Who knew? As our population has super-sized, our elevators – apparently including in Putnam County – haven’t kept pace.

For the past 18 months, members of the county’s Emergency Services Safety Advisory Board have been studying a myriad of issues relating to making Putnam a safer place in which to live, work and raise a family. The all-volunteer board represents a cross section of the county ranging from medicine to real estate and from EMS services to law enforcement.

On Monday evening, representatives of the group met with the Putnam Legislature’s Protective Services Committee to discuss implementing countywide legislation relating to elevator sizing countywide as well as elevator common keying of those lifts.

Assistant Commissioner of Emergency Services Adam Stiebeling called it imperative that a “county standard be established for both the size as well as emergency keys for fire, EMS and law enforcement.”

The committee proposed that all commercial elevators in public and private buildings including schools contain the same emergency firemen’s key. Currently no such key exists, which can delay response time in non-residential facilities once emergency providers arrive on the scene.

The committee, consisting of Legislators Carl Albano, Sam Oliverio and Roger Gross, asked the panel to glean a cost estimate for each elevator.

Gross said he didn’t want to impose “another unfunded mandate on our already hard pressed schools and business people. If the cost to rekey each elevator is reasonable, I’ll support the idea.”

The issue of elevator size was discussed by Fran McCarthy of Lake Carmel, a retired nurse and long time member of both the Carmel Volunteer Ambulance Corps and Lake Carmel FD.

McCarthy said elevators must be enlarged since “EMS providers have great difficulty in getting patients down to the main floor from upper floors.”

McCarthy said the largest stretcher used in Putnam County for bariatric patients measures seven feet: “Many of the elevators across our county are not that large which poses major issues for EMS providers who must place a patient on a back board and carry the individual down stairs. Many of our volunteers are aging which makes that hike down a flight of stairs carrying a patient very tough.”

The legislators also asked the county’s Law Department to research the request.

The committee also accepted the recommendations of Commissioner Robert McMahon to reappoint the board for another term. Members include Dr. Michael Nesheiwat, James Gardineer, Eileen Barrett, Thomas Velotti, Greg McGee, Eric Gross, Patti Frische, Fran McCarthy, Rick Tofte, Dave Jacobsen, Eric Peters, Mike Doherty and Frank Christian.