Klaumann Is New Ambulance Director
By Gordon Hopkins
Jefferson County has promoted a 33-year veteran to head up Ambulance District #33.
Jefferson County Commissioners voted unanimously to appoint Jeff Klaumann as the new ambulance director at a meeting on Tuesday, May 2, 2023, effective immediately. He replaces Cheyanne Kuehn, who left the position Friday, March 24 of this year. The previous ambulance director, Alan Rosenthal, served as interim director until Klauman’s appointment.
Klaumann was first hired by the department in 1990. Klaumann told commissioners, “I got my EMT class certificate in March of 91, and then, 2001, I got my paramedic license.”
When asked what were his goals for the department as director, Klaumann said, “Mainly getting everything back on track, keeping up with all of the insurance stuff. And one of the things I want to try to do is get with all the other (fire) departments when we have our training, and see if there’s anybody that wants to come from the other departments who are training.”
The new director will face considerable challenges in his new role. Chief among them is the question of continued funding for the department.
Jefferson County is unique in that it is the only county in Nebraska that operates its own ambulance service. Due to rising costs and rising salaries, commissioners were recently forced to raise the tax levy by 4.66 percent.
According to commissioners, the ambulance service makes up approximately 22 percent of the county’s budget.
