Hard-working couple's estate buys state-of-the-art ambulance for county

EMTs and EMTs-in-training pose in front of Hayes County Rescue's new 2009 walk-through ambulance, purchased with a donation from the estate of Walter and Bertha Kutz and equipped using memorial funds and donations. Ambulance personnel available for a photograph were, front, from left: Chelsea Sexson, secretary/treasurer of Hayes County fire and rescue and an EMT-in-training; and Makenzie Vapenik, EMT. Back row: Travis Soundy, EMT and firefighter; Beau Richards, EMT-in-training; Kate Repass, EMT and assistance ambulance chief; Tom Dow, EMT and ambulance chief; and Randy Hawn, fire chief. Ambulance and fire department personnel not pictured are: Mike Christner, assistant fire chief; Maury Cox, EMT, president; Nick Cox, Toby Cox, Jeremy Erickson, Karmajo Hill, Jesse Korrell, Kevin Korrell, Jeff Ross, Buck Richards, Roger Scott, Jeff Unger, Terry Wortman, Brenda Yeager and Brian Christner. (Connie Jo Discoe/McCook Daily Gazette) [Click to enlarge]

HAYES CENTER -- The estate of a Hayes County farming/ranching couple described as "genuinely hard-working people" has helped Hayes County Rescue buy a new ambulance.

Hayes County Rescue purchased the new 2009 Ford F450 four-wheel-drive Super Duty Power Stroke V8 walk-through ambulance with $167,900 bequeathed by the estate of Walter and Bertha Kutz. The new ambulance replaces a 1973 Chevy van, said ambulance chief Tom Dow.

EMT's equipped the new ambulance with funds from the Etta Nelms estate and money donated in memory of Vernon Wach, Charlotte Christner, Jason Clancy, Russ Gohl, Bob Korrell and Ida Yost-Boyle. Donations from Linnaea Budke, Paul Gigax and Community Hospital in McCook also were used to buy equipment.

The new equipment includes a $15,000 Zoll "Auto-Pulse," Dow said, which automatically compresses the chest for cardiopulmonary resuscitation and is said to be 110 percent more effective than human CPR compressions. It works side-by-side with the new Zoll defibrillator, he said.

The ambulance came with a cot, a back-up camera and rear speaker, a pure-air filtration system and an adjustable "power step" for easy entry. The remote-control searchlight mounted on the cab was donated by Golight of Culbertson.

The new ambulance has storage room for all the new equipment. Dow said, "We had so much equipment stacked in the old ambulance. There wasn't much storage."

Dr. Richard Klug of McCook is the ambulance service's medical director. "He needs to sign off on our inventory," Dow said, and then the ambulance will be ready to roll.

The new ambulance is owned and maintained by Hayes County Rescue; Dow said the Hayes County Rural Fire District board provides housing and insurance for the ambulance.

Hayes County Rescue is staffed by 8 EMTs, two EMTs-in-training and 14 additional firefighters trained in CPR and first aid available to answer calls.

The ambulance service covers 518 square miles of Hayes County, on only 28 miles of hard-surfaced roads. The rest are gravel and dirt. The Kutzes lived in rural Hayes County, northeast of Hayes Center, and EMTs remember that both Walter and Bertha utilized the ambulance service.

The EMTs appreciate the generosity of the Kutzes, whom a relative described as "all-around hard-working people." Sylvia Klumpe of Madison, Kan., whose husband, Marvin, is Bertha Kutz's brother, said the couple was very self-sufficient. "They farmed and ranched. Walter fed out cattle," Sylvia said. "They milked cows for years, separating and selling the cream. ... twice a day, seven days a week ... "

Bertha raised chickens for their eggs and as fryers. "They had two deep freezers," Sylvia said, full of chicken and all sorts of berries.

Walter Kutz was a pilot in the U.S. Air Force during World War II, flying with Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle's Eighth Air Force Fighter Squadron. Sylvia remembers that after the war Jimmy Doolittle and other Army buddies came to the Kutzes' farm to hunt. "It was Bertha's pride-and-joy to fix the hunters wonderful, huge meals," Sylvia said. "Bertha was a good-hearted person. She'd do anything for anyone."

Sylvia said the couple didn't spend a lot of money on themselves, and didn't have many possessions and no extravagances.

"They did without a lot of modern conveniences," although Walter was on oxygen and had an oxygen unit at home, Sylvia said. "As their fortunes accumulated, they purchased farm land."

As the couple aged, a close friend and neighbor, Fred Unger, helped them quite often, Sylvia said, taking them into town and to doctor's appointments.

Both Walter and Bertha were in generally good health, Sylvia said. Bertha's death on May 10, 2005, at the age of 81, was very sudden, she said. Walter died April 19, 2007, at the age of 88.

The Kutzes left their estate to St. Patrick's Catholic Church in McCook, St. James Catholic Church in Curtis, the Chase County Hospital in Imperial, Imperial Manor Nursing Home in Imperial and Hayes County Rescue.