perry in putting this life-saving resource at the service of the public workers here in the building and the many members of the public who come here to do business,” said Bengtson, a Perry High School graduate who left Perry in 1996 but returned last summer to assist his father, Barry Bengtson, ease into retirement.
“That’s one of the reasons I decided to move back over to the insurance agency side,” Bengtson said, “because TrueNorth has so many resources we can use. It’s the best of both worlds for us. We’re the same people that cared about their customers for 40 years here in Perry, but now we’ve got resources to do even more for them, and you get to have me around once in a while.”
Wuebker and Perry Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Bob Wilson received training in using the AED and demonstrated many of its smart-technology features Tuesday.
“Unit okay,” the device said when powered up. “Stay calm. Check responsiveness. Call for help.”
