The Rock Township Ambulance District recently honored one of its founding fathers.
The district’s headquarters has been renamed the Frank Kutilek Administrative Headquarters. Kutilek, 84, was the first Board of Directors chairman after Rock Township was established in 1979, and he served on the board and in different capacities throughout the district until 2018.
Board members voted unanimously on May 27 to rename the building, which is House 4 at 6707 St. Luke’s Church Road in Barnhart.
“I am absolutely awestruck and surprised,” said Kutilek, who lived in Arnold before recently moving to south St. Louis County. “This is an honor that really humbles me. I would never have expected anything like this.”
Kutilek received resolutions from Rock Township and Jefferson County, and a proclamation from the Missouri House honoring his service. District 4 County Councilman Charles Groeteke gave Kutilek the county resolution, and state Rep. Renee Reuter gave him the state proclamation.
“Look at where you started 47 years ago, you created quite a legacy,” said
Reuter, who represents District 112, which covers parts of unincorporated Arnold, Imperial and Barnhart. “I am so happy for you and your family and all of those who served with you to celebrate tonight.
“Thank you for what you have done. I am really proud of what has become of your idea. It is leaders like you that the rest of us really need to aspire to be.”
Chief Jerry Appleton said Kutilek deserved the honor.
“I have been here for 34 years, and Frank has always been around the district and part of the district,” Appleton said. “I couldn’t think of anybody who would be more deserving.
“For someone to look up and see Frank’s name on the building, they may find out what Frank means to the district. They may take that pride that he has in this place and carry it on in their service to the district.”
More than 50 people were at the board meeting when Kutilek was honored. The district also promoted four paramedics to lieutenants during the meeting.
Eric Kutilek, Frank’s son, said it was a special night for his father. Eric’s wife, Lori, and Frank’s grandchildren, Ian and Sarah, also were at the meeting.
“It is very cool,” Eric said of the headquarters being named after his father.
Formation
Before the board voted to rename the building, Appleton went over a brief history of how Rock Township was formed.
He said on Aug. 7, 1979, Jefferson County residents voted 1,572-373 to form the ambulance district to cover 108 square miles in the northern part of the county.
Appleton said a special election was held Nov. 6, 1979, to elect the first six members of the Board of Directors.
He said the board held its first meeting on Nov. 8, 1979, in the Jefferson County Court House, and after the board members were sworn in, Frank was unanimously elected to be the first chairman. The board members also established the district’s fiscal year, bylaws and corporate seal during that first meeting that lasted about 15 minutes, Appleton said.
“There was a lot of work and planning that went into the process,” Appleton said. “Frank was not the only one to put in the hours of planning and preparation, but he was the motivating and driving force behind the movement. No one can question that.
“Frank served as board chairperson for nine years, vice chair for three years and secretary for two. He served on the improvement corporation, building committees, hiring committees, finance committees and everything in between.”
Frank said the planning for Rock Township started following an accident at Hwy. 141 and I-55. He said a man was injured and there was no ambulance available to bring him to St. Anthony’s Hospital, now Mercy Hospital South, in south St. Louis County.
“His boss came with a sheet of plywood, put him in the back of his pickup and drove to the hospital,” Frank said. “The closest hospital was St. Anthony’s, which had just opened.”
Frank, who was a volunteer firefighter for the Rock Community Fire Protection District at the time, said at least two members of the surrounding five fire districts would meet every Monday for about a year before the election was held to establish Rock Township.
He said he ended up becoming the chairman for the committee to form the ambulance district because he was late to a meeting.
“(Former Rock Community Deputy Chief) Jules Zimmermann got me appointed as chairman of the committee,” Frank said. “That is how I started as the committee chair. Because I was late.”
Frank said Rock Township had one more hurdle to clear after residents voted to establish the district.
He said county officials told the group they could not start collecting taxes in 1979 because the deadline to certify a tax rate was Sept. 20, 1979. He said Rock Township filed a lawsuit to establish its tax rate.
“We went to court, and the judge ruled in our favor,” Frank said. “The reason was the Sept. 20 date was a declaratory date, not a mandatory date. If the county wanted it to be a mandatory date, they needed to go back to the legislators and request it be changed to a mandatory date. They were forced to send out a supplemental bill.”
However, the court win was not the final obstacle.
Frank said the county did not have the staff necessary to send out the new tax bills. He said volunteers stuffed envelopes to send out the supplemental tax bills.
“We had some spectacular people who helped us,” he said.
Honored
Frank said there were many other people who helped create Rock Township.
“It is a great honor for me, but it doesn’t recognize the other people that we started with,” he said. “There were people who were not on the board who did great work for us.”
Frank said a key contributor to Rock Township being formed was Paul Taubb, who was an attorney for numerous fire districts. He said Taubb volunteered to help get the ambulance district started.
“It wouldn’t have happened without his efforts and help,” Frank said. “We had no idea what we were doing. He guided us in the right direction. He was fabulous.”
Eric said he was in tears when Appleton called him to tell him that the headquarters was going to be named after his father. He said the district has always been important to his family, and that his parents were volunteer ambulance drivers when Rock Township started.
Frank’s wife, Betty, died in November 2019.
“It was the other sibling I never had,” Eric said. “He was always doing something with the ambulance district. It has always been an intangible thing that he did. Now there is proof.”