Iola Rotarians got a look Thursday at facts and figures involved as Iola and Allen County consider a merger of their ambulance services. ALLEN COUNTY had one service until 2008 when Iola decided to have its own after the county took full control.
City Administrator Carl Slaugh told members Iola budgeted $1.067 million for fire and ambulance services this year while the county expected to spend $1.385 million.
“It’s pretty good thinking that combining the two could save money,” Slaugh said.
The two governing bodies met twice to discuss emergency medical services and a sub-committee has met once.
Currently the ball is in the employees’ court: Allen County EMS and Iola fire/EMS employees are putting together plans for how the two services could be meshed to the satisfaction of both groups, as well as the greater community.
Slaugh said Iola fire/EMS made 275 fire runs in 2012 and answered 901 ambulance calls. County ambulances responded 1,282 times during the same 12 months.
The contention is that one service could deal with all ambulance runs and, with Iola employees involved, also could deal with fire calls coming to the Iola station, he said. That was the case for many years when there was one service in the county.
Slaugh asked about 20 Rotarians what they thought.
One wondered if jobs would be lost with a merger.
“The proposal is for no jobs to be lost,” at least those that are full time, Slaugh said, with county part-time workers “probably getting cut,” and full-time jobs eventually reduced by attrition.
Today, Iola has 19 full-time positions at the fire station, up three from last year because of a federal grant the city received to create three positions for two years. The county has 17 full-time employees, including nine paramedics, Slaugh said.
He was asked how neighboring cities and counties operated services, but didn’t have that information, other than that Miami County had a merged service of about 20 years standing, as did Lawrence. Slaugh allowed research into how others provide ambulance service would be good to know.
If a merger occurs, he said structures in Iola now housing ambulances, the county station on North State and Iola fire’s headquarters, likely would be kept in use.
Slaugh said, as he did at a recent meeting, control of the service is an issue, a key to whether a merger occurs.
“We have a good system and people are well-served,” he added, but that “there’s a lot to be gained by a merger.”
For nearly 30 years Iola’s fire chief was the county ambulance director and the county purchased ambulances and equipment, with Iola firefighters operating units dispatched from Iola, and volunteers operating ambulances in Humboldt and Moran.
If a merger does occur, Slaugh said ambulances would continue to be stationed in Humboldt and Moran.
Rotarians mull EMS
