City council members approved Iola ambulance director Ron Conaway’s proposal to merge its services with those of the county at their meeting Monday night. JASON NELSON, Allen county EMS director, was to have presented an alternative proposal to the county in the future.
The proposal will now go before a committee formed to study the issue.
Conaway said the new proposal would save county taxpayers about $600,000. The combined budget for Iola Fire/EMS and Allen County EMS is $2.5 million.
Under one service the workforce would include 29 positions, a reduction of about 15 positions, give or take. The exact number is difficult to determine because of the high number of part-time positions in the county’s EMS department. No one would be fired. Reduction would come from attrition.
All employees would receive fire training from the newly created department. Conaway said though the new positions are set to be trained as firefighters, not all would be required to actively fight fires. He said any employee not wishing to fight fires could assist with healthcare, rehabilitation, equipment allocation and maintenance, as well as medical services.
In addition to the new services, the new agency would be a “type-1” service — requiring a licensed paramedic to be present in at least one ambulance at all times. New employees would adopt the same scheduling as current fire department employees — utilizing 24-hour shifts.
Conaway said the proposal looks to create an EMS advisory board that would oversee operations and quality control within the department. He said the board would be comprised of five to six mainly medical professionals.
Council member David Toland said the number of proposed board members may need to be expanded in order to make an adequate representation of the county.
“I think that number (of board members) may not be enough,” Toland said, “representation of the entire county is key.”
The proposal would call for two ambulances stationed in Iola, one in Humboldt, one in Moran and an additional backup unit for special circumstances.
Council members discussed the issue of billing services for the new system. Council member Steve French said he would recommend a privatization of billing for the county, involving a private organization. He said private billing can lead to higher numbers of collections and would offset the cost of bringing the company into the agency.
In addition to discussions involving the merger, International Association of Fire Fighters No. 64 president Robert Wing discussed bringing a “meet and confer” agreement between the city and the union.
Council member Joel Wicoff said a “meet and confer” agreement would allow a private discussion between the union and the city, and he would not feel comfortable with the discussions taking place behind closed doors.
The city does not currently recognize the union, based out of Kansas City, and all employee discussions are made on an individual basis. City council members did not recognize the request to allow “meet and confer” discussions. Council member Toland said he does not want to see anything complicate the current EMS merger being presented before the council and thinks changing discussion processes between the city and the fire department could complicate the process.
City council OKs EMS proposal
